Using Input Panel in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005
Published: October 21, 2004
Tablet PC Edition 2005 is a free upgrade for Tablet PC users that’s included in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). The only way to get the Tablet PC update on your tablet is to install SP2. New Tablet PCs will ship with SP2 preloaded in the near future.
In my last Tablet PC Edition column about the beta version of Tablet PC 2005, I described the new features in Tablet PC. In this column, I discuss locating SP2, the redesigned Tablet PC Input Panel in greater depth, and provide solutions for problems with Input Panel that people are discussing in the newsgroups.
Get SP2 from Automatic Updates or Microsoft Update
Depending on your Automatic Update settings, your Tablet PC may download the SP2 update automatically or it may prompt you to install it. If this hasn’t happened or you prefer to install updates manually, go to Microsoft Update to install SP2.
To use Microsoft Update, follow these steps:
1. | Click Start, point to All Programs, and then click Microsoft Update. |
2. | Click Express Install to download and install SP2 (and any other critical updates) in one step. SP2 will be listed as a critical update. |
Note that downloading SP2 is faster with a broadband connection. If you don’t have a broadband connection, you can order the installation CD from Microsoft free of charge. For extensive details on installing SP2 check out Charlie Russel’s article on Getting and Installing Windows XP Service Pack 2. Barb Bowman covers the new features in Introduction to Windows XP Service Pack 2. Most SP2 installations that I’ve performed have gone without a hitch. Most of the ones with problems have been fixed by updating drivers.
How to Open Input Panel
The Tablet PC Input Panel is an accessory you can use to enter information such as URLs, e-mail addresses, or edit text in Word documents, which will then be converted from handwriting to text. Before SP2, you had to open the Input Panel where you wanted it by using the Start Input Panel Gesture or by tapping the Input Panel icon on the taskbar. Input Panel also came in two forms: the docked Input Panel at the top or bottom of the screen (depending on your preferences) and the floating Input Panel which opened in an always-on-top mode that would place it overtop all of your currently open windows.
The new Input Panel can still appear docked or floating, but its floating behavior is different in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. The main difference is that you don’t need a gesture or the taskbar icon to invoke it. The floating Tablet PC Input Panel appears near your active insertion point when the floating in-place Input Panel icon is tapped. Tapping or simply resting your pen over the icon opens Input Panel (depending on your preferences).
Figure 1. The floating in-place Tablet PC Input Panel icon appears automatically when you hold your pen near the field you want to fill in after you tap an input location on the screen.
After Input Panel opens, it floats above or below the active insertion point where text will be inserted. There are three big differences in the new Input Panel behavior compared to the original Input Panel:
| • | New Input Panel is only one line…at first. The original Input Panel had either one or two lines for writing. Many expert users preferred the two-line format so they could write on the first line and then continue writing on the second line while text was being inserted from the first line. Then they would switch back to the first and so on. This feature has been replaced by an Input Panel that expands as you write, adding more lines as you need them until you insert the text. This feature only works on the floating Input Panel however. If you dock Input Panel at the top or bottom of the screen you are stuck with a single-line Input Panel. |
Figure 2. The new floating Input Panel is always one line until you need more space to write.
| • | The new Input Panel works best if you don’t automatically insert text after a pause. One of the best features of the new Input Panel is that the recognized text appears directly below the words you write as you write them. This allows you super-fast and accurate correction of errors. (See the Lonestar article for more info). The text won’t insert automatically by default—you must tap or wave your pen over the insert button. You can configure Input Panel to insert automatically, but remember you’ll lose the ability to see and correct the text before you insert it. |
Figure 3. Turning on automatic insertion after a pause removes the option for correcting text before insertion.
| • | If you move your pen away from the screen when the writing pad is empty of ink, the in-place Input Panel disappears. The behavior surprises many users when they first see it. It won’t disappear if there is ink on the pad, so you won’t lose what you are writing just because you lifted your pen. You can still close Input Panel with the Close button. |
One of the most common corrections is a change of capitalization. When you tap the recognized text in Input Panel, several alternate words appear. The word furthest to the left is always the same spelling with a reverse capitalization (except for special situations such as words in all caps or serial numbers). So the word “Never” would switch to “never” or “doubt” would change to “Doubt.”
Customize Your Input Panel Preferences
You may have noticed the references to Input Panel preferences in this article. These preferences are accessed be tapping the Tools and Options icon (it looks like a gear) on Input Panel itself.
