Colorado: Entering Text

[knowschad]

I think that Garmin has come up with a pretty good idea regarding entering text via the Rock 'n Roller, but in its current implementation it is a bit awkward. I started this thread as a place to brainstorm ideas for improvements (hoping that Garmin is watching this forum for Colorado threads)

 

I will start out with my own idea:

 

99% of the time, all I need is upper-case alpha characters and maybe numbers. But the scroll wheel consists of upper and lower case, numbers, and all "special" characters. I'd suggest hiding the lower case and special characters, and perhaps even the numbers, and letting the user select them via the Rock 'n Roller Left, Right, Up and Down (a key could be displayed in the top half of the screen, which is basically wasted space anyway.

 

I realise that there are some problems with that idea, but I think its a start, anyway. Please feel free to improve on it, or to suggest something entirely different!

 

Also when entering coordinates to create a waypoint (Edit Waypoint/ Change Location), the entire string is currently edited in one textbox, and that textbox has to be scrolled to see the whole thing. Meanwhile, a good quarter of the space of the screen is wasted whitespace. Please use that whitespace to provide separate entry fields for the northerly and the westerly coordinate parts.

[+storm180]

I know its not a possibilty with the colorado because it lacks a microphone but the thing I love on my PDA was the ability to add a voice comment to all my geocaches I did and just play them back later. That would have been nice on the colorado.

 

Here is an idea which they could add would be something like T9 texting

[+webscouter.]

How about starting in the middle of the numbers or letters when entering addresses and such. That way at most you would have 5 numbers or 13 letters to get to your first input.

[knowschad]

I know its not a possibilty with the colorado because it lacks a microphone but the thing I love on my PDA was the ability to add a voice comment to all my geocaches I did and just play them back later. That would have been nice on the colorado.

 

Here is an idea which they could add would be something like T9 texting

 

T9 texting? Can you elaborate?

[+storm180]

I know its not a possibilty with the colorado because it lacks a microphone but the thing I love on my PDA was the ability to add a voice comment to all my geocaches I did and just play them back later. That would have been nice on the colorado.

 

Here is an idea which they could add would be something like T9 texting

 

T9 texting? Can you elaborate?

 

Like how cell phone texting works its called T9 where it start putting it letters and it will try to guess the word you are trying to spell so you don't have to spell the whole word out. It also learns your common words you use so it will keep learning and make inputing easier.

[+Crid]

My biggest complaint about entering text on the Colorado is that the letter wheel is animated. So if I'm doing a big jump (say, A to P), I twist to roughly where I think I need to be, then have to wait for the animation to finish. I wouldn't object to a BIT of animation, but big jumps simply take too long at the moment.

[Tomas4x4]

I absolutely agree, Up and Down on the rock-n-roller are currenty unused and I have found myself trying to use them to toggle between lower case and upper case several times. Left and Right are actually used for moving cursor to the previous or next letter so these are not available.

 

It could behave like this: when on a letter, Up/Down would jump directly to the letter with opposite case, when on number, Up/Down would go to 'corresponding' special character. The order of items on the 'wheel' would remain unchanged for backward compatibility, Up/Down would act as kind of shortcut.

 

Alternatively the mapping could be also:

 

A <=> a <=> 0

B <=> b <=> 1

...

...

Z <=> z <=> 'some special character'

 

Other option would be to use only Up for 'shortcut' feature (if they choose to have 3 sets, it would have to be cyclical: A => a => 0 => A again) and use Down to delete current character.

 

I am not holding my breath that it gets implemented but it would definitely make entering or editing names much less frustrating experience.

 

I also agree about animation, it is slowing things down.

Edited July 7, 2008 by Tomas4x4

[gallet]

I have a feeling that there's not much more to be done. The letters and positioning could be cleaned up, though.

 

The problem with using up down right left is that for multiple presses it's not really designed for that, unlike the eTrex pick stick which is a joy to scroll around with in comparison, really fast. However I can operate the Colorado while wearing my winter gloves.

 

I must admit that as the weeks go by it's getting faster and more intuitive.

 

It's very puzzling though why Garmin have buried things in menus when they have contextual buttons right there. For example when navigating, it's ludicrous to have to go to the menu and roll to the 'stop navigation' icon when it should be on the 'option' button. Same for maps, why do we have to drill down through the menu to change from normal view to 3D faux driving view when it also should be in the 'option' menu.

Edited July 7, 2008 by gallet

[+Tequila]

Depressing the centre of the rocker wheel could switch between upper and lower case.

