I had an excellent opportunity last week to put the riteMail software that now comes bundled with the Acecad DigiMemo A501 electronic notepad when I was abroad on assignment.

A succession of meetings produced some 10 pages of notes, apart from some other notes that I wanted to record electronically. The advantages of recording whatever you write on the DigiMemo electronically to store, retrieve, insert in a word-processing document and exchange even electronically via e-mail are now further enhanced.

For what riteMail does is enable you to convert handwritten notes into typewritten text through quite effective handwriting recognition, apart from offering full editing of handwritten notes, shape and chart recognition, smart printing, and other advanced features.

This riteMail software, made by EverNote Corporation, which is based in Sunnyvale, California, allows exporting of notes and their portions to office applications, viewing handwritten e-mails and sending handwritten notes to any e-mail address on any platform.

The process to acquire your notes off the DigiMemo is very straightforward. Simply connect the device to your computer and open the file, selecting the DigiMemo ink files (*.dhw) option. Your notes will immediately appear on screen and you are ready to start processing.

Thanks to my shorthand training more than a quarter of a century ago, I always take notes in narrow columns (it's faster). So to 'capture' them you need to select them area by area. The tool to do that looks like a lasso and is located in the middle of the tool bar. The software 'intelligently' separates your various lines of text.

Having selected the area of handwritten text, press the Recognise button on the left hand part of the screen and the typewritten text appears ready for editing. Considering my handwriting is pretty hurried, I was amazed at the high percentage of recognition. A useful facility is to right click on particular words and see whether any options offered are what you wanted to write.

The software recognises cursive and hand-printed text, organised as simple notes, numbered and unordered lists, underlined words and headers. Words written with thicker pen than the rest of the text are recognised as being bold but you can do this effect (or underline) by using the normal commands or pressing the button at the top of the pane.

Diagrams embedded in the text will be skipped by the ANR (Advanced Notes Recognition) recognition engine.

There are a few limitations, like the failure to sometimes recognise between certain letters and numbers, or even to recognise some capital letters, but for those of you who find typing problematic this software should open new vistas in communicability with word-processing software.

There are a few common-sense things you need to keep in mind, like not overwriting something or writing upside down. Try to leave enough space between words and lines, and avoid long strings of punctuation or special characters.

Finally, if you have a mixture of text and drawings, select the handwritten text independently. You can then 'toggle' to recognise as a shape and the software will even make your shapes neat, 'polishing' your diagrams and lines for a truly professional effect.

Both the Acecad DigiMemo A501 and the riteMail software are available from Hi-Tech Products Limited of Valletta. The riteMail software will come bundled with the DigiMemo, but if you have already got one of these handy devices, the software costs Lm11 and you get an installation CD to load onto your computer.

I found the software does make your life easier and is a useful complement to the DigiMemo. For more information contact Hi-Tech Products on 2124-1826 or e-mail info@hi-tech.com.mt.