Creating a Note


Do you want to make a note of that phone number a client gave you in the hallway? Maybe remind yourself to get gas on the way home? Whatever little reminders you want to keep around as you roam with your Tablet PC, Sticky Notes is a great place to enter them.

Write it down

When you open Sticky Notes for the first time (choose StartðAll Programsð Sticky Notes), voilà - a blank note opens, ready for you to scribble, doodle, or record something. To create a new Sticky Note, you tap the New Note button, as shown in Figure 8-1.

click to expand
Figure 8-1: This little pad enables you to write notes to yourself on the fly.

The majority of this window is a surface where you can write notes with your pen stylus. Across the top of the Sticky Notes window are a couple of menus (Tools and Help) and a few tool buttons that enable you to delete a note, drag and drop a note, copy a note, or move among a group of notes (called a stack).

Across the bottom of the Sticky Notes pad are buttons you use to record a note (which make their entrance a bit later on in this chapter).

To enter a note, simply write in the center area of the Sticky Notes window (see Figure 8-2). You can enter as much text, or as many doodles or drawings, as you like, given the space available.

click to expand
Figure 8-2: Print or write in longhand - it will look just the way you write it.

 Remember  If you have a longer note, start near the top of the writing area and keep your writing smaller. When you've filled up the Notes area, the only way to add more is to add a new note.

 Warning!  The Input Panel doesn't work with Sticky Notes. Writing in the Writing Pad or tapping keys on the Keyboard won't have any effect.

A nice gesture

You can use a scratch-out gesture to delete one or more words in your note. When you rub your pen tip across the word you want to delete as if scratching it out, it becomes covered with black lines. You have to get about 60 percent of the word covered in lines (as in Figure 8-3), and then it disappears.

click to expand
Figure 8-3: Scratch your pen over anything you've written in a Sticky Note, and after a second it will disappear.

 Remember  If you delete words as you write, you can then just place your pen where the deleted word was and write something else. However, if you've written a bit and go back to delete a word, you can't move the remaining words closer together, so you'll simply leave a blank space in your note, without gaining any more writing real estate.

The scratch-out gesture is active by default. To turn it off, follow these steps:

  1. Choose ToolsðOptions in the Sticky Notes toolbar.

  2. Tap Enable Scratch-out Gesture to select or deselect it.

Just say it

Sometimes there's no substitute for the spoken word. For example, if you need to access a note that contains an address while you're driving to an appointment, playing back a note is certainly preferable to reading it as you drive along. Or you might want to get the exact wording of a phrase that somebody else reads into your Tablet PC (anything from a sweet nothing to the melody of a song, or a legal citation, for example).

 Tip  You can record notes of up to thirty seconds with Sticky Notes and play them back. You can even add a recording to a written note.

Follow these steps to record a note and play it back:

  1. With Sticky Notes open, tap the Record button shown in Figure 8-4.

    Click To expand
    Figure 8-4: These simple recording buttons should look familiar if you've ever used media player software.

    start sidebar
    Recording notes: Do's and don'ts

    Here are a few tips about recording notes:

    • Locate the microphone built into your Tablet PC (your user manual should show you where it is) or hold a microphone you have plugged into a speaker jack near your mouth and speak clearly into it.

    • Speak loudly - the default volume level used to record Sticky Notes seems rather low, so you'll have to speak up if you want to hear it in playback. (If your officemates look at you funny, tell them you're rehearsing lead vocals for a rock band. . . .)

    end sidebar

  2. Speak your note loudly and clearly.

    The slider moves across the Sticky Notes window as you speak, reflecting the amount of time left to record.

  3. Tap the Stop button (shown in Figure 8-4) when you're done.

     Tip  If you want to record more with the same note open, you can repeat Steps 1 through 3 until you've used up the thirty seconds allowed.

  4. To play the note back, tap the Play button.




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

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net