Transcript: Chat About Windows XP Tablet PC Edition with Members of Microsoft's Tablet PC Team and Expert Zone Columnists
Published: April 22, 2003
Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): Good day. Welcome to today's chat 'Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.' Before we begin the chat, we'd like to go over the ground rules and basic instructions.
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): If you are following-up on an answer you've already received, please add the persons name you are following-up to after the Q:.
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): Fifth, we've been experiencing some issues with Tablet PC OS in these chat rooms. You may experience some crashes and we recommend not using the Tablet PC OS in this room. We are aware of the issue and are working on it.
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): Before we begin, lets meet our hosts for today's chat.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): I'm Stephen Fisher, a Software Design Engineer in the Tablet Platform team - focused on .NET and COM Development.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): Hi - I'm Chris, a product manager with the Tablet PC team
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): Hi all, I'm Jitesh and I'm a Test Engineer on Tablet PC.
Special Guest SearsYoung (Microsoft): Hi, I'm Sears Young. I am a member of the OEM Support Group with a focus on Tablet PC.
Special Guest Jeremy (Microsoft): Hi, I'm Jeremy White. I am a Test Lead in the TabletPC Systems team.
Special Guest AmyLo (Microsoft): Hi all, I'm Amy, the user assistance manager for the Tablet PC. I'm very interested in your suggestions/feedback on the tutorials and other user assistance we've provided!
Special Guest JerryH (Microsoft): Hello all! I'm Jerry Honeycutt, one of the Expert Zone columnists. I focus on Tablet PC edition setup and deployment.
Special Guest MarkH (Microsoft): Hi! I'm Mark Hopkins. I'm a Programmer Writer on the Tablet PC SDK.
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): Now, lets get on with the show. Start sending in your questions!
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): Hi, my name is Charlie Russel, and I'm one of the Microsoft MVPs for Tablet PCs.
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): Hi, Terri
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Hi, I'm Dustin. I'm a Lead Program Manager on the Tablet team.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Hi
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft):Q: Will the new Windows Messenger 5 provide Ink mode for those without Tablet PCs, such as using the mouse instead?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft):A: AFAIK, Messenger 5.0 will only support Inking functionality on the TabletPC SKU of Windows. However, you can see the ink as an image on downlevel Windows operating systems.
Special Guest Bryan (Microsoft):Hi I'm Bryan, test lead for Tablet SE.
Special Guest Michelle (Microsoft): My name is Michelle and work as a Test Lead for Pen and Shell Awarness on the TabletPC
Special Guest MarkH (Microsoft): james18: You can install the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition on your desktop machine. Then you will have all the tablet functionality. You can get this version of the OS with an MSDN subscription.
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): As a reminder, this chat is 'Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.'
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): Q: Are there any future plans to support more, customizable gesture-based commands or macros?
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): A: We are currently considering adding additional gesture-based commands to the Tablet PC. Thanks for your suggestion.
Special Guest JerryH (Microsoft): Q: Can I use the Tablet PC as primary monitor for my pc ?
Special Guest JerryH (Microsoft): A: You can't use a Tablet PC as a monitor, per se, just like you can't use a regular laptop as a monitor. What you can do (and I do often), is use Remote Desktop Connection on the Tablet PC to connect to my desktop computer. Remote Desktop rocks!
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: How soon are we likely to see an enhance API for developers?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: What kind of enhanced API are you referring to? The TabletPC ships with Inking, Handwriting, and Speech Recognition APIs.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: Will there be a betatest for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SE ?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: Alph4z, what do you mean Tablet PC Edition" SE"
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): Q: The original question hasn't been answered: Is the MUIRP going to be available for the general public?
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): A: No, it will be avaiable for OEM's and volume licensing only
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): Q: as in OneNote, are you considering the option for the vertical scroll bar to appear on the left in any application? The Left/Right hand selection in the TIP is not enough for us leftys.
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): A: We are currently considering several enhancements to the Tablet PC that will help our different user groups. Scrollbar placement is one of the things we are investigating.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: Can I used the Tablet PC as Primary Monitor for my PC?
Special Guest Jeremy (Microsoft): Q: Currently are there any that have TV out Support?
