In praise of Pocket Word

4. Pocket word is flexible and relatively feature filled for the day. Example, I like to view my text in the color blue, sans serif, and bold...easily done. You can save templates, and different file types, txt, pwd, rtf. It has a modest but useful spell checker with an expandable dictionary, as well as an easy <alt s> to save for backup, (always a good idea when turning it off).

And...there's no "nightmare on elm street" like todays desktop MSWord : too many knobs and switches and bells and cranks, hand pumps and plungers along with guard dogs, elephant walks, and snow mobiles. No fear of pushing the wr0ng button and being shot out to Limbo with margin indents gone wild and no clue how get back to a normal margin before the mid term paper is due ...in an hour.

Speaking of MSWord, on startup, how about being nagged about some "homeless" files with unrecognizable names the program found in some back alley and insists belong to you as long lost cousins who should be taken home and nurtured back to health; and you must immediately make the decision as to whether they live or die. What the, hey!! I never saw that guy before???!!!

Pocket Word...compact, utilitarian, and elegant. It just sets your mind at ease.

Edited by joval 2019-06-03 4:36 PM

I second that. For years I was asked by co-workers how to fix unintended changes to their Word documents. By the time we migrated to Windows 10, even I couldn't figure most of it out either. Since we worked in the field most of the time, we sure could've used 720s in our portfolios, even back when they were still in production.

Yes, I like to get my ideas down quickly before they evaporate. You can't beat the instant on feature , the glorious MP 900c keyboard, and the modest pocket word program. None of this " now what was i thinking of..." I'll have more to say on a future thread: "The case FOR owning those retro hpc's," a multi-episode series about real life experiences in the digital jungle.What was baby Godzilla really like...before he ruled the Hello World?? STAY TUNED.

I wrote a LOT of papers in pocket word back in the day. Pages and pages of my liberal arts class papers fill the 32 megabyte compact flash card on my recently un-mothballed MobilePro 800. I believe I even had spell check enabled on mine... One thing I did forget though was what a pain in the rear it was to get everything to work seamlessly - so many cabs, dlls and hacks to get a lot less functionality than my smart phone.

craigdge,
I realize now that I have two MP800's...I mistakenly thought they were 880's. nice devices with that large 800x600 screen, and fairly snappy response, and with the instant on feature I bet you could write many papers on that light portable hpc with the usb port for file transfer. I wish the MP900c had a similar 800x300 screen.

I dug mine out recently but the battery was dead...won't hold a charge and the replacement cells are expensive compared to 900c or J720 18360's. A very unusual power connector too. But, overall, the software is about the same: pocket office...word, etc. How fortunate you had it back then. It has that sumptuous keyboard much like the 900c...makes writing a dreamy experience.

I paid $20 for mine back in 2006 from ARS technica forum with a "dead battery". I didn't have the money to buy an EEE PC so I figured I'd make it work as a low distraction PC for doing college work. One night I fell asleep while working late with the unit on charge and I woke up and the charge indicator went miraculously from red to green. I just fired it up a few nights ago and the battery still holds a charge!

The keyboard is absolutely amazing. The overall responsiveness of the MP800 was better than an EEE701 which was of course 7 years newer. Web browsing was iffy back then and is darned near impossible from what I can tell these days.

Regarding USB, while the MP800 did have a USB 1.1 port, it was not particularly useful if memory serves. I believe I was able to make some thumb drives work with a driver but the USB port was only intended to be used with a mouse. I only ever used IRDA for file transfers. Just recently I bought a USB to IRDA adapter to use (ironically) with me Eee 900 (bought it a few years ago for 40 bucks) so that I could reinstall my old CE software. Even with Wifi though the usability these days is pretty questionable. I'm going to try and set up a remote terminal client with another ancient Windows PC but I'm not super optimistic that's still possible.