Fringe Benefits: Getting to Know What Surrounds the Screen


Fringe Benefits: Getting to Know What Surrounds the Screen

You may have noticed that Tablet PCs are lightweight. To make them that way, manufacturers made economical use of every square inch of screen real estate - and some even ditched the Keyboard to drop a few more ounces.

 Remember  With no keyboard available when you're working with a Tablet PC (even a convertible model when it's in tablet form), the manufacturers had to make even the tiniest bit of space that surrounds the screen count.

What they used this space for are tablet buttons that you can use to quickly perform various common functions, and LED readouts to clue you into the power usage of your system.

What's flashing?

LED lights on your Tablet PC unit show power-management information, such as whether your battery is charged or charging, as well as usage of external media or your hard drive. For example, when the computer is reading data from your hard drive, a light may flash.

Here's what a couple of manufacturers have done with their LED lights to give you the idea of the kind of functions the lights on your unit represent. Of course, your Tablet PC may signal additional or different information.

The ViewSonic model has three lights (see Figure 2-7):

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Figure 2-7: The ViewSonic LED lights are lined up on the left side of the screen in primary portrait orientation.

  • Power LED: This light is green when the unit is turned on and it blinks when the computer is placed in Standby mode.

  • Hard Drive LED: This light blinks green when your computer is reading data from the hard drive or when data is being written into memory.

  • Battery Charge LED: This light is red when the battery is charging and doesn't light at all when it's fully charged.

Acer has seven - count 'em, seven - LED displays:

  • Num Lock: Displays a light when the Num Lock feature is turned on.

  • Caps Lock: Displays a light when Caps Lock is activated.

  • Battery Charge: Displays a light when the battery is charging.

  • Media Activity: Displays a light when a floppy drive, hard drive, or optical drive is reading a file or performing some other task.

  • Sleep: Displays a light when the computer is in Sleep mode.

  • Power: Displays a green light when the Tablet PC is turned on.

  • Wireless Communication: Glows red if you've enabled Wireless LAN.

The Motion M1200 Tablet PC has four LED indicators (see Figure 2-8) showing Wireless Activity, Hard Drive Access, Battery Status, and Power Standby.

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Figure 2-8: Motion puts four lights on the face of its M1200 Tablet PC.

Button, button, who's got the Tablet PC button?

Buttons on the face of Tablet PCs replace many of the functions you're used to performing on a typical keyboard. For example, you're missing the Enter, Function, and directional arrow keys from a keyboard. Never fear - you're likely to find these keys recreated as buttons on your Tablet PC hardware.

The buttons available to you vary from model to model. They may run along the bottom or sides of the unit. Some, such as the directional arrows button shown in Figure 2-9, may be a single large button that you press on one side or another to move your cursor in a particular direction.

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Figure 2-9: Press the larger button in any of four directions to use the four directional arrows.

Typical buttons include some old friends and some new kids:

  • Power On/Off: Does just what it says. (Refreshing, isn't it?)

  • Rotation: May be used alone or with a Function key to rotate the screen 90 degrees at a time.

  • Escape: Works like the Escape button on a regular keyboard to back you out of actions you wish you hadn't done - but (alas) only on the computer.

  • Function: Works like the Function key on a standard keyboard; when pressed with other buttons or keys on a keyboard, it calls up alternate functionality such as pressing Function+F1 to display help or Function+F4 to put a unit into Sleep mode.

  • Enter: Functions like the Enter key on your keyboard to accept an entry in a field or cell or to move your cursor to the next line of a document.

  • Directional keys: Emulates the right, left, up, and down keys on a keyboard to move your on-screen cursor around a document.

  • Security: Mimics the 'three-finger salute,' Ctrl+Alt+Del (a function you may have used on a standard keyboard to call up Windows Task Manager or shut down your system in case of a crash).

  • Start Menu: Displays the Windows Start menu.

  • Journal: Opens Windows Journal.

  • Input Panel: Opens the Input Panel.

 Tip  Some of these buttons, when used with the Function key, can perform alternate functions. For example, press the Fn key with the Escape key on the Motion M1200 Tablet PC and it is the equivalent of the standard keyboard Alt+Tab function that switches you among open applications.

Resetting button functions

If you're one of those people who considers have it your way a personal mantra, put aside that burger and read on.

All Tablet PC models enable you to reset some button functions. Some, such as ViewSonic, only enable you to change functionality that you get when you press the Function key with a button.

Others let you reset the primary button functions. For example, you can change the key that is set to the Enter function on an Acer to an alternate function such as opening your e-mail program or turning the speaker on and off. These are known as programmable buttons.

No matter what changes your unit's manufacturer enables you to make, you can make those changes by following these steps:

  1. Tap the Input Panel icon to display the on-screen Keyboard.

  2. Tap the Windows key on the Input Panel to display the Windows taskbar.

  3. Tap the Change Tablet and Pen Settings icon in your system tray (that is, the taskbar), and choose Properties from the menu that appears.

  4. Tap the Tablet Buttons tab (see Figure 2-10).

    Click To expand
    Figure 2-10: The detailed view of buttons will differ in this dialog box based on your Tablet PC model; this was taken on a ViewSonic Tablet PC.

  5. To change button settings for only a single orientation, tap the arrow in the Button Settings For drop-down list and select the orientation you want.

  6. Select a Tablet Button name from the list, then tap Change.

    The Change Tablet Button Actions dialog box appears.

  7. Select an action from the Action list (see Figure 2-11).

    Click To expand
    Figure 2-11: This dialog box offers several preset options for tablet button functions.

  8. Tap OK twice to make the change.

 Tip  To reset buttons to the original settings, tap the Reset button on the Tablet Buttons tab of the Tablet and Pen Settings dialog box.




Tablet PCs for Dummies
Tablet PCs for Dummies
ISBN: 0764526472
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 139

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