Thursday, March 10, 2005
OrangeGuava vs PenCommander
Someone posted a question on TabletPCBuzz.com about the differences between PenCommander and OrangeGuava. I thought I'd share my answer here as well:
"Very good question. I've been running both: OrangeGuava for a couple of weeks, and PenCommander for a couple of days.
I really like PenCommanders scripting support and their skinnable input panel. There are numerous possibilities with inking a shortcut and launching applications, keystrokes, etc. I can start up applications, insert text, launch menu buttons, etc. I like that its' in the tray and activated when I click on it. Its’ quick, easy, and doesn’t feel like its’ taken over your computer.
OrangeGuava's current implmentation doesn't offer near the gesture and shortcut support that PenCommander does. Notice the emphasis on current. Its' no secret that ActiveWords and OrangeGuava are working on an integrated product offering. OrangeGuava and ActiveWords will be powerful. That will offer a tremendous competitive advantage as it will allow a user to access the same ActiveWords wordbase in both type and ink: ink TPB and go to TabletPCBuzz.com, type TPB (anywhere) and go to TabletPCBuzz.com - PenCommander doesn't offer that. In addition, ActiveWords scripting support is much better than Pen Commander. For example, with ActiveWords, I can create an Outlook meeting request from anywhere. I can create a meeting request with PenCommander only if Outlook is open and its' my active application. Where else does OrangeGuava have PenCommander beat? To ink something and then do something with that ink: activate a search, generate an email from it, create a note from it, create a word doc from it. Can you and will you be able to do more with OrangeGuava once its' combined with ActiveWords? Absolutely.
Something that will have to be addressed though: OrangeGuava is $48.00, ActiveWords Plus is $49.95: $97.95 . PenCommander is $24.95 . The price difference is going to be a big stumbling block for some people and will cause some people to look at PenCommander first and see if they can make it a go with just it. I personally believe the price difference will be very much worth it, though, when ActiveWords is integrated. That said, without the integration with ActiveWords, I believe OrangeGuava will struggle. Lets' hope they release it sooner than later."
"Very good question. I've been running both: OrangeGuava for a couple of weeks, and PenCommander for a couple of days.
I really like PenCommanders scripting support and their skinnable input panel. There are numerous possibilities with inking a shortcut and launching applications, keystrokes, etc. I can start up applications, insert text, launch menu buttons, etc. I like that its' in the tray and activated when I click on it. Its’ quick, easy, and doesn’t feel like its’ taken over your computer.
OrangeGuava's current implmentation doesn't offer near the gesture and shortcut support that PenCommander does. Notice the emphasis on current. Its' no secret that ActiveWords and OrangeGuava are working on an integrated product offering. OrangeGuava and ActiveWords will be powerful. That will offer a tremendous competitive advantage as it will allow a user to access the same ActiveWords wordbase in both type and ink: ink TPB and go to TabletPCBuzz.com, type TPB (anywhere) and go to TabletPCBuzz.com - PenCommander doesn't offer that. In addition, ActiveWords scripting support is much better than Pen Commander. For example, with ActiveWords, I can create an Outlook meeting request from anywhere. I can create a meeting request with PenCommander only if Outlook is open and its' my active application. Where else does OrangeGuava have PenCommander beat? To ink something and then do something with that ink: activate a search, generate an email from it, create a note from it, create a word doc from it. Can you and will you be able to do more with OrangeGuava once its' combined with ActiveWords? Absolutely.
Something that will have to be addressed though: OrangeGuava is $48.00, ActiveWords Plus is $49.95: $97.95 . PenCommander is $24.95 . The price difference is going to be a big stumbling block for some people and will cause some people to look at PenCommander first and see if they can make it a go with just it. I personally believe the price difference will be very much worth it, though, when ActiveWords is integrated. That said, without the integration with ActiveWords, I believe OrangeGuava will struggle. Lets' hope they release it sooner than later."
Comments:
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"...ActiveWords scripting support is much better than Pen Commander. For example, with ActiveWords, I can create an Outlook meeting request from anywhere. I can create a meeting request with PenCommander only if Outlook is open and its' my active application."
I just want to inform PenCommander users that this statement is not entirely correct. It is possible to create, let’s say, a meeting request with PenCommander even if Outlook is not currently running. For example, you can create PenCommand that looks like this:
// Start Outlook (if Outlook is already running,
// and you start it again, it becomes an active application)
<#Start>outlook.exe
// Wait 3 sec. for Outlook to load
<#Delay>3000
// Insert your macro to create a meeting request
...
// Close Outlook (optional)
<#type><*ctrl_dn><*F4><*ctrl_up>
Please also note that there is a dedicated PenCommander forum, which can be found at
http://www.tekguru.co.uk/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=45
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I just want to inform PenCommander users that this statement is not entirely correct. It is possible to create, let’s say, a meeting request with PenCommander even if Outlook is not currently running. For example, you can create PenCommand that looks like this:
// Start Outlook (if Outlook is already running,
// and you start it again, it becomes an active application)
<#Start>outlook.exe
// Wait 3 sec. for Outlook to load
<#Delay>3000
// Insert your macro to create a meeting request
...
// Close Outlook (optional)
<#type><*ctrl_dn><*F4><*ctrl_up>
Please also note that there is a dedicated PenCommander forum, which can be found at
http://www.tekguru.co.uk/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=45
# posted by 
: 12:52 AM
: 12:52 AM << Home