[+DavidMac]

This is my single biggest gripe with the Colorado concerning usability. After all there's a reason why we don't use rotary phones anymore (okay, so there's probably a technical reason, but I'm sure that ease-of-use had alot to do with it too). While I agree that clicking the joystick up/down should switch between upper case, lower case, numbers, and special characters, I don't see any reason why the CO couldn't use a 60C-style text selection grid. The joystick portion of the wheel could be used to navigate to a character, and the roller could be used to scroll the cursor left and right.

 

I also don't see why the waypoint entry box couldn't be two lines, rather than hiding half of the waypoint. It makes it difficult to double check your numbers when entering coordinates.

[gallet]

I don't see any reason why the CO couldn't use a 60C-style text selection grid.

 

Will not work. Using the Roller in this manner would be worse than the 60CSx which is worse than the 76CSx which is worse than the eTrex pick stick.

[+DavidMac]

Will not work. Using the Roller in this manner would be worse than the 60CSx which is worse than the 76CSx which is worse than the eTrex pick stick.

 

Why wouldn't it work? You can already press the edges of the roller like a joystick (i.e. when panning the map). If you take away it's ability to roll, it works functionally just like the little stick on the etrex series (you can still press it in a cardinal direction, or click the center).

Edited July 7, 2008 by DavidMac

[+Kin9sPanK]

This is my single biggest gripe with the Colorado concerning usability. After all there's a reason why we don't use rotary phones anymore (okay, so there's probably a technical reason, but I'm sure that ease-of-use had alot to do with it too). While I agree that clicking the joystick up/down should switch between upper case, lower case, numbers, and special characters, I don't see any reason why the CO couldn't use a 60C-style text selection grid. The joystick portion of the wheel could be used to navigate to a character, and the roller could be used to scroll the cursor left and right.

 

I also don't see why the waypoint entry box couldn't be two lines, rather than hiding half of the waypoint. It makes it difficult to double check your numbers when entering coordinates.

 

I actually like both of these ideas. The rotary dialing example is right on target, and I know that there are a bunch of young people who have no idea of what we are talking about. Yet here we are full circle.

 

I would like to see an new category under System, and that would be "Data Input." The user would be able to select from three choices: The full character set on the Roller, A 38 character set on the Roller, or the Character Selection Grid ala 60C/eTrex.

 

Some folks may need the added punctuation or mixed case and this would be available via the full character set on the roller or via the old school character grid. But when I am in the field, I just want to enter in key words to jog my memory at a later date. The reduced 38 charcter set would work nicely for me on the roller. Today, I find myself shunning the lowercase letters on the roller anyway.

[knowschad]

 

I would like to see an new category under System, and that would be "Data Input." The user would be able to select from three choices: The full character set on the Roller, A 38 character set on the Roller, or the Character Selection Grid ala 60C/eTrex.

 

Some folks may need the added punctuation or mixed case and this would be available via the full character set on the roller or via the old school character grid. But when I am in the field, I just want to enter in key words to jog my memory at a later date. The reduced 38 charcter set would work nicely for me on the roller. Today, I find myself shunning the lowercase letters on the roller anyway.

 

I'd love to see all those three options available. And I DO think that the old-style character selection would work very well. The up/down rocker would move you between rows, while the roller would move side to side within the active row. Both up and down would, of course, have wrap-around.

[+g-o-cashers]

This discussion has been going on since about a week after the CO came out.

 

This thread has a shopped picture of what it could look like around post #17:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=183465

 

GO$Rs

[gallet]

Will not work. Using the Roller in this manner would be worse than the 60CSx which is worse than the 76CSx which is worse than the eTrex pick stick.

 

Why wouldn't it work? You can already press the edges of the roller like a joystick (i.e. when panning the map). If you take away it's ability to roll, it works functionally just like the little stick on the etrex series (you can still press it in a cardinal direction, or click the center).

 

It will work for say changing upper and lower case, but for repeated scrolling presses a la 76CSx or eTrex, multiple edge presses are not the 'rado's forté. In fact changing from a left press to a right press requires a reposition of the unit in ones hand. So it's OK for the ocassional press only.

[knowschad]

This discussion has been going on since about a week after the CO came out.

 

This thread has a shopped picture of what it could look like around post #17:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=183465

 

GO$Rs

 

Thanks... I wasn't aware of a dedicated thread on the subject... only the occasional mention in general Colorado issues threads. Moderators may wish to merge these threads?