Penfriend XP

We now supply Penfriend XP, with enhanced features for Windows 98, NT, 2000 and XP.

Penfriend XP's core strength is in predicting the next word you want to write. It does this using a dictionary of known words, along with detailed knowledge of when they are likely to be used, their grammatical type, words you have used before, and so on. Every time you type a letter, it comes up with a new list of the most likely words which fit your letters. Choosing one is a simple matter of pressing one more button, or clicking on the word with the mouse. If you're not sure how to read it, you can hear it spoken before you choose a word.

Penfriend comes with speech feedback; the ability to read aloud the words on your screen, including words that you haven't written yet! It can be configured to speak each letter as it is typed, each word as it is completed, and each sentence. It can read words from the prediction list when you point at them, when you choose them, or automatically when they change. It can also read back whole paragraphs (or more) of text from other applications using the clipboard. This might be your document, a web page, an email, or almost anything else.

For people either with physical disabilities affecting their use of a keyboard, or for those who do not want to glance repeatedly between the screen and keyboard, Penfriend XP offers an on-screen keyboard. It's straightforward design mirrors key features of a conventional QWERTY keyboard, and it uses colours of the user's choice.

Penfriend holds new words in a specially marked list, so that you can easily review the ones it has learnt recently. There are various tools for manipulating these, such as approving only those used several times.

As well as learning new words, Penfriend keeps track of the ones you've used, and your style of writing. This all helps to predict the right words next time!

Special Options

As well as predicting words using the letters you type, Penfriend can store phrases or other words, assigned to special codes. For example, 'pfl' might be an abbreviation for 'Penfriend Ltd'. When you type the short code and press Space, Penfriend can automatically replace it. This can speed up writing of commonly used phrases or even sentences. Naturally, you can control the abbreviations yourself, adding and removing them at will.

When you finish a sentence, or use almost any punctuation mark, Penfriend can help you to get it right, using smart punctuation. Although it normally puts a space after predicted words, it moves that space to appear after the punctuation, and capitalises your next letter. Little things like this give writers the confidence to put their thoughts on paper.

As well as predicting words directly in to your word processor, Penfriend XP can work with Clicker, from Crick Software and other applications to provide its prediction engine without the user needing to interact with Penfriend directly.

Penfriend XP Single user copy (Win)

Order code: PXP

£60

We can also supply Penfriend W3 for Windows 95.

Penfriend XP Single user copy (Win)

Order code: PXP

£60

Prices do not include carriage or VAT. See ordering information.