Special Guest Jeremy (Microsoft): A: Not that I know of but check each OEM's website. Tablet external connections are pretty much the same as laptops.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: No, but you could use your primary monitor as the display for the tablet pc
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: re: enhanced API. What about programmatic access to buttons? Or many of the ink API issues raised in "Building Tablet PC Applications" if you know the book.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: The Tablet Platform SDK was released with the TabletPC, and is available as a free download on MSDN. http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/downloads/list/windevtpc.asp
Special Guest SearsYoung (Microsoft): Q: will WinXP TPCE show up in TechNet+ sub?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: The SDK contains full documentation for Tablet and Inking APIs specific to the TabletPC Platform.
Special Guest SearsYoung (Microsoft): A: Tablet PC Edition is only available as part of MSDN Subscriptions.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: Dustion_MS - Will there be a betatest of Windows XP Tablet PC Second Edition ?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: i have problems getting timing data of data points(ie..time point was created). is there such a support? if not, when will there be?
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): Q: so tosiba is the only one that makes a tablet pc that can become a lappy and a tablet?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: Ah, I see. We haven't finalized any plans on what we will do for beta on the next release.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: There are posts on the TabletPC developer newsgroups from our development and test teams that provide code samples for getting timing information.
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): No, there are several. I use the Acer which is a convertible as well a No, there are several. I use the Acer which is a convertible as well and there are others. No, there are several. I use the Acer which is a convertible as well and there are others.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: The newsgroup is microsoft.public.windows.tabletpc.developer
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): As a reminder, this chat is 'Windows XP Tablet PC Edition' and is scheduled to last approximately 30 more minutes.
Special Guest Jeremy (Microsoft): Q: What are your plans for ink support in future applications from Microsoft, Windows Messenger 5 now has Ink support. What applications are likely to follow which will effect both Windows XP and Windows XP TBE?
Special Guest AmyLo (Microsoft): Actually, no. I like the beefy pen. (I have big hands.) I do wish I could flip it to erase.
Special Guest Jeremy (Microsoft): A: Office 11 will have ink support built-in.
Special Guest AmyLo (Microsoft): You can order a pen with an eraser on the Wacom Web site http://www.wacom.com
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: Is it possible to back up and restore the speech recognition training files on WinXP TPCE?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: There is not currently a utility for backing up and restoring speech recognition training files. Since the files are usually closely tied to the microphone hardware and acoustic environment, transferring training files between machines is not usually
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): beneficial.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): Q: The school where I work is interested in rolling out a Tablet PC program to all 350 or so faculty and students. Does MS have programs to assist us?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: Are there any plans to release Journal Viewer for other platforms such as Linux, Unix, or Apple OS X?
Special Guest AmyLo (Microsoft): Thanks, Terri. Yep, that's right.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: No, we don't have plans for that right now.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): A: We have worked with a number of schools on Tablet PC deployments / solutions. There are education specific programs in place and you should contact your MS account manager. If you are not sure who this is, visit our website at www.microsoft.com/educati
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: Dustin_MS - Can you tell me your email adress ?
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): the correct url for the education link is www.microsoft.com/education
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: Unfortunately, we're asked not to share our e-mail addresses out. Sorry :(
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: What about the same machine copied either between profiles or during a computer rebuild?
Special Guest Jeremy (Microsoft): Q: Is there any limit to at API that would mean that pressure sensitivity could be registered via the pen rather than the digitizer? There is so much room in the Compaq pen they could put a small computer in there to handle it....
Special Guest Jeremy (Microsoft): A: Interesting idea but I don't know if Finepoint have any plans for pressure sensitivity. Currently only supported by Wacom.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: Sean, that is a very good question, and I'll forward your feedback to the speech recognition team.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: For the ones who do tech support for windows xp. How come they don't get any training on the pc tablet?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: The Speech Recognition training files are also tied to the speech recognition engine.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): Q: What are the plan's for Tablet v2?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: Microsoft tech support does get some training, but most calls get routed to the OEMs.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): A: We are hard at work defining the features / functionality of v2, which will be released in the Longhorn timeframe. We can't comment on specifics at this time.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: The information is stored in the current user registry and in your profile's local application data folder (under documents).
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): Q - is Journal going to be equlivent to wordpad in Windows and onenote eq to Word for example?
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): I think they're very different, but complimentary apps. But I use Journal more, at this point.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: Are there any new convertibles coming out soon?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: The OEMs actually determine when they'll release hardware. I don't know what the new covertible plans are unfortunately.
Special Guest SearsYoung (Microsoft): Q: Is it possible to back up and restore the speech recognition training files on WinXP TPCE?
