Transcript: Tablet PC, April 06, 2005
Published: May 11, 2005
Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity
Introduction
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
Hi everyone, and welcome to the Tablet PC chat!
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
Today we are answering your questions about Tablet PC.
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
Now, I'll have our hosts for the chat today introduce themselves:
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
I'm Andrew Brown, and I'm the MVP Lead for Tablet PC, and the moderator for this chat.
ArinG [MS] (Expert):
Hi, I'm Arin Goldberg, ISV Architect for the Tablet PC group.
Sears Young [MS] (Expert):
Hi I'm Sears Young, a Program Manager on the Tablet PC team.
Jeremy White [MS] (Expert):
Hi, I am Jeremy White, another Program Manager on the Tablet PC team.
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
Go ahead and begin sending us your questions, and we'll get the chat underway.
Start of Chat
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: Can you tell us whether we can expect support for the TIP in a command window and in Remote Desktop Connections?
A: We've definitely heard this feedback - the soft keyboard will work, but the writing pad doesn't. At this time we don't have an ETA for addressing this, as it's a fairly complex issue, but we understand that it's an issue for users.
ArinG [MS] (Expert):
Q: I'm creating a Windows form-based tablet pc application which will incorporate dynamic forms based on certain modules the users pick. With little budget and time, what is the best way to develop these forms?
A: This type of application should be fairly easy to build. The best way to develop the forms will depend on your experience and comfort level. You should be able to take existing forms and easily Ink enable appropriate fields using either the InkPicture or Infinotes controls.
ArinG [MS] (Expert):
Q: What's ISV?
A: An ISV is an Independent Software Vendor. These are companies that produce software.
Michelle [MS] (Expert):
Q: In the vendor area at Tech Ed 2005, will there be a bunch of Tablets available for comparing like last year?
A: Yes, we will have a Demo Area at the booth for TechEd. We are also hoping to have an area where you can check out a tablet and get your email while hanging on bean bags.
Sears Young [MS] (Expert):
Q: I like the ability to change the theme of WinXP, and the new Energy Blue theme is great, but...--are there any plans to release any more themes (specific to the Tablet PC, or Windows XP in general)?
A: Glad to hear that you like the theme. I can't comment on any future releases, but I can say that we've received a lot of requests for new themes, and it's something the appropriate groups are investigating.
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: I learned this morning that a friend with an Acer C300 reports that his pen sometimes isn't recognized in the outer 1" of his surface. My first guess is hardware, but before we start bugging Acer, anyone here have any other thoughts?
A: This does sound like a hardware issue - I would start with Acer first for support in this instance.
Jeremy White [MS] (Expert):
Q: InkDesktop fails to launch. Uninstalled Experience Pack, InkDesktop, .NET 1.1 and bith hotfix's, reinstalled all. Also shut off antivirus and antispyware. Active Desktop web pages work, but InkDesktop check box doesn't appear in tab.
A: Can you tell me if InkDeskLib is installed in your Global Assembly? To do this open Windows\Assembly in Windows Explorer (e.g c:\windows\assembly) and look for InkDeskLib.
Jeremy White [MS] (Expert):
Q: Yes InkDesk lib is in Global Assembly.
A: Thanks for checking. I am going to have to ask a few more questions: what brand/model of Tablet do you have? Does it have all the OEM applications installed and running? Are there any other applications running on startup?
Jeremy White [MS] (Expert):
Q: It’s an Acer 303XMi, all OEM apps running. Lots of start up items (typical tablet apps and virus and spyware protection) and over 75 processes running. 1GB RAM.
A: Thanks. If all the info is in the newsgroup I will look there. I probably can't fix this during this session. My best guess is a conflict with one of the running processes. Last question: which virus and spyware do you run?
Jeremy White [MS] (Expert):
Q: I did try launching InkDesktop with ALL of those turned fully off without change.
A: Thanks, if you refresh your Microsoft Tablet PC newsgroups we can follow up from there.
Victoria Kruse [MS] (Expert):
Q: It'd be great if my TIP would recognize when I want a word in all caps. Is then something I'm doing wrong?
A: I don't believe it currently has that functionality. Are you basically looking for a 'CAPS Lock' type feature for the Writing Pad so that it forces the recognition to be caps? How would this feature be useful for you?
Victoria Kruse [MS] (Expert):
Q: Well, caps lock would be overkill, but sometimes I put a word or phrase in all caps for emphasis, and then I have to correct it.
A: If it's a new word, you could add it to the dictionary as all caps and that's how it would get recognized, but for regular words we basically optimize for no caps or a single cap. We usually need to optimize for the most common scenario.
Jeremy White [MS] (Expert):
Q: Is it recommended practice to uninstall the old Energy Blue theme before installing the Experience Pack? Are there conflicts / differences in the two themes?
A: Yes, it is recommended to uninstall the previous Energy Blue theme or you will not get all the new files.
ShawnVN [MS] (Expert):
Q: I really like the control for the new snipping tool, similar to the ones that Artrage uses. Is there sample code to help us develop controls like this for our own apps?
A: Hi Mark, the UI for Snipping Tool v2 was created with .NET WinForms, and quite a bit of dedicated effort -- there's no real underlying framework or control to drive that UI. I agree, we need to facilitate the development of these pen-friendly user interfaces. Experience has shown that Tablet users like these sort of radial menus. ArtRage is another good example.
