New Tablet PC Features

During the lifecycle of Windows XP, Microsoft shipped two versions of that OS that were targeted specifically at Tablet PCs, a new type of mobile computer based on notearticles that added digitized screens and pens for a more natural style of interaction. Tablet PCs flopped, but Microsoft’s software was, for once, widely heralded for its high quality. So with Windows Vista, Microsoft has made the Tablet PC capabilities available to a far wider range of PCs and has lifted the restrictions on how users acquire these capabilities. It’s now possible to get Tablet PC functionality in most mainstream versions of Windows Vista.

A Short History of the Tablet PC In mid-2002, Microsoft released the first version of Windows XP that was specifically targeted at a new generation of pen-based notearticle computers called Tablet PCs. Logically named Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, this software wasn’t, of course, the first to try to tie pens (or, really, styli) and PCs together. Indeed, as long ago as the late 1980s, innovative companies such as Go, Apple, and Palm were plying the way to a future of more ergonomic and natural interactions with computers. Even Microsoft got into the game in the early 1990s with a short-lived (and overhyped) product called Pen Windows. But Tablet PCs were different. First, they were mainstream computers with added functionality such as displays with built-in digitizers that could not only sense pen input, but understand when the tip was pressed down harder or lighter. Second, they came in two form factors. The first was called a tablet, although it’s sometimes referred to as a slate design. These machines did not include integrated keyboards and trackpads, but were instead intended to be used primarily via the pen. You could, of course, attach keyboards, mice, and even auxiliary displays to these machines. The second was called a convertible laptop. These machines looked just like regular laptops, but with one difference: The screen could be swiveled around and rotated back onto the keyboard, giving the machine a temporary slate-like form factor. In this way, a convertible laptop could be used like a regular notearticle computer - with a keyboard and trackpad - or like a slate-type Tablet, via the pen. First-generation Tablet PCs didn’t exactly take off in the market. There are many reasons for this, but for once, Microsoft wasn’t to blame. In fact, the initial version of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition was surprisingly solid. It was based on Windows XP Professional, and thus could do everything that XP Pro could. It supported a variety of screen digitizer types, could perform decent handwriting recognition, could switch the display between landscape and portrait modes on the fly (to better simulate writing on a pad of paper), and included some worthwhile software, like a Windows Journal note-taking application, a Sticky Notes utility, a game, and an add-on pack for Office that gave it better Tablet capabilities. All in all, it was an excellent release. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is shown in article 16-1. So why did Tablet PCs fail in the market? For starters, they were too expensive. Partly to offset research and development costs, and partially to help pay for XP Tablet PC Edition, which carried a premium over other XP editions, PC makers priced first-generation Tablet PCs too high. The machines were also woefully underpowered, with sad Pentium III Mobile processors and horrible battery life. Many users who might have otherwise been interested in the ultimate mobile companion gave up given the prices, performance, and battery life.

Microsoft trudged on, thanks in part to the involvement of Bill Gates, the company’s cofounder and then the chairman and chief architect of the software firm. Gates was convinced that Tablet PCs were the future, and in late 2004 the company shipped its second version of Windows XP aimed at Tablet PCs. Dubbed Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, this software benefited from the release of Intel’s Centrino and Pentium-M chipsets, which offered notearticle makers dramatically better performance and battery life. New Tablet PC designs showed up, with both larger and smaller form factors, giving the customer more choices. And prices came down. Now, it’s possible to get a Tablet PC for little more than a comparable notearticle. Some PC makers even include Tablet capabilities as an add-on option. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 added a new version of the Tablet PC Input Panel (TIP), a pop-up window which is used to translate handwriting into non-Tablet-enhanced applications. The new TIP included real-time recognition, so that handwriting was translated on the fly, giving you the option to correct as you wrote, rather than later, after a line

of text was entered. XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 was also contextually aware, so that the system could filter its handwriting recognition library based on what you were doing in order to get better results. For example, if you’re entering script into a text field that only accepts numbers, the OS will only test your handwriting against numbers, not its entire library of characters. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 is shown in article 16-2.

article 16-2: Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 offered many improvements over its predecessor, including an enhanced TIP. Like its predecessor, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 was technically excellent and, like its predecessor, it failed to make much of a dent in the market, despite a seemingly endless market of students, factory floor workers, roaming sales people, doctors, and many others that would benefit from this platform. Part of the reason for this continued lackluster success was that customers couldn’t use just any PC with XP Tablet PC Edition 2005: They had to purchase a system with that software preinstalled. You couldn’t use any

Like its predecessor, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 was technically excellent and, like its predecessor, it failed to make much of a dent in the market, despite a seemingly endless market of students, factory floor workers, roaming sales people, doctors, and many others that would benefit from this platform. Part of the reason for this continued lackluster success was that customers couldn’t use just any PC with XP Tablet PC Edition 2005: They had to purchase a system with that software preinstalled. You couldn’t use any digitizer, like the millions of available pen input systems out there, typically in use by graphic designers. And it didn’t support touch screen interaction. All these issues were addressed in Windows Vista. Indeed, the Tablet PC features in Windows Vista are the best yet.

