Disable XT9 on T-Mobile Dash

The T-Mobile Dash (aka the HTC Excaliber) is a cool little smartphone that runs Windows Mobile. I've always been annoyed by the seeming inability to disable the T9/XT9 text autocompletion. Searching online found no easy way to do it. Lots of registry hacks and some broken downloadable app that's supposed to do the job but doesn't, but no easy info on how to just modify some setting on the phone and be done with it.

Well, today, I stumbled across how to disable the XT9 text autocompletion on my Dash.

Here's how:

1. Go into messaging, and create a new text message.
   
2. Hold down the alt key and press the space bar.
   
3. A tiny menu will pop up: XT9 English, ABC, Language >, and About XT9.
4. Select ABC.
5. Now type. You'll notice that the auto-complete area no longer appears!

I think the setting stays that way until you hard reset your phone. In my case, it stayed in place until I upgraded my phone's operating system, then it reverted back to XT9. Once the Dash booted back up, now running Windows Mobile 6, I was able to change the setting back to ABC and disable autocomplete once again.