Section 19.2. Tablet PCs: Home Premium Business Enterprise Ultimate

19.2. Tablet PCs: Home Premium ¢ Business ¢ Enterprise ¢ Ultimate

A Tablet PC is like a laptop with a key differenceit has a touch screen. In theory, that design means that a Tablet PC can be thinner and lighter than a laptop, because it can do without a keyboard.

When Microsoft unveiled its concept for the Tablet PC in 2002, it was convinced that the tablet was the future. "Within five years , I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America," Bill Gates told the crowd at a keynote speech.

Clearly, that never happened . The Tablet PC isn't exactly dead, but its popularity centers on fairly rarefied circles: health care, insurance, and so on.

Maybe Vista will give the whole thing a boost. For the first time, the Tablet PC's features are right there in the main version of Windows (it used to require a specialized version): pen features, touch-screen features, digital ink, handwriting recognition, and so on.

19.2.1. The Mobile PC Control Panel

Almost all of the goodies waiting for you, the tablet fan, are available in the Mobile PC applet of the Control Panel.

If you have a tablet, you can make life easier for yourself by adding the Mobile PC control panel to the top of your Start menu, where it's easy to get to. Figure 19-4 shows the result you're after.

Figure 19-4. Click Start Control Panel. Drag Mobile PCeither the little laptop icon itself or the words "Mobile PCto the Start button. Without releasing the mouse, wait for the Start menu to open , and then drop the Mobile PC icon at the top-right corner of the Start menu. You can now get to the settings quickly .

Figure 19-5. In Tablet PC Settings, you can tell Vista if you're left- or right-handed, calibrate the screen, and select an orientation. Landscape is the "long way," larger on the horizontal side, and Portrait is the "tall way," larger on the vertical side. Calibrating the screen guides you through tapping a crosshair until the screen is fully aligned .

19.2.2. Handwriting Recognition

The accuracy and convenience of Vista's handwriting recognition have come a very long waywhich is fortunate indeed, since some Tablet PCs don't have keyboards (or have keyboards that you can detach). You can tell Vista if you're left- or right-handed, use the Handwriting Recognizer to help Vista recognize your handwriting nuances , and turn on Automatic Learning, so Vista learns about you as you learn about it. Hey, if Tablet PCs can decipher doctors ' handwriting, surely you can get your Tablet PC to recognize yours.

Using a pop-up transcription window called the Input panel, you can enter text anywhere you can type: Word, email programs, your Web browser, and so on. Vista also comes with a special program called Windows Journal that's a note-taking module designed expressly for tablets.

19.2.2.1. Teaching Vista how you write

The Handwriting Recognizer increases the chances that Vista will recognize your handwriting correctly. You provide samples of your handwriting, and Vista studies your style. Figure 19-6 shows you how to start the process.

Figure 19-6. To find the Handwriting Recognizer tool, tap Start, and in the Search window, type Hand. The results in the Start menu include "Personalize handwriting recognition." (Or, if you're a mouser, choose Start All Programs Tablet PC Tablet PC "Personalize handwriting recognition.") Select it. From the options, choose "Teach the recognizer your handwriting style."

You're offered the chance to write either sentences or numbers , symbols, and letters ; for best accuracy, you should work through both. More than once, in fact. (They're not brief exercisesthe Sentences option involves about 50 screensbut the effort's for a good cause.) Write just the way you would on paperin cursive , printing, or a mixture of both.

After working through the Handwriting Recognizer, you can start using handwriting recognition.

Tip: If you turn on Automatic Learning, Vista learns more and more about your handwriting the more you use it. To do that, open the Mobile PC control panel. Click Tablet PC Settings

Enable or Disable Handwriting Personalization

Handwriting Recognition tab. Turn on Use Automatic Learning (Recommended).

19.2.2.2. Handwriting anywhere

To make Vista recognize your handwriting, open any program where you would otherwise typea word processor, for example.

Now open the Input panel, which is a floating handwriting window that automatically converts anything you write into typed text (Figure 19-7). You can summon the Input panel in several ways:

Tap to put the insertion point in a text-entry areaan empty word processor document or email message, for example, or the Address bar of a Web browser. A tiny Input panel icon appears right by the insertion point (Figure 19-7, top); tap it.

Figure 19-7. Top: You can open the Input panel by tapping the Input panel icon that appears next to any selected text box .
Middle: You can also tap the tiny tab that hugs the edge of the screen .
Bottom: Once the Input panel is open, you can use it to enter text into any program at all. If you make an error before hitting the Insert button, you can just scribble it out to make it disappear. (Hint: You can customize the heck out of the Input panelink thickness , tab appearance, and so onby choosing Tools Options within the panel.)

Tap the Input panel tab , which peeks out from the left edge of the screen (Figure 19-7, middle).

Tip: If you're left-handed , you'll probably want to move the panel to the right side of the screen, which you can do by dragging its outer edge.
Use the Input panel gesture . Most gestures (page 578) involve quick strokes on the tablet's surface; this one, however, is a quick, side-to-side movement of your pen just above the surface of, but not touching, the screen.