Victoria Kruse [MS] (Expert):
Q: Will the new Ink Art app keep same update cycle as Art Rage or will Art Rage phase out?
A: I believe Ambient Design is continuing to work on the next version of ArtRage. You can get more information about it at artrage.com.
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: What is the status of a fix for the TIP memory leak?
A: We're testing a potential fix currently but have no ETA on a release. We want to make sure we not only fix the problem but don't introduce any new issues as well - I know it's hard to wait, though!
ArinG [MS] (Expert):
Q: Alan Zeichick recently published a cuple of articles on rules for Tablet UI Success. These were great. Do you have a central repository for design "rules" or suggestions for Tablet UIs? If so, is it a work in progress that we should keep an eye on?
A: Mark - We currently don't have a central repository that is specific to design "rules." But we do have a great set of resources available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/tabletpc
ArinG [MS] (Expert):
Q: In addition to the Infinotes (Agilix) Ink control, will Microsoft be releasing any enhanced ink controls in the near future?
A: Kevin - We are constantly working on futher enhancements to the development environment for Tablet PC developers, but I can't comment on anything that isn't released.
Victoria Kruse [MS] (Expert):
Q: is there any reason I should use the new crossword game, when the old one works fine?
A: The usual reasons - fixed bugs, new features, etc. The new features include the ability to turn off the timer, twelve new puzzles, and the ability to buy more puzzles online.
Victoria Kruse [MS] (Expert):
Q: Are there going to be any updates to Windows Journal? Perhaps with new features (auto shape recognition)?
A: Nothing has been announced. In general I would say Journal is intended to be a simple note-taking solution, so it's unlikely that any real complicated features would get added to it in the future.
ArinG [MS] (Expert):
Q: Hello, is there a way to initalize a recognizerguide with a rectangle not from the 0,0 coordinate?
A: Liad - I'm not sure I understand your question, why do you want to create the RecognizerGuide not set based on 0,0
ArinG [MS] (Expert):
Q: It would be a terrific boon to the development environment if the code for the Experience Pack could be made public. That would let developers see how the radial menu is created and would be some good UI sample code overall.
A: Mark - I agree, I can't make any promises, but we will look into creating a sample Radial menu control for our developer center
Jeremy White [MS] (Expert):
Q: Snipping takes the 15 seconds launch the first time, then launches immediately thereafter, unless left idle for a while, then accesses the web first again.
A: Hi, the reason you see the web access is that the Snipping Tool binaries are code signed with MS digitial certificate. When the application is started a check is made to make sure the digital certificate has not been revoked. The revocation list should cache locally after the first run so you shouldn't see multiple accesses.
Jeremy White [MS] (Expert):
Q: Is there a way to bypass the checking of code signing after first one original check? That would make Snipping work almost instananeous every launch.
A: The real answer is to understand why your local cache is not working. I will do some more checking and post anything I find out.
Victoria Kruse [MS] (Expert):
Q: Will there be an official experience pack for non english tablet pcs (especially in german :-))
A: We haven't announced any other languages at this time. It's not uncommon for us to release a V1 application to English first to see how well it does and if it's successful, then investigate other languages.
Victoria Kruse [MS] (Expert):
Q: Why is the experience pack limited to english tablet pcs? I have many non German apps running fine on my machine. I even have managed to get Ink Art and the snipping tool installed. Just curious about the reasoning for the limitations.
A: We only had confidence that English would work well. We didn't want customers installing it onto other language systems and running into heinous problems.
ArinG [MS] (Expert):
Q: Can we expect to see more integration of Tablet PC and Media Center? Using the tablet as a sort of super remote control / guide?
A: Josh, sounds like a great app for someone like you to develop.
Sears Young [MS] (Expert):
Q: have a tablet pc that we use with word templates (diagrams). The tablet is networked. When the diagrams are marked up with different colored ink, it is not often seen in the same colors when the diagram is opened on a networked PC. Any idea why?
A: When you see this, are you changing the document format? For example, are you creating it in .doc, but exporting/saving as .mht?
WNewquay MVP (Expert):
Q: What's all in the Experience Pack? I haven't seen this yet...
A: See this page for details: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1B5BA4F3-C8E1-405F-BE61-8A48BA11CA41&displaylang=en
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: Here is the 1 Million $ question :-) How do I completely enable /bypass the language check to get the complete experience pack installed?
A: There is definitely no supported way to do this. I would also encourage you to read the EULA closely before trying to determine a way to do this.
Victoria Kruse [MS] (Expert):
Q: Will there be a advanced handwriting recognition (especially some kind of training / learning)? I'd prefer to train my machine instead of training me :-)
A: We're always investigating improvements to handwriting recognition and have explored a variety of ways to improve it. We've certainly received a lot of requests for training to be added.
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
This concludes our Tablet PC chat for today. Thanks for coming, everyone!
Andrew [MSFT] (Moderator):
Please feel free to stay and continue to chat about Tablet PC or other Windows topics.
Sears Young [MS] (Expert):
Great questions today, thanks for attending!
WNewquay MVP (Expert):
Thanks for coming by. See you all on http://tabletpcbuzz.com
Victoria Kruse [MS] (Expert):
Thanks everyone!
