Alternative input explored

Graphics tablets and pen devices are not just meant for professional artists. We take a look at how you can give your Windows Vista PC the flexibility of a pen and paper notebook.

A friend once told me he met Microsoft Corp chief executive officer Steve Ballmer at the company's MVP (Most Valuable Professional) Global Summit two years ago.
When Ballmer whipped out a pen and paper notebook to jot down some notes, some of the attendees asked why he did not use a Tablet PC or PDA (personal digital assistant) instead.
Ballmer said that he would, but the pen input technology then was still not that good for when he needed to write down his ideas fast.
{In case you're wondering, pen input refers to using a digital pen as an input device. The keyboard and mouse are standard input devices for the PC.)
Over the years, PCs have gotten a lot better at helping people with work and play – but until now, it still lacked the flexibility of the humble pen and paper notebook.
We may carry around PDAs and Tablet PCs, but how many times have you reached out for a paper notebook instead when you wanted to write down something really quickly?
Sure, some of you may be speedy with the stylus – but let's face the facts – nothing beats having a white sheet of paper to elegantly illustrate your ideas in words and pictures.
Ballmer later added that it was not because good pen input technology did not exist, but that they still couldn't find an economically feasible way to manufacture it for the masses.
Fortunately, the situation may be different now with the release of Windows Vista.

The write features

Amidst all the hype and brickbats that Vista has received, one of the most overlooked features is its improved support for pen input devices.
After testing it for several weeks, I have to say that I am mightily impressed – so much that I'm convinced that given a little more time, we could soon be living in a truly paperless environment.
However, a word of caution before I continue about digital pen input.
Unlike scribbling on paper, you still can't simply write anywhere on the screen and have Vista know exactly what you want to say and where you want to say it.
No, it can't do that yet. But Vista does come with the nifty Tablet PC Input Panel (Tip) application, which provides a space onscreen where you can write on.

There are three ways to write using Tip:

•You can write an entire sentence or several words using the writing pad, and it will individually recognise each word.
•The second method is using the character pad, which has individual boxes for you to write each character.
•The third is using the onscreen keyboard, similar to those found in PDAs and smartphones.

By default, Tip minimises into a little strip and docks itself on the left corner of the desktop.
When you point your cursor at a program that can accept text input, a little Tip icon appears right below it.
Though it pops up quite regularly, it is surprisingly not as obtrusive as I expected.

Improved handwriting

Handwriting recognition has already received pretty good reviews in previous versions of Windows, but it is even better now with Vista.
Even without needing to "train" the recognition system, it can almost always figure out what I was trying to write – with the rare exception of a few mistakes, of course.
What surprised me the most is that it could recognise even the worst of my handwriting– and this was when I intentionally scribbled words very badly.
You can also improve the recognition system by personalising the way you write.
You can access this feature in the "Tablet PC" programs folder (even if you're using Vista on a desktop PC).
Unlike the old days when recognition systems were quite poor, the one in Vista is very accurate so I must admit I did not have to go through this step.
But users who do find that the recognition is generally poor can train the program to get used to their handwriting style.
However, if you get errors with only a few letters or words, you can just train the system to better recognise how you write those particular ones.
For example, the system had problems differentiating between a capital "H" and the word "It" when I wrote either of these at the beginning of a sentence.
But after I defined how I write the letter "H" in the training program, the problem stopped.

Flick it, flip it

The pen input support is not only for writing or drawing.
Vista's Pen Flicks feature enables users of pen input devices, such as Wacom's pen and graphics tablet, to navigate more efficiently.
Vista allows you to assign up to eight actions to eight different directions of flicks with a Wacom pen.
By default, flicking the pen to the left makes the browser go back to the previous webpage, while flicking the pen to the right makes the browser go forward one webpage.
This makes navigating websites more efficient than having to click on the back and forward button in the browser program.
However, it took me a while to get used to these flicks (it's all in the wrists), but mastering it definitely eases desktop navigation.
Another cool thing with the Wacom pen is that when you flip it over, you can use its "eraser" tip just like you would with a lead pencil with... well, an eraser tip.
This feature works with most applications in Vista (and also on Windows XP when I tested it).
It may feel clumsy if you've never done it before but it is a very intuitive and efficient way to erase mistakes.
In addition, you can erase mistakes using Vista's advanced "scratch out" or "strike through" function.
Just like how you would cross off a mistake on paper by drawing lines over it, you can strike out a mistake by doing the same in Vista – and unlike paper, the mistake magically disappears.

Taking notes

Vista also comes with Microsoft Journal, a neat program that works like, well, a standard journal.
And the Journal program has an interface that looks just like – surprise, surprise – a real paper notebook.
I found it pretty handy for writing down ideas, as I could include both text and drawings.
I imagine it would also come in pretty handy during meetings, as Journal documents can be saved, printed out and is searchable.
Another Vista program that imitates real-life objects is Sticky Notes.
With a pen device, you can scribble notes on it quickly just like you would on one of those yellow Post-Its.
Furthermore, Sticky Notes are automatically dated and saved, and is searchable in Vista.
Though this is not really a new concept, as there were third-party programs that did the same since Windows 98, it is still quite handy to have as one of Vista's basic accessories.

Making work easier

Apart from these basic features that come with Vista, you can also do much more with other programs that are compatible with digital pen inputs.
Photo-editing and graphics software aside, I was amazed to discover that I could do a lot more in Microsoft Office 2007, which has extensive support for pen inputs in most of its applications.
Recently, I witnessed a marketing person who made his presentation more convincing by drawing directly on a PowerPoint slide to highlight important facts and figures – something which is only possible with a digital pen.
Here's another scenario: Remember all those times where you had to pass documents to a colleague to review, retrieve it, make changes and send it back for further review? Back and forth, the document went – the process was tedious and slow.
That is why most of us resort to printing out documents when we want to review them, but that increases printing costs for companies as well.
However, that process is much more efficient for an Office 2007 user in Vista with a pen input.
When you receive a Word document that you need to review, just click on the "Review" tab in the program.
Then click on the "Start Inking" button, and you will get a variety of inking tools in Word's Quick Access Toolbar.
You can then proceed to mark out errors, insert comments and write notes on the document with different coloured inks and pen tips – just like you would on a printed document.
Wacom's pen devices can also detect how hard you press on the graphics tablet's surface, so the inking marks look exactly like your natural handwriting.
When you save the document, it will keep all the ink marks, so you can just send it back with your corrections.
You can also turn off the ink marks whenever you want to make corrections easier.
Other applications for the inking feature include being able to put your signature on a digital form; highlighting text in a document; and possibly enabling school teachers to correct homework in a paperless environment.
Of course, it may be too soon to expect our local schools to use Vista and Office 2007 – but improvements have to start somewhere after all, right?

Source : star-techcentral.com