do you use any system to read/write faster(speed reading/autocompleter)?

[urlwolf]

Well, looks like intellicomplete is a favorite around here, with bugs and all.
It takes a while to get used to it, more so when it shows the options next to the cursor.
I actually wonder how much of the general population would use these if they were made a lot more friendly and efficient.

[sri]

I use http://www.clasohm.com/lmt/en/

[f0dder]

IntelliSense in visual studio, nothing but that...

[tinjaw]

For speed reading I use Zap Reader. It is invaluable when I am trying to catch up on my RSS feeds. It is highly customizable for a simple web app. I showed it to a buddy of mine, who showed it to a school teacher, who now incorporates it into her grade school reading curriculum. There is a introductory video on the Zap Reader home page.

[attachthumb=#1]

[Lashiec]

Autocompletion in OpenOffice and in Dev-C++, but somehow, the option in the latter worked like shit, so I deactivated it. I think I write pretty fast in the rest of apps to need autocompletion

[JaneDC]

For speed reading I use Zap Reader. It is invaluable when I am trying to catch up on my RSS feeds. It is highly customizable for a simple web app. I showed it to a buddy of mine, who showed it to a school teacher, who now incorporates it into her grade school reading curriculum. There is a introductory video on the Zap Reader home page.
(see attachment in previous post)

Is there a software that does the same thing?

I like

[Deozaan]

For speed reading I use Zap Reader. It is invaluable when I am trying to catch up on my RSS feeds. It is highly customizable for a simple web app. I showed it to a buddy of mine, who showed it to a school teacher, who now incorporates it into her grade school reading curriculum. There is a introductory video on the Zap Reader home page.
(see attachment in previous post)

I just tried to zap read this forum and it took about 2 minutes just to get to the actual posts. Useless! 

[Darwin]

Although I have an intellicomplete type proggie installed (a number of them, in fact), I don't use this feature as I "read and type plenty fast already" 

[urlwolf]

ok, ok, maybe I should have said 'autocomplete in places other than code'. everybody uses autocomplete with code, what I mean is to use autocomplete with any text you write (emails, word processor docs, etc).

[JennyB]

ok, ok, maybe I should have said 'autocomplete in places other than code'. everybody uses autocomplete with code, what I mean is to use autocomplete with any text you write (emails, word processor docs, etc).

I've left a comment about Speech Dasher on the article in your link. I really would love something that would allow me to transcribe recorded speech faster.

IMO, Dasher is the easiest and most pleasant predictive system to learn, but it's not really fast.


Dasher disambiguating speech recognition would be really cool. 

I've tried the autocomplete in Word and OpenDoc, but sometimes it's more trouble than it's worth. What I'm looking for is a batch appraoch - a little program that takes a plain text file written in abbreviations, together with a file containing expansions, and displays the expanded text with the expansions highlighted allowing me to click on any that are inappropriate and revert them to the original text.

Some sources for abbreviations:

http://home.earthlink.net/~neilbawd/The_Phillips_Code.txt
http://home.earthlink.net/~neilbawd/speceng.txt
http://jonaquino.blogspot.com/2007/06/yublin-shorthand-for-speed-writing.html

[Ralf Maximus]

I liked Phrase Express (free edition) when I experimented with text expansion:
http://www.phraseexpress.com

[urlwolf]

For those who answered  'I write plenty fast, so I don't need an autocompleter':

The question is not whether you need it, but whether it brings any advantage at all. So if you hear someone saying "we don't need  an autocompleter," that use of the word "need" is a sign they're not even thinking about the question right.

If you 'write plenty fast', it takes very little thinking to realize that writing faster is better.

So that option shouldn't be there: it reflects a misconception.

Imagine that you are in business. And you found a area where you can invest (say google adwords) that costs you say $1 per click, but makes you $1.1 in profits.

If you find something like that -rare-, it takes a special kind of stupid to put a cap to it, and limit the amount of money you allocate to it. But in fact, this is what many people in business do!

Is this metaphor clear? It must be shocking to realize this...