To turn on this option, open the Mobile PC control panel (page 575), and, under "Pen and Input Devices," click "Change tablet pen settings." On the Pen Options tab, click Start Tablet PC Input panel, click Settings, and turn on "Enable start Input panel gesture." Click OK.

Tip: Even after you've turned on this option, summoning the Input panel with a gesture can be tricky. Try four to six fast, diagonal, four-inch motions of the pen, just above the surface of the screen. Experiment with speed and distance, and keep in mind that the panel won't open if it's already open. (Duh!)

Once the Input panel is open, the buttons in the top-left corner offer three ways to enter text. (Point without clicking to see their names , or consult Figure 19-8.

Figure 19-8. The three tiny buttons here offer three text-input methods . Figure 19-7 shows the Writing pad. Shown here at top: the Character pad, where you write letters one by one, and wait as they're recognized individually .
Bottom: The On-Screen keyboard. Use your pen to tap letters on the graphical keyboard one by one. It's a slow, painful, arduous way of inputting data .

The Writing pad is by far the most convenient method. To use it, just start writing on the line. Use your normal writing style.

At first, the "digital ink" just sits there where you wrote it. The input panel expands, adding new lines as necessary, as you write. But when you tap the little Insert button, the ink vanishesand the converted, typed text appears in your document or dialog box.

19.2.2.3. Gestures

In the pen-computing world, a gesture is a quick pen movement that lets you "type" a Space (a long, quick line to the right), a Backspace (long and quick to the left), a press of the Enter key, or a Tab (Figure 19-9).

Figure 19-9. Mastering gestures can be tricky. If it's not working for you, try writing faster, or making the horizontal strokes longer .

To try out a gesture or two, make sure the input panel is completely empty . You're going to draw one of these special shapes in the input panel, but you'll see its effect in whatever Windows program you're using. You don't have to tap Insert or wait, as you do when writing; Vista recognizes the gestures instantly.

You can also scratch out text in the input pad before it gets transcribed. Just scribble it out, just as you'd scratch out handwriting on a real piece of paper (Figure 19-7). You can draw a straight line through what you've written, scribble out with an M or W motion, draw looping scribbles, and so on. The text disappears from the pad.

Tip: In Windows XP Tablet Edition, there was only one scratch-out gesture: a Z-shaped scratch-out. If you'd like to return to those halcyon days, choose Tools

Options in the Input panel. From the Gestures tab, select "Only the Z-shaped scratch-out gesture that was available in Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition (Figure 19-9).

19.2.2.4. Fixing mistakes

Vista's handwriting recognition is amazingly accurate. It is not, however, perfectin part because your handwriting isn't either.

Correcting a mistake is important for two reasons. First, it fixes the error in your documentand second, it teaches Vista so that it's less likely to make that mistake again. Figure 19-10 shows the steps.

Figure 19-10. Top: The first step in correcting a mistranscribed word is to tap it (that is, Vista's versionnot your handwriting), as shown here .
Bottom: Windows offers a selection of other possible readings of your scrawl. Tap the one you wanted. If it's not there, you'll have to correct it one letter at a time; just write directly over the wrong letter, or use the drop-down alphabet menu beneath it .

19.2.2.5. The finer points of handwriting recognition

The handwriting recognition feature in Vista is considerably better than it was on the old Windows XP Tablet Edition. Here are a few reasons why:

AutoComplete . As you write in the Input panel, AutoComplete attempts to save you time by guessing what you're going for. If it's right, tap the guess and enjoy how Windows finishes your word.
Scratch-out gestures . As mentioned earlier, scratch-out gestures let you use your pen to erase anything you've handwritten by scratching it out with the pen. You can customize Scratch-Out Gestures from the Input panel's Tools Options Gestures tab.
Back-of-pen erase . Some tablet pens have an "eraser end" that lets you erase text you've written. To find out if your pen is so equipped, flip it upside-down and drag across something you've written. If an eraser icon appearsand your text disappearsthen you're one of the lucky ones.
Web quick keys . The Web button in the Input panel opens a panel filled with one-tap bits of Web addresses: http://, www., .com, and so on. It's a lifesaver when you're using your tablet with a Web browser.

Note: Anything you tap on the Num, Sym, or Web panels gets deposited directly into your document. It doesn't first appear in the Input panel, like your handwriting does. After all, Windows is already sure of what you intended to type; there's no need for you to approve or correct it.

Some of the old features, meanwhile, are still useful:

Numbers and symbols . The Input panel displays buttons for Bksp (Backspace), Del (Delete), Tab, Enter, Space, and left and right arrow keys. For ease in entering numbers and symbols, special number and symbol pads are available, too (tap Num or Sym).
Add words to the Handwriting Dictionary . To add a word to the Handwriting Dictionary, write the word neatly in the Writing Pad, and correct it if necessary. Tap the button at the bottom edge that represents Vista's transcription. In the correction panel, tap the tiny dictionary icon; select "Add to dictionary." Consider adding your own name , acronyms, and other information you use often.
Calibrating . Calibration involves fine-tuning how accurately your tablet detects the pen's location. If you feel as though your Tablet could benefit from calibration, choose Start Control Panel; open Tablet PC Settings, and then Calibrate The Screen.

