Made for Each Other: PowerPoint and Your Pen

Fred and Ginger, ham and cheese, Mulder and Scully . . . some things were just meant to go together. Tablet PC and any graphics-oriented program, including presentation software, are simply perfect together. That’s because the ability to write your input removes the barrier of the awkward mouse that stands between you and your creativity.

As with all Office programs, PowerPoint gains Tablet PC functionality from the Tablet PC Office pack, which is kind of an overlay of functionality on top of the PowerPoint software. That statement means that you need to use the Input Panel to write or speak content into PowerPoint and to use voice commands.

And, of course, you can use your pen just like a mouse to tap things to select or insert design elements on a slide (such as a design template). You can also draw objects with your pen directly on slides just as you draw shapes and lines with a mouse.

PowerPoint XP does have a few other perks: Pen, felt-tip pen, eraser, and highlighter tools are available to draw directly on slides while you’re running a presentation. (The non-Tablet PC version of PowerPoint has a single pen tool you can use in presentations, but using it with a mouse to write on a slide is something akin to performing brain surgery with a ballpoint pen.) With the Tablet PC-provided pen tools, you can really go to town with much more legible handwritten comments or drawings. In addition, you can use your pen to navigate through a slide show.