Special Guest SearsYoung (Microsoft): A: There aren't any ways to backup and restore your speech training files outside of using a backup utility. Something to keep in mind is that speech recognition is very hardware configuration and environment specific. So eventhough you may be able to
Special Guest SearsYoung (Microsoft): to restore your configuration, you could end up with unexpected results if the configuration is not identical to how it was originally trained and configured.
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): Q: is Journal going to be equlivent to wordpad in Windows and onenote eq to Word for example?
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): A: Journal and OneNote are geared towards different uses, and will appeal to different users depending upon what they want to be able to do.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): Q: What hardware manufacturers, if any, other than the current ones, are planning on releasing Tablet PCs?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: Can I get Windows XP TPCE any other way than subscribing to MSDN? Cost is too high for subscription.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): A: We can't comment about specific OEM partners Tablet PC roadmaps. In general, you can expect to see an increasing number of OEM's coming to market.
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): Q: watcom makes the touch interfaces for tablet pcs, right?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: The SDK is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/downloads/list/windevtpc.asp
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): A: Many of them, but not exclusively.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: How would future upgrades for tablet pc's be conducted? Would future versions of windows have Tablet PC Software within?
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): Q: how far would someone go to get a tablet for free?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: This isn't completely baked yet. We're still working on how future upgrades will work. Sorry, I don't have more specifics.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): A: How about going to the Tablet PC website (www.microsoft.com/tabletpc) and registering for the "Choose Your Own Tablet PC" Sweepstakes
Special Guest MarkH (Microsoft): james18: You will be able to develop Tablet apps but just installing the SDK will not give you recognition.
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): As a reminder, this chat is 'Windows XP Tablet PC Edition' and is scheduled to last about 20 more minutes.
Special Guest AmyLo (Microsoft): with vendors to improve their products?
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): Q: more: Also, I find selecting items within menus difficult because your hand blocks them... Perhaps expanded menus can move depending on your handedness or pop up upwards?
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): A: The Tablet PC currently allows you to set the handedness for menus through the control panel. Unfortunately not all applications currently abide by these settings.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): Q: Chris_MS - why isnt this sweepstakes action aviable @ microsoft germany ??
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): A: It was not possible to make the sweepstakes available outside the U.S. due to the varied legal issues with running these types of promotions in multiple jurisdictions.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: Question again: Is there any way to get a non-multilingual-unit like Motion multilingual by some MS software update?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: You need to install the MUI for Windows XP to enable this funcationality
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): Q: Chris_MS - Do u plan to do the sweepstakes aaction in germany ?
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): A: There are no plans at this time.
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: @Dustin: Maybe I missed it, but where can I get the MUI?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: Go here for more info. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/techinfo/planning/multilingual/default.asp
Special Guest AmyLo (Microsoft): We are partnering closely with our OEMs and ISVs to continue to improve the hardware experience and create great new dedicated ink apps and ink-supported apps.
Special Guest MarkH (Microsoft): Mark_MS: Q, thanks, I understand, but I need Windows XP tabletPC edition for gathering other information from the wacom tablet, and was wondering whether I could just buy the OS anytime soon.
Special Guest MarkH (Microsoft): Q: Sorry james18, the only way to get the OS is with a tablet or an MSDN subscription at this time.
Special Guest Michelle (Microsoft): BurritoWarrior : Q: Will there be any way to make the scroll bars appear on the other side in the future for Tablet lefties? A: We're investigating left handedness options for the OS
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: Is the handwirghting reconition going to be improved in the future?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: Yes, we continue working on it. What specifically do you have the most problems with.
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): Q: Is the handwirghting reconition going to be improved in the future?
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): Q: Jitesh_MS: Thanks for your response - I actually meant in Journal when you select a menu you have to move your hand away to read its contents. Perhaps the menu should always pop up "out-of-the-way", e.g., upwards?
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): A: If you have the right handed setting enabled, Journal will always try to place menus to the left, unless you are at the edge of the screen. In this case there is no choice but to show the menu under your hand. We are investigating ways to improve thi
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: Is Microsoft Forms program available? I saw it on an early tablet.
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): I find that it does a good job of improving my handwriting, actually. But I'll let MS answer for future plans
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: What is Microsoft Forms? I don't know of any product by that name.
Special Guest AmyLo (Microsoft): Q: Sorry if I missed it. Will the handwriting recognition be *trainable* in the future?
Special Guest AmyLo (Microsoft): Thanks for the suggestion.
