Have Pocket PC, need Word on the go? Anthony Newman takes TextMaker, SoftMaker's Pocket Word replacement, for a spin - and comes to realize what all the fuss was about.
TextMaker: the illustrious word itself now seems akin to the Holy Grail for many professional Pocket PC users, spreading as it does the promise of true Microsoft Word functionality on a mobile device. Since its HPC beta launch so long ago it has attracted rabid media coverage, not to mention the equally intense user enthusiasm. Now that SoftMaker has finally gone gold with the Pocket PC version, does it live up to the expectations?
 | TextMaker lets users tweak preferences to their hearts' desires
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The program ships either as a standalone PDA word processor or bundled with a Windows edition, which is designed to be a heavyweight package in its own right, and not simply a conversion tool for your PPC. In a rare move for a PDA program, and one that definitely gives TextMaker some desktop credibility, the application is available either to download or on a real CD. Should you choose to download it, the file weighs in at 13 MB, plus another 10 MB for proofing tools and international dictionaries. To install, one requires about nine free MB of either system RAM or storage card, and obviously a decent amount of free program memory to run it. Some users have experienced gratuitous delays in starting the program from a storage card, especially in the beta versions; we were pleased to find that running TextMaker from the SD card of an XDA took about six seconds to load, which considering the sheer power on offer is pretty impressive.
Once one has entered TextMaker and set up personal details, any user of a desktop word-processing package will feel right at home, with all the controls in the expected place. Heavily-used functions (especially those suited to a PDA program, such as zoom) are situated in a one-tap toolbar at the bottom, and all other commands are either in a hierarchical menu or in user-configurable bars. This last function is especially useful for those running at a higher resolution on a video-out card, with the greater screen real-estate this brings. For those limited to 320 x 240, TextMaker can be very efficient on space indeed, using up just one toolbar row.
This efficiency is especially reflected in the view options, which manage different page displays, zooming, word-wrapping and all sorts of other functions to get maximum return on the minimal output available on these machines. This comes in handy when some of the more processor-intensive options are activated, such as on-the-fly spell-checking - speed can drop a little, and so it helps to reduce the amount of text on the screen. Of course, TextMaker can support ClearType if you so choose, so everything stays pretty.
A full range of ‘big’ word processor options are fully implemented in TextMaker. Over and above Pocket Word, users will be pleased to discover outlining, full image support, footnotes, headers, page numbers, a decent search tool, chapters, tables, forms, bookmarks, undo/redo, calculations, thesaurus and spell-checker: I pause for breath. Obviously, formatting is also a major feature, with full support for colour, font, spacing, positioning, borders and shading all available at the touch of a button. Since the only competition for TextMaker on this platform is Pocket Word, we're truly grateful to SoftMaker for not just trying to go one better - they could have made do with a small selection of these features, or even remedying some of the major mishaps of Pocket Word, but instead went all out and provided a serious program whichever platform it’s for. Perhaps the most appreciated feature will be the lossless round-trip conversion for Word documents, which worked without a hitch on all our formatted, footnoted and neat Word documents. Since Pocket Word did an excellent impersonation of a butcher when handling these same files, SoftMaker have done well here.
TextMaker’s default format is not Word’s ‘doc’, however. SoftMaker invented their own ‘tmd’ format, which is where the desktop version comes in - currently, it is the only program that can handle such files. Fortunately, both versions of TextMaker can also handle Pocket Word, Word, RTF and text documents with aplomb. This makes the creation of a proprietary format a little odd, frankly. Unfortunately, there is no out-of-the-box printing support, unlike the HPC version, which does limit the versatility of the program. Then again, exactly how far can we expect SoftMaker to go to remedy Microsoft’s own deficiencies? To redress the balance somewhat, TextMaker does allow integrated e-mailing of the documents it creates, which is a nice touch.
 | The zoom function comes in handy when you've got too many toolbars visible
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As a proper word processor, rather than a note taker, it is essential that TextMaker supports add-on keyboards, which have now become a true essential for the mobile worker. The application handled both a Pocketop Keyboard and an iPAQ foldable keyboard, and even provides a handy key configuration utility to manage all the shortcuts that Pocket Word omitted.
The key configuration is but one of the many options available from within TextMaker, and to give you some idea of just how customizable this program is, there’s a whole tabbed view of options for what items to show on screen, as well as four more tabs altering options as deliciously pedantic as the length of the tap-and-hold delay. As the product of a German company, TextMaker also includes a developed awareness of language that should set an example for more narrow-minded companies. The installer, the program itself and the spellchecking dictionaries are all available in a wide range of European languages to cater for a world market. These come at no extra cost.
Happily, despite all these options TextMaker ran at a more than acceptable speed throughout my testing. Even with a lot of text on screen, scrolling was fast, and aided by pop-up indicators of page and chapter. Slight delay was perceptible while using the onscreen Fitaly keyboard, but generally the application performed admirably under strain. Considering that this is possibly the most sophisticated Pocket PC program available, it is an astonishing achievement that it both runs well on a 206 MHz StrongArm processor and fits in 9 MB.
Availability
TextMaker is available now from SoftMaker's website in two varieties: as a standalone program for 59.95 EUR or $49.95 USD, or bundled with the desktop version for 79.95 EUR or $69.95 USD. It is compatible with all Pocket PCs and ships in a wide variety of European languages.
Conclusion
Overall, TextMaker is a true wonder of a program. Given a portable keyboard, I would be happy to create a long and complicated document with this application without fear of missing a feature or losing my work. In its efficient use of space (both storage and screen) and equally efficient programming, it stretches the limited platform of the Pocket PC to new limits. In sheer power alone it happily leaves its rivals in the dust: in fact, I’d go so far as to say that this is the most important PPC program now available for almost any mobile professional. Those complaining about its cost obviously don’t realise quite what a landmark this is - proper mobile document creation is now a reality.
- What's positive: Phenomenal feature set, efficient and speedy, ergonomic design, corrects all the flaws of Pocket Word
- What's negative: Occasional slowdown, ‘tmd’ format; unavoidably large footprint
Overall: 
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