most people find they can enter text quickly and accurately with only minutes of practice. graffiti writing includes any character you can type on a standard keyboard. the graffiti strokes closely resemble the uppercase letters of the regular alphabet, which makes graffiti writing easy to learn.

    there are four basic concepts for success with graffiti writing:

    ■ if you draw the character shape exactly as shown in the tables later in this chapter (like the shapes shown in the following diagram), you achieve 100% accuracy.

   

    ■ the heavy dot on each shape shows where to begin the stroke.

    certain characters have similar shapes, but different beginning and end points. always begin the stroke at the heavy dot (you should not create the heavy dot; it is only there to show you where to begin the stroke).

    ■ most characters require only a single stroke. when you lift the stylus from the graffiti writing area, your handheld recognizes and displays the text character immediately. to accomplish single strokes, some graffiti strokes are portions of the regular alphabet equivalents.

    ■ the graffiti writing area is divided into two parts: one for writing the letters of the alphabet and one for writing numbers.

    the small marks at the top and bottom of the graffiti writing area indicate the two areas.

   

    to write graffiti letters:

    1. tap the screen where you want your text to go.

    you need to tap above the graffiti writing area, and must see a blinking cursor before you write the text.

    2. use the tables on the following pages to find the stroke shape for the letter you want to create. for example, the stroke shown below creates the letter "n."

    there are two different stroke shapes available for some letters. for these letters, choose the one that's easiest for you.

   

    as you'll see later, you use the same shape to create both the uppercase and lowercase version of a letter.

    3. position the stylus in the left-hand side of the graffiti writing area.

    4. start your stroke at the heavy dot and draw the stroke shape as it appears in the tables.

    5. lift the stylus from the screen at the end of the stroke shape.

    that's all there is to it! when you lift the stylus from the screen, your handheld recognizes your stroke immediately and prints the letter at the insertion point on the screen.

    as soon as you lift the stylus from the screen, you can begin the stroke for the next character you want to write.

    you must begin the character strokes in the graffiti writing area. if you do not make graffiti strokes in the graffiti writing area, your handheld does not recognize them as text characters.