Tablet PC Capabilities in Windows Vista For Windows Vista, Microsoft has decided to open up the market for Tablet PC functionality dramatically. There is no Windows Vista Tablet PC Edition. Instead, users will automatically get Tablet PC functionality if they use Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, Home Premium, or Ultimate editions. The software itself has been enhanced somewhat dramatically, and you can now use it with a coming generation of touch screens, digitizers, and other devices. That’s right, you don’t even need a true Tablet PC. More to the point, many Tablet PC features work even if you’re just using a keyboard and mouse, although of course such systems are only marginally interesting.

Using a Tablet PC In Windows Vista, using the Tablet PC functionality is virtually identical to the way it worked in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, but naturally with a few enhancements. Windows Journal, Sticky Notes, and the Tablet PC Input Panel (TIP) all make it over with some functional improvements, as does the Snipping Tool, a favorite Tablet PC download that Microsoft used to provide separately. In this section, we’ll examine how the Tablet PC functionality has improved in Windows Vista.

Configuring Tablet PC Features Before using your Tablet PC or tablet-equipped PC with a stylus or other pointing device, you should probably take the time to configure the Tablet PC functionality that’s built into Windows Vista. If you have tablet hardware, you’ll see a few items in the shell that aren’t available on non-Tablet hardware, including a handy way to select multiple items with a pen, a few new tray notification icons that appear over time, and the same reordering of Control Panel items that one sees when using Windows Vista with a notearticle computer. With the exception of that last item, we’ll examine these features throughout this article. Tablet PC features are configured via the Control Panel, through the Tablet PC Settings option in Mobile PC. This dialog box, shown in article 16-3, includes four tabs that help configure the system for tablet use. If you’re using a non-Tablet system, the Tablet PC features are found in a different location: Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Tablet PC Settings.

Using Tablet PC Settings In the General tab, you configure the Tablet PC for right- or left-handed use and determine the screen orientation (portrait or landscape). This tab also provides a link to Microsoft’s Digitizer Calibration Tool, which is used to ensure that the pen hits the screen on target. Anyone who’s used a Pocket PC will recognize this tool, shown in article 16-4. The Digitizer Calibration Tool only supports calibrating integrated digitizers. It will not work with an external digitizer. If you’re using an external digitizer, it should have come with software to help you calibrate the pen. In the Handwriting Recognition tab, you configure two tools that help you personalize the system’s handwriting recognition. The Handwriting Recognition Personalization tool helps you improve the system’s handwriting recognition results by stepping you through a wizard where you provide examples of your handwriting. You can trigger Tablet PC pen training from the Welcome Center if you’re not familiar with this system. If you turned off Welcome Center, you can find it in Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> Welcome Center. Automatic learning is an opt-in (and recommended) Tablet-based service that gathers information about the words you use regularly, and how you write them, and then skews the system’s handwriting recognition so that it can be more accurate and attuned to both your writing style and word usage. Don’t be alarmed by the wording Microsoft uses in the dialog box: No data is sent to the company. It’s all stored right on your PC where it belongs. In the Display tab, you configure the default screen orientation from a selection of four possible choices: Primary landscape, secondary portrait, secondary landscape, and primary portrait. You can also change the order in which these orientation choices are implemented when you press the hardware-based screen orientation button that is found on many Tablet PCs. Consider a typical slate-style Tablet PC device, where the display takes up most of the surface of the front of the device. On such a machine, you could conceivably view the screen in any of four configurations, depending on how you’re holding it. The primary landscape and primary portrait modes are the two modes that you’ll use most often, based on the button layout on the device, your left- or right-handedness, and the ways that feel most comfortable to you. The secondary portrait and secondary landscape modes are less-often-used modes. Most users will likely just need two screen orientation types, especially if they’re using a convertible laptop-style Tablet PC. In normal laptop mode, when the user is accessing the system through the keyboard and mouse, the screen would be in horizontal mode. This would be Primary landscape. But when the screen is rotated so that the system is accessed like a tablet, using the stylus, this would be Primary portrait (or perhaps Secondary portrait depending on the user and the layout of the device’s hardware controls). In this case, you might want to configure Primary landscape for the first and third locations in the orientation sequence, and Primary portrait for positions two and four. On the Other tab, there’s a link to Pen and Input Devices, which is a separate Control Panel applet. You could separately navigate to Pen and Input Settings by visiting Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, and then Pen and Input Settings.

