Is it easier to program from a DSC PTK5507?
Overall it is a little bit easier. But for a large portion of the programming, you will not really notice any difference. Through the majority of the programming it will really resemble what you would see on a PK5500 style keypad. And in fact you will be doing it through a console mode where you will see a virtual representation of what you would see on a PK5500 or similar keypad. To get there you will go to options, then to installer menu, then keypad mode. The screen will show things like "Enter Section" and show the dashes and data that you would expect to see. You can use the virtual arrow keys to scroll through sections like 001 zone types to confirm that you input the correct numbers. And, as normal, pressing the pound key will still take you back out of a section or even programming mode. Toggle options also appear exactly the same on the screen.
There is one area where you will see a huge difference. That is with the label programming. The label programming can be accessed in the installer menu outside of keypad mode. It is a more menu based programming process that will allow you to easily check multiple labels at once and quickly navigate to the label that you want to edit. To edit that label you will simply tap on the button for that label. The keypad will then display a virtual QWERTY keyboard that will let you type out whatever label you want. This is a much more user friendly experience than with a PK5500 keypad. On the PK5500 keypad you will have to use a combination of a word library and custom words that will need to be typed out using the number pad.
One thing that you might want to watch out for if you have a combination of PTK5507 and PK5500 keypads, the labels that are entered on the PTK5507 may cause words to be cut in half on the standard LCD screens of the PK5500. If that bothers you can fix that by checking the label on the PK5500 and then adding spaces as needed.