Special Guest SearsYoung (Microsoft): SeanB : SearsYoung_MSFT Followup: Using a backup utility it is possible to backup and restore just the files that represnet trained speech? If so what are those files.
Special Guest SearsYoung (Microsoft): A: Unfortunately backing up and restoring specific files won't allow you to do what you're attempting. At this time, there isn't a supported method for backing up and restoring your speech recoginition data.
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): This chat is scheduled to last about 10 more minutes. Get your last minute questions in now!
Special Guest MarkH (Microsoft): james18: Glad you've found this useful!
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: Forms as in the program that creates Tablet PC forms that was on early Tablet samples last fall.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: I believe the samples you are referring to were not a specific product, but sample code for demonstration purposes.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: You can use the InkPicture and InkEdit controls to ink-enable PictureBox and RichEdit controls in your existing forms controls.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: And the PenInputPanel (which shipped in the 1.5 TabletPC SDK), which enables the Input Panel for most text input boxes.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: in the future will all app's support ink as a data type with speciffically wrighing support in?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: What do you mean - "writing support"?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): Q: How did you get into the xp tablet pc project?
Special Guest MarkH (Microsoft): Sn4k3: I submitted my resume. :-)
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): A: We all came to the team differently.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): Q. so no more chat sessions on this topic again?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: but you need to add the specifically can a richtext just support them with adding additional code?
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): A: Due to the popularity of this chat, we are already thinking about scheduling them regularly. We'll post on the Tablet PC website and newsgroup we finalize our next chat.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: Yes, you will need to make modifications to your source code - for example replacing RichEdit references with InkEdit.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: if you want to add an ink aware rich text box you have to add one of those, in the future will the rich text box just support ink?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: We can't comment on future product decisions, but thank you for the feedback.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: Note that usually Ink integration requires some modifications to the GUI to support larger visual areas. You can also integrate the PenInputPanel which enables your text input application to listen to the Tablet Input Panel.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: ... which would require less visual modification to your existing application.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Q: Any grid control available for pen input available, or in the future ?
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): A: We can't comment on future product decisions, but thanks for the feedback - that's a good suggestion.
Special Guest SearsYoung (Microsoft): Q: have you thought of inviting some OEMs to future chats as I am sure that could get a Ton of feed back on the hardware side also
Special Guest SearsYoung (Microsoft): A: Great suggestion! We'll see if we can get some OEM representation for future chats. Thanks!
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): Suggestion: A Tablet PC Developer chat and a separate Tablet PC User chat?
Special Guest Dustin (Microsoft): I'm signing off now. Thanks for the great questions and feedback everyone!
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): That's about all the time we have left for today's chat. Lets give our hosts our thanks and we'd like to thank you for your questions. As always, this room is available 24x7, so feel free to hang around and discuss any Windows XP type issues.
Special Guest Chris (Microsoft): A: We'll absolutely consider this as we formulate our plans for upcoming chats! Thanks Chris
Special Guest ChrisN (Microsoft): Q-- JamesEdelenMVP : Q: have you thought of inviting some OEMs to future chats as I am sure that could get a Ton of feed back on the hardware side also creamhackered : Well Chris I did make sure this chat was featured on neowin
Special Guest AmyLo (Microsoft): Thanks, everyone! Great chatting with you!
Special Guest MarkH (Microsoft): Q: what type of computer background did u need to get into the tablet pc project? A: It's different for each job on the team. Check out http://www.microsoft.com/careers/ for job listings and find one that matches your skills. Good luck!
Special Guest ChrisN (Microsoft): A: Thanks both of you. We appreciate any feedback, suggestions, or help promoting the chats. Send your input to eztips@microsoft.com. To find the upcoming schedule of Expert Zone Chats, click Chats link on the left.
Moderator: JohnE (Microsoft): Please join us for our next chat, Windows XP Media Center Edition at 4 P.M. Pacific time, April 2, 2003. You can view our chat schedule at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/
Special Guest Bryan (Microsoft): Thanks everyone for the great suggestion's and feedback.
Special Guest Jitesh (Microsoft): Bye all, thanks for the great questions!
Special Guest Jeremy (Microsoft): I am leaving now. That was a good chat session, thanks.
Special Guest StephenFisher (Microsoft): Thanks for your questions. I also participate in the TabletPC developer newsgroups, if you have future questions or suggestions: news://microsoft.public.windows.tabletpc.developer
Special Guest Charile Russel (MVP): See you all on the Newsgroup!