Using Pen and Input Devices Settings The Pen and Input Devices dialog box, shown in article 16-5, also offers a variety of tabs, each of which provides configuration options related to the stylus, or pen, you’re using with the system. The Pen Options tab enables you to configure what different pen actions and Tablet PC buttons do. By default, a single-tap is the equivalent of a single-click with a mouse button, for example, while a double-tap, naturally, emulates a double-click. You can also configure press and hold (right-click by default, although some Tablet PC styli actually include a dedicated pen button that acts as a right-click button in conjunction with a tap) and the Start Tablet PC Input Panel button, which is found on many Tablet PCs. In the Pointer Options tab, you can configure whether Vista’s new dynamic feedback for Tablet PCs is enabled, as well as a few other pointer-related options. Dynamic feedback is an excellent bit of new functionality in Windows Vista, and it’s designed to provide visual feedback whenever you perform a pen action - like a single-tap, double-tap, pen button press, or right-click (pen button press plus a tap). Each of the visual feedback types are circular in nature, and you can see them in article 16-6. In the Flicks tab, you can configure various options related to Flicks, which we discuss later in the article. Flicks are one of the major new features in the Windows Vista version of the Tablet PC software.

Tablet PC Input Panel Back in the original version of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, the TIP was typically docked to the bottom of the screen, just above the taskbar, and you toggled its display by clicking a TIP icon next to the Start button. In Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, Microsoft enhanced the TIP by allowing it to pop up in-place, where you needed it. That is, if you wanted to input some text into the address bar of an Internet Explorer window, for example, you could tap the address bar with the pen and the TIP would appear in a floating window right under the tap point. That way you wouldn’t have to move the pen up and down across the entire screen in order to enter text or other characters. That said, the TIP was still manually launched by clicking that special icon next to the Start menu. That could be quite a distance to travel with the pen. And the TIP in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 was a pretty big bugger, occupying a large swath of onscreen real estate. These issues are now fixed in Windows Vista. Instead of special taskbar button, the TIP is now always accessible, but mostly hidden, on the edge of the screen. 16-7, only a small portion of the TIP is visible by default on the edge of the screen. To activate the TIP, simply click it with the pen or stylus. The TIP will then appear in the center of the screen, 16-8. So what does the TIP do? The TIP is designed to help you interact with applications that aren’t Tablet PC-aware. (That is, virtually every single application on the planet.) So if you want to enter a URL in the Internet Explorer address bar, search for an application in the Windows Vista Start Menu–based search box, or perform similar actions. 16-9, the TIP gives your pen the ability to work with any application. Compared to the TIP in previous versions of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, The Windows Vista TIP offers very similar functionality with a slightly reworked user interface. The quick launch icons for Writing Pad (the default), Character Pad, and On-Screen Keyboard have been moved to the top of the window, next to Tools and Help menus. And the right side of the TIP, which includes buttons for frequently needed actions, has been dramatically simplified. If you’ve used a Tablet PC before, you’ll have no problems using the new TIP. In the previous version of Microsoft’s Tablet PC operating system, the TIP included dedicated buttons for Web shortcuts like

http://,

www., and so on. These can now be accessed through the new web button, which expands to show these and other related options. Likewise, the Sym button expands to show various symbols (!, @, #, and so on), while the Num button expands to show numbers. The web button expands automatically when you select the address bar in Internet Explorer 7. If you want to return the TIP to its previous behavior of docking at the top or bottom of the screen, click the Tools button and chose the appropriate option. The default (and new) behavior is called Float. Also, be sure to spend some time meandering around the TIP’s Options dialog box. The TIP supports an amazingly rich collection of configurable options, including such things as to which side of the screen it docks, whether it’s configured for left- or right-handed users, and how the Writing Pad and Character Pad recognize handwriting (as you write - the default - or after you pause). Finally, while Windows Vista does enable handwriting recognition personalization by default so that the system learns your handwriting style as it goes, you could and probably should take the time to engage in a little handwriting recognition training if you think you’re going to be using a pen to interact with Vista regularly. There are various ways to trigger this training, but one handy place is right in the TIP: Click Tools and then Personalize Handwriting to launch the Handwriting Personalization wizard, shown in article 16-10.

