[jvinp]

I'm an author.

Is the Playbook any good for writing, ie with the on screen keyboard?

Posted via CB10

[slalom]

At this point, with extremely limited further development of the PlayBook, I'd look to another platform....maybe even a Samsung Tab that has pretty good handwriting capture/recognition.

[jvinp]

Orly? Even for basic text editing, I was thinking I could get a Playbook for cheapish.

Posted via CB10

[madman0141]

There was some author who wrote some books on this in 2011 -2012. I think you will be fine with it.

[jpash549]

I'm an author.

Is the Playbook any good for writing, ie with the on screen keyboard?

Posted via CB10

Not in my opinion. No tablet is very good for writing with the onscreen keyboard. But you can connect through bluetooth a key board and mouse and through HDMI to a monitor or TV.

[slalom]

Not in my opinion. No tablet is very good for writing with the onscreen keyboard. But you can connect through bluetooth a key board and mouse and through HDMI to a monitor or TV.

....or maybe on a PC

[Tre Lawrence]

With a swipe keyboard, typing on a tablet can be quite productive.

[qwerty4ever]

I'm an author.

Is the Playbook any good for writing, ie with the on screen keyboard?

Posted via CB10

As a writer you really should buy the BlackBerry Case with Bluetooth Mini-Keyboard which will simplify your life. The virtual keyboard will cause pain in your fingers during extended periods of typing.

Posted via the BlackBerry Q5 using CB10.

[troubl3dman]

As a writer you really should buy the BlackBerry Case with Bluetooth Mini-Keyboard which will simplify your life. The virtual keyboard will cause pain in your fingers during extended periods of typing.

Posted via the BlackBerry Q5 using CB10.

I second that emotion

[blueberrymerry]

For short emails or documents, the PB virtual keyboard is tolerable for thumb typing in portrait mode. I find it hard to type with my thumbs in landscape because the keys are too far apart, while they're too close together for touch typing using all my fingers. The auto-correct is helpful for common words but it trips up on technical terms.

I would get a keyboard case if you want to do a lot of typing on the PB. DocsToGo is a decent word processor if you want just plain text, and the PB's battery life of 7+ hours when writing is pretty decent.

That said, I've switched to an 8" Windows 8 tablet and the virtual keyboard on that is much better, both in terms of layout in portrait and landscape and its predictive text system. There are plenty of plain notepad style apps for the Modern UI and you can also run the two big desktop office suites: Libreoffice and MS Office

[Dominic Hagan]

if its for jotting down rough drafts as you think them up on the move then it should be fine, also voice notes and maybe text to speech before passing onto a larger machine for tidying up.

writing war and peace 2 might be a struggle though

[Mr KLScott]

Writing with the PlayBook is a joy. Yes, as previously stated you CAN buy the bluetooth keyboard which can make life easier, but if you have large hands(like I do) then you can use the PB virtual keyboard and not lose any efficiency. My hands are very wide...so I have been able to use my PB to write up college papers/reports and the sort. But, not everyone has my hand's physical makeup. I used it a lot for notes that I can then backup to a box account(still don't understand why we can't to bluetooth transfers...I have a ton of music on my PB that would have been easily transferred had the bluetooth transfer been an included option). I swear, was the PlayBook only ONE person's project at RIM?

But I digress. Another option is to use BlackBerry remote which is included on the Bridge app so that you can type on your phone's keyboard while it transfers into whatever app you're in on your PB. I used to make FULL use of this when I still used my BB9000...that keyboard was a slice of heaven. As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to charge up my old 9000 right now so the next time I need to do a paper, I'll type it out using that heavenly keyboard.

To sum up, once you find which medium is right for you, writing on the PB can be better than writing on a computer. It all comes down to what you are most comfortable with.

Posted via CB10

[qwerty4ever]

...but if you have large hands(like I do) then you can use the PB virtual keyboard and not lose any efficiency. My hands are very wide...
Posted via CB10

For some reason this image immediately came to mind...