19.2.3. Windows Journal

Among programs that work well with handwriting, few can top Windows Journal. It's a program for taking notes, keeping a journal, or recording info -tidbits as you come across them during the work day. It's a great tool for students, since it does away with the usual note-taking tools ( notebooks , pens, and paper).

When you choose Start All Programs Windows Journal, youre presented with a blank page of what looks like the lined paper of an old spiral notebook.

So why not just make your scribbles, doodles, and math equations in a program like Word? Because Word doesn't accept handwritingonly typed text converted from handwriting. Windows Journal, on the other hand, stores the actual graphic representation of anything you write (Figure 19-11).

Figure 19-11. Windows Journal stores your handwriting as digital ink, without attempting to convert everything to typed text. Still, it's not stupid. You can, for example, search your reams of notes for a certain word or phrase. You can also use the Selection tool (looks like a rope lasso) to select text to move, transcribe, or format .

As you write along, keep in mind that your notes and sketches aren't locked in Journal forever. For example:

Mail it. Choose Mail Send to Mail Recipient to send a page by email. The result is very cool. It looks like someone scribbled a handwritten note to you right in the body of the message.

Of course, there are a couple of problems with this approach. Some people's email programs don't display graphics at all, meaning that they'll see nothing but a big, empty window. And a fully graphic email message is one that can't be searched, annotated, or edited.

Fortunately, you can also select a swath of handwriting and choose Action Convert Select to E-Mail. Journal does its best to convert the handwriting to text, which it then pastes into an open outgoing email message.
Export it to a Web archive or a TIFF graphics file (File Export As).

Convert parts of it to text. See Figure 19-12.

Figure 19-12. Use the Selection tool (the rope lasso icon on the toolbar) to select any text you've written (by dragging a circle or oval around it); at that point, you can choose Action Convert Handwriting to Text to turn the writing into typed text, suitable for pasting into another program or depositing right there on the Journal page .

Change your "pen." Choose Edit Format Ink to the thickness, color , and other attributes of the ink style.

19.2.4. Flicks

Pen Flicks , new in Vista, let you navigate documents and manipulate data using your stylus alone. With a flick of the wrist, you can scroll a page at a time, copy, paste, delete, undo, and so on. You have a total of eight pen flicks available to you: up, down, left, right, and the four diagonals.

(So what's the difference between a flick and a gesture? Very little, except that to make a flick, you draw an invisible line across your document , rather than in the input panel.)

To turn on this feature, choose Start Control Panel. Click Mobile PC, then "Change tablet pen settings (under the heading Pen and Input Devices). Once the dialog box opens, click the Flicks tab.

The Flicks tab opens. Turn on "Use flicks..." at the top of the dialog box. At this point, you get only four flicks: up and down (for scrolling) and left and right (for Back and Forward). If you turn on "Navigational flicks and editing flicks," however, you add the diagonal options, making flicks even more useful.

At the bottom, click "Practice using flicks." The Pen Flicks Training dialog box opens, probably startling you with the sudden appearance of an actual video that shows someone scrolling with the pen.

When you click Next, you're offered the opportunity to practice the flicking technique. It suggests that you draw short lines "as though you were brushing something off the screen with the tip of the pen," which is well put.

Figure 19-13 shows the built-in flick movements for Page Up and Down, Forward and Back, Delete, Copy, Paste, and Undo. You can change these assignments if you'd prefer, either rearranging the flick directions or assigning entirely different functions to them: Save, Open, Print, press the Alt key (or Ctrl, Shift, or ), and so on. Figure 19-13 shows how.

Figure 19-13. In Control Panel Mobile PC Pen and Input Devices Flicks, click Customize. You get this dialog box, where you can remap the flick directions so that they perform other functions. If you choose Add from one of the little pop-up menus , in fact, the controls at the bottom actually let you map a keystroke to a flick, so that an upward flick triggers, for example, Alt+F4 .

19.2.4.1. Tablet settings

If you get into flicking, you should know that, since Microsoft is Microsoft, you have a long list of customizations and tweaks available to you.

Open the Mobile PC control panel (page 575), and, under "Pen and Input Devices," click "Change tablet pen settings." The tabs of the resulting dialog box offers options like these:

What happens when you double-tap the screen or hold down the pen on the screen (which ordinarily means a right-click). On the Pen Options tab, click one of the pen actions and then click Settings.

What you see on the screen at the spot where you tap it (Figure 19-14). Make these changes on the Pointer Options tab.

Figure 19-14. Before Vista came along, it was often difficult to know what you were doing when you tapped the screen with the pen on a Tablet PC. Vista makes that a lot easier with visual cues. Here on the Pointer Options tab, you can see the visual feedback for a single tap, a double tap, pressing the pen button, and pressing the pen button and tapping at the same time. If you'd rather not see these visual cues, turn them off .