Flicks and Gestures Flicks, called gestures in other pen-based systems, are special quick movements you can make with a Tablet PC stylus over the digitizer to navigate quickly or launch shortcuts for commonly needed functionality like copy and paste. With a Flick, you literally flick the pen in a certain way to cause an action. Windows Vista also supports a related type of gesture called a Touch Flick, which enables you to perform similar actions using your finger on special touch screen displays. There are two types of Flicks, navigational and editing. Navigational flicks include such things as scroll up, scroll down, back, and forward. Editing flicks include cut, copy, paste, delete, and undo. Flicks occur when you flick the pen in any of eight directions, including up, down, left, right, and the diagonal positions that are between each. You configure Flicks via the Flicks tab of the Pen and Input Devices dialog box, which can be found in Control Panel (Hardware and Sound -> Pen and Input Settings) or accessed directly via the Pen flicks icon in the system tray. This tab of the dialog box determines whether Flicks are available, what types of Flicks are available, and how sensitive the digitizer will be to recognize Flicks. Obviously, this particular feature will be set differently on each system, based on the sensitivity of the digitizer and pen combination. When you click the Customize button, you’re shown the Customize Flicks dialog box, which enables you to set a wide range of actions for each Flick (  16-11). The Practice using Flicks link at the bottom of the Flicks tab of the Pen and Input Devices dialog box provides a link to a handy Pen Flicks Training application, shown in article 16-12, that will help get you up to speed with this productivity enhancing feature pretty quickly. Microsoft has supported gestures on its Windows Mobile operating system for quite some time, and much of the functionality you see in Flicks comes directly from that work.

Password Hiding on Logon with Pen In the Windows XP Tablet PC editions, you could log on to the PC using a stylus and the TIP in onscreen keyboard mode: All you had to do was tap your password with the stylus. The problem was that each key in the onscreen keyboard would be highlighted as you tapped, so it was possible for someone looking over your shoulder to steal your password relatively easily. In Windows Vista, Microsoft has implemented a small but important security change: As you tap the on-screen keyboard on the TIP during logon, the keys are no longer highlighted. Thus, your password is safe - or at least as safe as it can be - from prying eyes. On the flipside, it’s a little weird tapping the virtual keyboard and getting no feedback at all. Microsoft also uses this technique whenever you need to enter a password in a secure web page. That said, Windows Vista’s voice control features are still passable at best. To enable speech recognition, navigate through Control Panel to Ease of Access and then Speech Recognition (  16-13). There are a number of steps you’ll need to perform to make this work. First, you will have to enable speech recognition. Then, you will have to set up your microphone for optimal performance using a simple wizard. Then, Microsoft has a nice speech tutorial and speech reference card to help you understand how the system works. Finally, there is a training wizard that you should spend some time with to make the system work better for you and your particular speech patterns.

Voice Control One of the biggest promises with the original Tablet PC operating system was that Microsoft would one day extend the more natural user interaction techniques it was offering for that system with the ultimate in human/PC interaction: Voice control. Successfully parodied in Star Trek IV, voice control has long been an unattainable goal for PC users. Today, a small fraction of the population is able to put up with the training time required to make third-party voice control systems even remotely useable. But Microsoft has been working on its speech recognition technologies for several years now and you can see the fruit of its labors in Windows Vista.

Shell Changes for Tablet PC Users One thing you’ll probably notice right away is that Windows Vista displays a new user interface element by default when it detects Tablet PC hardware on your system. It’s a small check box that’s available on virtually every shell item, including the desktop’s Recycle Bin and every icon in Computer and the other Explorers that appears when you move the mouse cursor over the item. Shown in article 16-14, this check box makes it easier to select multiple items in the shell using a pen. Otherwise, you’d have to drag a selection box around, which can be difficult with a pen. Windows Vista users can turn this feature on if they’d like. (Conversely, Tablet PC users can turn it off.) To do so, you need to find the Folder Options dialog box. (Easiest way: Open Control Panel and type

Folder Options in the Instant Search box.) Then, navigate to the View tab and check the Use Check Boxes to Select Items option. In addition to the check boxes, you’ll see a few other small changes on a system with Tablet PC hardware. For example, Welcome Center includes a link to Tablet PC training, a Pen flicks icon appears over time in the tray notification area of the taskbar, and the Control Panel includes a top-level Mobile PC item - discussed in Article 15 - that provides quick links to notearticle and Tablet PC-based options. And of course, you’ll see the tip of the TIP (ahem) sticking out on the left side of the screen by default, waiting for your pen to activate it. Oddly, many Tablet PC–oriented features are installed by default even on non-Tablet systems. You’ll see entries for a number of these features and related applications throughout the Start Menu and Control Panel on normal desktop and notearticle computers.