Figure 4. Tap the Tools and Options icon to access important Input Panel options.
The default options for the new Input Panel actually work quite well for me except for the important option for writing pad height. Here are what these different options mean and examples of why you might want to change them.
To edit your preferences:
1. | Open Input Panel from the Tablet PC Input Panel icon in the taskbar, in-place Input Panel floating icon, or the open Input Panel gesture. |
2. | Tap the Tools and Options icon on Input Panel. |
3. | Select Options. |
The options on the General tab control whether Input Panel appears when you bring your pen near the screen. The key option for me is the Pointing to the icon opens the panel. I like the in-place Input Panel because it’s fast, and simply bringing my pen over the icon when it appears makes the experience much smoother and more like a gesture.
Figure 5. Pointing to the icon to open it makes it more gesture-like and faster.
The same logic applies to the Settings tab for the Insert button. By setting it to Pointing at the Insert button inserts text, you create what is basically a gesture to insert the text rather than a tap. When the option is set for tap to insert, I find that it slows me down—especially since you can’t use auto-insert and the quick correction features simultaneously. When the option is point to insert, everything works smoothly and efficiently.
Figure 6. Point to insert gives you a pseudo-gesture to insert text and lets you avoid lots of tapping.
The Character Pad is a new feature in Input Panel that lets you enter text as individual characters rather than words. This dramatically improves recognition for things like serial numbers and non-English text such as many e-mail addresses. Here I like to make the width of the character spaces smaller for better recognition of my small handwriting. I also set the feature to automatically recognize my writing. This makes the recognized single letters appear right away and does not affect the writing pad correction text. I then set the insertion of characters to tapping the Insert button. This gives me fast character-by-character entry but waving my pen over the Insert button inserts all the characters at once. Even though the option here says “tapping,” the setting on the previous screen actually determines the Insert button behavior. See my other article for more information on the Character Pad.
Figure 7. Auto-recognizing characters does not interfere with writing pad corrections.
Finally, I dramatically decrease the size of the writing pad. I have small handwriting and need a short writing pad to get good recognition. This is an important step that many tablet users skip. You must adjust the writing pad so your tall letters (l, t, I, etc.) take up 7/8 of the writing space. This is key to good letter recognition and subsequent word recognition. Auto-insert is off by default left that and, in my opinion, best way.
Figure 8. Always adjust your writing pad size to fit your handwriting. Good recognition depends on it.
When the In-Place Input Panel Won’t Appear
There are a few places where the in-place Input Panel will not appear.
| • | The in-place Input Panel icon won’t appear when you are using Remote Desktop and are entering text on the remote machine. |
| • | The in-place Input Panel icon also won’t appear for some programs, such as the Command Prompt. Since you can’t make a floating Input Panel appear without the icon, your only option is to use the docked Input Panel to enter text without a keyboard. |
| • | Some installations of SP2 on Tablet PCs result in no in-place Input Panel icon at all. Usually removing and reinstalling SP2 will fix this problem. Sometimes it requires rebuilding the Tablet from the original recovery disks. This is rare but it has been reported by some Tablet PC support staff I know. |
Because the floating Input Panel can't appear without a cursor in a text-entry field, you can no longer open a floating keyboard to enter keyboard commands in programs such as Photoshop. As a workaround, you can either open Input Panel docked to the top or the bottom of the screen, or you can use the Windows On-Screen keyboard:
| • | Tap Start, tap All Programs, tap Accessories, tap Accessibility, and then tap On-Screen Keyboard. |
The new Input Panel makes the whole ink-to-text experience flow better than the earlier version. If you’re a Tablet PC owner, I recommend that you go ahead and install SP2. You get a free OS upgrade for your tablet that brings lots of improvements.
Thanks to Chris De Herrera and Terri Stratton for their thoughts on this topic. Check out their Web sites in the Related Links list.
 | Jeff Van West is the author of over a dozen books, CDs, and training curricula about computers, technology, and aviation.
Titles include Microsoft Tablet PC Quick Reference (Microsoft Press, 2002) and
Illustrator CS Hands-On-Training (Peachpit Press, 2004).
His multimedia training programs are used in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. An advocate of what he terms "appropriate technology," Jeff focuses on applying the best solution to accomplish the task, rather than using cool features just because they're there. He can be reached at Van West Communications.
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