Texting. It’s the new paging, in a way. People who are too lazy to actually pick up the phone, expend energy and say words out loud. Sad I know that it has come to this, but with the world going to texting, it’s time everyone gets a quick training course on the art of T9.
Now I know some of you reading this, still hunt and peck, some of you still will hit the ABC button 3 times to get to a C, and that’s an insult to yourself and other around you. You waste time by multiple button presses, and it’s what deters the older set from even trying to text. They see it as an art form that never picked up, and expends to much time. With this refresher, and new training course, you should be able to pick up your phone and start learning in no time.
First I’ll walk you through the OLD way. Which is usually typified by “ABC” on a phone, which stands for, “you have to press every letter out, to get a message out.” Could be the single lamest thing I know, but it is part of the way it works. Step 1. Get to the text messaging part of your phone. I know this is bush league to have to explain but find the “TXT Message” part of your phone.
Step 2. Plan out what your going to say, for these purposes, We’ll say, “Hello World.”
Step 3. You’ll have to press 4-4,3-3,5-5-5,5-5-5,6-6-6 to spell “Hello” as each time you press 4 you start at G then move to H. SPACE which is usually labeled on your keypad, then World would be “9,6-6-6,7-7-7,5-5-5,3” That’s 25 key presses to get out two words, right? Then you press send, maybe a phone number, lets say 30 presses all in.
Who in their right mind wants 30 presses to get out 10 letters? It’s 3 times the work, and it honestly takes up so much time, and is so inefficient, that it’s not worth the hassle. That’s where “T9” or “Word” comes in, depending on your phone company. I’m about to teach you basic how-to, and it’ll guide you to basic use on a system. Now this is BYOP (bring your own phone), so the instructions will be a little different per phone. Just know that this will get you through it, and after that you’ll pick it up on your phone.
Step 1. Get to the TXT screen again, make sure you’re in the message. Now, most phones don’t come with T9 already activated.
Step 2. Go into the options. Make sure when you do, find “Word” or “T9” this will be SMART TYPE. It’s a predicative text, it’ll take the letters your typing in, and guess what the most probable word that your giving it is.
Step 3. Once you verify you want to type that, you will be sent back to your message screen and the fun will begin. This requires you thinking about what you want to say. So we’ll go with the same words “Hello World”.
Step 4. Begin by spelling it in your head “hello”, 4-3-5-5-6. It’s the keys on which each one of those letters are, if you have a good dictionary, it’ll pick up the word “hello”. Space, then 9-6-7-5-3, and that will pick up the word “World”. So, in a total of 11 keys, you’ve typed it. You’ve literally cut it in half, which makes texting much much longer messages quicker and more efficient. The basic premise being that you only press the key of the letter you want once. As long as it’s in the dictionary, it’ll be there. Shorter words like “Be”, “we”, “and”, are short enough you may have to scroll through the words, but that is the “next” function on your phone, and it’ll be on your keypad.
Texting, the next instant messaging. As we’re on the go, and lord knows we’re all on the go. It’s faster to send a note, a sentence to someone, to make sure you got your point across fast enough. The problem has always been the inconvenience of texting. You couldn’t do it fast enough, it took too much thought, it took too much time, too much effort. I think that, with this, I can help you at least get off the ground and learn how to T9 your own way.
How To: The Art Form Of T9
Texting. It’s the new paging, in a way. People who are too lazy to actually pick up the phone, expend energy and say words out loud. Sad I know that it has come to this, but with the world going to texting, it’s time everyone gets a quick training course on the art of T9.
Now I know some of you reading this, still hunt and peck, some of you still will hit the ABC button 3 times to get to a C, and that’s an insult to yourself and other around you. You waste time by multiple button presses, and it’s what deters the older set from even trying to text. They see it as an art form that never picked up, and expends to much time. With this refresher, and new training course, you should be able to pick up your phone and start learning in no time.
First I’ll walk you through the OLD way. Which is usually typified by “ABC” on a phone, which stands for, “you have to press every letter out, to get a message out.” Could be the single lamest thing I know, but it is part of the way it works.
Step 1. Get to the text messaging part of your phone. I know this is bush league to have to explain but find the “TXT Message” part of your phone.
Step 2. Plan out what your going to say, for these purposes, We’ll say, “Hello World.”
Step 3. You’ll have to press 4-4,3-3,5-5-5,5-5-5,6-6-6 to spell “Hello” as each time you press 4 you start at G then move to H. SPACE which is usually labeled on your keypad, then World would be “9,6-6-6,7-7-7,5-5-5,3” That’s 25 key presses to get out two words, right? Then you press send, maybe a phone number, lets say 30 presses all in.
Who in their right mind wants 30 presses to get out 10 letters? It’s 3 times the work, and it honestly takes up so much time, and is so inefficient, that it’s not worth the hassle. That’s where “T9” or “Word” comes in, depending on your phone company. I’m about to teach you basic how-to, and it’ll guide you to basic use on a system. Now this is BYOP (bring your own phone), so the instructions will be a little different per phone. Just know that this will get you through it, and after that you’ll pick it up on your phone.
Step 1. Get to the TXT screen again, make sure you’re in the message. Now, most phones don’t come with T9 already activated.
Step 2. Go into the options. Make sure when you do, find “Word” or “T9” this will be SMART TYPE. It’s a predicative text, it’ll take the letters your typing in, and guess what the most probable word that your giving it is.
Step 3. Once you verify you want to type that, you will be sent back to your message screen and the fun will begin. This requires you thinking about what you want to say. So we’ll go with the same words “Hello World”.
Step 4. Begin by spelling it in your head “hello”, 4-3-5-5-6. It’s the keys on which each one of those letters are, if you have a good dictionary, it’ll pick up the word “hello”. Space, then 9-6-7-5-3, and that will pick up the word “World”. So, in a total of 11 keys, you’ve typed it. You’ve literally cut it in half, which makes texting much much longer messages quicker and more efficient. The basic premise being that you only press the key of the letter you want once. As long as it’s in the dictionary, it’ll be there. Shorter words like “Be”, “we”, “and”, are short enough you may have to scroll through the words, but that is the “next” function on your phone, and it’ll be on your keypad.
Texting, the next instant messaging. As we’re on the go, and lord knows we’re all on the go. It’s faster to send a note, a sentence to someone, to make sure you got your point across fast enough. The problem has always been the inconvenience of texting. You couldn’t do it fast enough, it took too much thought, it took too much time, too much effort. I think that, with this, I can help you at least get off the ground and learn how to T9 your own way.