Revisiting Some Old Friends Windows XP Tablet PC Edition was always well-supported with a group of fun accessories, or mini-applications, that enable users to use the pen in fun and unexpectedly productive ways. Microsoft includes three of these accessories in Windows Vista, and they’re all worth a look.

Snipping Tool The Snipping Tool is a Windows accessory aimed at Tablet PC users that lets you circle any area of the screen and copy the encircled image to the system clipboard. You can then paste the image into email messages or any other document, and annotate it with your own handwritten notes. The Snipping Tool is particularly well suited to copying information from web pages, but it works well with just about anything. The Snipping Tool is launched via the Start Menu (just type

snip or look for Snipping Tool in All Programs -> Accessories). When you first launch the application, it assumes you want to grab a screen capture, or snip, right away. But you can cancel that operation by clicking the Cancel button. Then, you can more closely examine this useful utility’s user interface and uncover its surprisingly rich feature-set. The Snipping Tool is shown in article 16-15. If you just click the New button, the entire screen will fade, letting you drag the pen (or the mouse) around the screen to capture a given area. Or, you can click the small arrow next to the New button to choose other capture types, including free-form snip (the default when using a pen), rectangular snip (the default when using a mouse), window snip (to capture a single window), or full-screen snip (to capture the entire screen). When you’ve captured a portion of the screen, or the entire screen, that image is hidden in the Windows Clipboard as an image. You can then paste that image into any application that supports images, including a Word document or Microsoft Paint. The Snipping Tool also opens an edit window that enables you to save the image to disk in various image formats, send the snip via e-mail, or, more interestingly, add your own handwriting- based comments to the snip (  16-16). The Snipping Tool first debuted as a PowerToy for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Microsoft shipped an updated version of the tool in the Experience Pack for Tablet PC in 2005. You can see this heritage in the design of the applet’s window buttons, which are still curiously XP-like. If you need to regularly take screenshots, the Snipping Tool is only marginally easier to use than the built-in Windows screen capture utilities, which enable you to copy the contents of the entire screen to the clipboard at any time by pressing PrtScn (Print Screen) or the top-most window by pressing Alt+PrtScn. If you need something more elegant than that, you should use a dedicated screen capture utility, like the excellent TechSmith SnagIt at

www.techsmith.com/, which we both use and recommend.

Windows Journal Windows Journal is a simple note-taking application that debuted in the first version of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Shown in article 16-17, Windows Journal works only with handwriting and cannot be used to take notes with the keyboard. It remains an excellent way to get accustomed to Tablet PC usage, if you’re a beginner. Windows Journal starts off with a college-ruled notearticle look and feel, but you can change the style using Journal’s stationary and template features. Stationary is a combination of paper size (like 8.5" by 11"), line style (college ruled, wide ruled, and so on), and other characteristics. Or, you can choose from preset templates like Blank, Dotted Line, Memo, and others. To define the default look and feel of your notes, visit Tools -> Options -> Note Format. Curiously, you can draw in Windows Journal using the mouse if you want, although the results are rarely inspiring. Microsoft sells an excellent note-taking application called OneNote, which you can also purchase as part of the inexpensive Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007. OneNote supports both pen- and keyboard-based note taking, as well as audio and video recording that can be synchronized with notes. It is much more sophisticated than Windows Journal and has been updated far more frequently.

Sticky Notes Shown in article 16-18, Sticky Notes is a new Windows Vista accessory that any user can use to create short handwritten or voice notes. The application resembles a small stack of yellow notes, just like the paper-based sticky notes they’re meant to represent. Sticky Notes is designed for a Tablet PC, and indeed, you’d need such a device for the handwritten note portion. But anyone can use Sticky Notes to create voice notes.

Summary As with Windows Media Center, Microsoft has taken the Tablet PC functionality it developed during the lifetime of Windows XP, enhanced it, and made it available to far more users in Windows Vista. Whether you have a traditional Tablet PC, a convertible laptop, a PC with a touch-based screen, or even a normal desktop or notearticle computer, there’s a Tablet PC feature in Windows Vista that’s sure to delight. Hopefully, as this technology goes more mainstream, more people will become comfortable with an alternative form of computing that could yet change the world.