How the Book Is Organized

Understanding something new often depends on how logically it's presented to you so your brain can grab it and run with it. For that reason (and because my editor told me to) I've organized this book into Parts.

Part I: Getting Up to Speed with Tablet PC

In this section, you meet the hero of this book - Tablet PC - find out about the various models available, turn the computer on, put pen to screen for the first time, and learn how to take advantage of built-in help and tutorials. You check out the features of your device, rotating the Tablet PC screen and figuring out what the buttons are likely to control (depending on the model you own). Finally, this section helps you get your Tablet PC connected to handy things like a printer, wireless network, or docking station - while imparting sage advice about power management so your portable wonder won't run out of juice far from an outlet.

Part II: Tablet PC Basics

Part II is where you discover the intricacies of getting content into software documents with Tablet PC's various input modes: the onscreen keyboard, the pen, and speech. These ways of communicating with your computer are perhaps the most revolutionary thing about Tablet PC and, as you'll find out in this part, practice with them makes (almost) perfect.

Part III: Exploring Tablet PC's Unique Apps

Tablet PCs get their functionality from Windows XP for Tablet PC. Besides the pen and speech functionality you read about in Part II, the Tablet PC operating system has a few unique programs built in that aren't in plain old Windows XP. This Part takes the time to introduce you to them: Windows Journal, Sticky Notes, and InkBall. I also throw in some information about Microsoft Reader for reading eBooks (which has been around for a while, but is just so perfect an application for a Tablet PC user, I couldn't resist).

Part IV: Office XP, Tablet PC Style

Right out of the gate, Tablet PC has been set up to work with Microsoft Office XP (through a Tablet PC Office Pack you can download for free). The interaction is pretty much limited to the use of ink and speech through the Tablet PC Input Panel (more about that later) - but that's an impressive start. This part shows how you can take advantage of Tablet PC's features in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Part V: The Part of Tens

Quick . . . list ten things you can write on with a pen . . .

Because everybody from talk show hosts to your Aunt Maisie makes lists, and those lists often contain ten items, why shouldn't I? This part of the book introduces several lists-by-ten - ten neat things you can do with Tablet PC just for the fun of it, ten software products that take advantage of the Tablet PC computing environment, and ten interesting ways that various industries are making use of tablet computing.