Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

While I was at the mall last Tuesday, I also made a hair appointment. In the old days I would have typed a note before leaving home. Or, I would have asked Darrell to call for an appointment.

Tuesday I pulled out my iPad, typed a message in the Proloquo2Go app and showed it to the receptionist. An appointment was made for the following day.

Continuing with my day of playing hookey, I decided to treat myself to lunch at A&W. Once again I typed out my order before scooting up to the counter. However, in the process of placing my iPad on the counter to show the employee, I must have somehow hit the “clear” or something because my order had disappeared. It reminded me of my old Etch n Sketch: shake and everything erases.

I managed to blurt out “Mama Burger”, but “root beer” was lost.

A hair appointment and a Mama Burger – two out of three ain’t bad!

Obviously I need to learn where the “clear” button is to avoid accidentally hitting it or I need to find another app for this purpose – one that doesn’t erase when shaken.

The one thing I do like about Proloque2Go for this purpose is the font size, which is fairly large for when showing someone else. But, if the message disappears in the process of showing another person, then clearly Proloquo2Go is not the right app for this particular purpose.

The next option I’ll try is the app My Writing Nook, which I purchased for a whopping $4.99 for writing on my iPad. The font size can be increased to 36 point, which may be large enough for someone else to read from a comfortable distance. Documents can be saved and quickly brought back up if needed.

Thanks to a tip from Chris Brogan, I’ve also purchased the TextExpander app for another $4.99. This app automatically expands abbreviations; for example, when I type “;gh“ (without the quotation marks), it automatically expands to “Glenda Watson Hyatt”. This is similar to the abbreviations feature in my E Z Keys software, but for a fraction of the cost.

TextExpander works with several iPad apps, including My Writing Nook. To have it also work with Proloquo2Go would be a cool addition to the communication app.