[Darwin]

Well, for me, I find autocomplete to be annoying beyond belief and boilerplate text about half a step behind it in the "annoyance factor". The spell checker that I use (SpellCatcher Plus) offers this functionality, but I have it turned off and still get annoyed by it...

[sri]

I think (user set, not what the program dictates) auto complete is great.

For example, I just used the abbreviations 'prog', 'grt', 'abbr.' to write the above sentence.

[urlwolf]

wow, I wasn't expecting this.
I was annoyed by autocompleters before, but got used to it in about a week.

Abbreviations I don't like, because it takes time to set them up and update them. But maybe most people think that autocompleters are " annoying beyond belief"...

[urlwolf]

How about speed reading?
The best program I have found is speedReader
http://www.rapidreader.com/

But still, it has plenty of practical problems for daily use. it doesn't undestand formatting, so it'll read headers and footers as main text, etc.

[Darwin]

Hmm... I've never looked at any speed reading proggies - don't really understand what they do. Thus, I'll have to take a look at SpeedReader and get back to you!

[Ralf Maximus]

urlwolf sez:

If you 'write plenty fast', it takes very little thinking to realize that writing faster is better.

My problem was (is) that I intentionally mangle the language for fun & profit, thus things like auto spell-checkers & auto-text-expansion tend to jump the gun and "correct" text that needs no correction/expansion.

Also, being interrupted with confirmation dialogs breaks up the flow, derails the wheezing steam engine behind my forehead, and ultimately causes frustration and NEGATIVE productivity.

Mine's just one odd little case study that probably proves the rule, but I've experimented with the technology and found it wanting.  Found the CONCEPT wanting.

I also hate spell checkers, but that's a topic for another rant. :-)

[Kuntau]

Maybe this is abit off topic, but did you guys know other software similar or better than texter?

[Darwin]

Exactly my feelings, Ralf, though I am enduring a spell checker for now... What I hate about it is that it will often "correct" words that it doesn't recognise, but which may be spelled correctly. I had to correct the newsletter because it had changed "stronger" to "stinger". I only noticed after I had posted the newsletter and was reading it! I've been coming to realise that I would be far better off running the spell checker only during those times when correct spelling is of utmost important (like writing my PhD up) because overall I think my spelling has suffered due to the replacement of words that Spell Catcher doesn't recognise with the closest matching words in its database... I realise that I just have to train it more, but...

[cranioscopical]

I am enduring a spell checker for now... What I hate about it is...

All you magical guys! I have to stumble along with my spelling checker

Speaking of 'help' with language, try this:

From http://www.whitesmoke.com/english-grammar.html

English Grammar software
The importance of proper English grammar usage cannot be
overemphasized. As we move through the beginning of the 21st
century, we are all becoming increasingly busier.

How would you like some help from that? 

[Lashiec]

I write plenty fast therefore an autocompleter would not bring any advantage at all

Seriously, it would be a hit in my typing speed. For example, as I'm writing this, words are flowing from my mind directly to the keyboard and into the reply box. Adding an autocompleter, even if it could be set up properly, would break my writing flow, as it would force me to stop and look what it's being suggested to me. That's what it happens with OpenOffice autocompletion (and happened with Dev-C++), I stop to check what the box is telling me. In those two cases, it's not that annoying, as the nature of the task leads to get things right at first, while in situations like replying in a forum or using FARR (I'm not even looking at what I'm typing or launching in this case) or writing a mail, it's important (at least to me) to let ideas roaming my head go as fast as possible to the screen.

I suppose an autocompleter would be a good companion in repetitive typing tasks, but fortunately, I'm not doing too much of those.

[Ralf Maximus]

It MIGHT be fun, however, to have a goofy tray program that would auto-complete text with random profanity, or "spell check" words into Pirate speak or Swedish Chef.

Bork, bork, bork, me hearties!

[urlwolf]

Well, what a bunch of weirdos we are
Of those who hated completion, which program did you try?
I went back from vista to XP just because intellicomplete wouldn't work on vista. It's that important for me (although the move back to XP has proven wise for many other reasons!).

[urlwolf]

also, you unix types, could you really say that autocompletion is a bad move in the command line?