"Lonestar:" Next Version of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Published: April 15, 2004
The next generation of Window XP Tablet PC Edition is almost here. Beta testers are working with the new version, codenamed "Lonestar," right now. It will be available as a free upgrade if you already have a Tablet PC in the second half of 2004. If you buy a new Tablet PC then, it will come pre-installed.
I've been trying out Lonestar on my Acer TravelMate C111 and am thrilled with several improvements the Tablet PC team has made. In this column, I'll cover the new Tablet PC Input Panel (TIP), improved word and case recognition, and how the new software improves the whole ink to text experience.
New Tablet Input Panel
You'll immediately notice the completely-redesigned Tablet PC Input Panel (TIP). The TIP is a Tablet PC user's primary tool for entering ASCII text with a pen instead of a keyboard. The new TIP provides major improvements in text correction and control. In the original TIP, you had to correct handwriting after the text appeared in your document or in the separate text preview window. With the new TIP, your recognized handwriting appears directly below your handwriting in the same viewing pane, making it easy to quickly correct characters before converting them into text. In the earlier version, users had to rewrite entire words to correctly convert then to text. Now you can just scratch out a letter or a number and write it directly into the TIP. This is both very convenient and just plain cool. As shown in Figure 1, this feature lets you see the recognition engine in action.
Figure 1: The recognition engine at work.
To make corrections you can either scratch out a word and rewrite it or tap the incorrect word and select an alternate word from a pop-up list, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Select the correct word.
You don't even need to make the corrections right away. If you select text you entered with the TIP several sentences ago, the alternate is still available. Even text created from ink in Windows Journal or other programs has this feature.
For an overview of handwriting recognition and tips on how to make it work better, see Handwriting Recognition 101, my column about the first version of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.
Add to Dictionary Faster
Suppose the word isn't recognized correctly because it isn't in your dictionary? This process is much improved as well. You can now correct a word on a character-by-character basis and then immediately add it to your dictionary. Remember that the Tablet PC does not learn your handwriting. Instead, it learns your vocabulary, so adding words it doesn't know to your dictionary is the single best way to improve your recognition accuracy—especially if your work contains many industry-specific terms.
To correct a word and add it to the dictionary, follow these steps:
| • | Tap the incorrectly-recognized word below your handwriting. |
| • | Make any corrections to the word. You can do this by either rewriting the entire word, rewriting individual letters, as shown in Figure 3, or by selecting alternate letters from a drop-down menu below each letter. 
Figure 3: Correct an individual letter.
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| • | Tap the Add to Dictionary button to the right of the new word. |
Other improvements include a quick keys area that appears and disappears as you need it, making the number and symbol pads available directly from the quick keys panel. The new TIP also no longer adds that annoying space after every word, which made entering passwords and other non-word strings a real pain.
Improved Character Entry
The Tablet's process of recognizing your writing as whole words works great when you are writing words but is actually a liability when you enter non-words, such as serial numbers or Web addresses. With a single tap, the new TIP provides a writing area that recognizes your handwriting one character at a time, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: New writing area recognizes one character at a time.
Of course, the TIP keyboard is still available when you want to tap something in one character at a time and don't want the text to appear, such as when you enter a password.
Because the text appears below your handwriting all the time, the text preview window is no longer needed. Unfortunately, the text preview window was the best way to merge two recognized words into one. With the new TIP, merging words is done by dragging your pen over both recognized words to open both in the character-by-character entry and deleting the spaces between words. To quickly join two words into one using the new TIP—such as turning "down town" into "downtown"—you simply draw a line connecting the two converted words below your handwriting and delete the space between them, as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Merge two words into one.
Floating TIP
In the earlier Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, when you wanted the TIP to appear near the cursor where the text would actually appear, you had to make it appear with the open TIP gesture. In Lonestar, if a cursor is blinking while waiting for text and your pen comes near the screen, the open TIP icon appears. With one tap, the In Place TIP appears right below or above the spot where your text will appear, as shown in Figure 6. This is much faster and more intuitive than the old system.
Figure 6: The new In Place TIP is more intuitive.
When you reach the end of the writing area using the new, integrated TIP, a new writing line appears automatically. You can create as many lines as your screen will allow. When you finish writing, tap Insert to convert the handwriting and enter the text, or lift your pen from the screen and have it entered automatically. This is great because previously you had to enter single lines of text one at a time. The auto-grow features makes ink conversion feel much more natural.
The In Place TIP is quite smart too. It only appears when your pen is near the screen, so your mouse cursor won't make it appear when your Tablet is docked to an external keyboard and mouse. I found it even worked great in applications that routinely accept both text and ink, such as Microsoft OneNote and Word 2003. The multi-line TIP replaces much of the functionality of the Write Anywhere feature in the earlier Input Panel, so Write Anywhere is no longer available.
Correction and Context
There are three big changes to that aren't immediately apparent, but make a big difference to you as the user. The first is that the handwriting recognition engine has been improved overall. My favorite change is that it now allows for "late strokes." When I write a lowercase "t," I don't normally cross the t until I'm done with the word. In the past, this always resulted in a recognition error. My "the" always came out as "he." Now you can cross your t's and dot your i's whenever you like. You can even insert letters in a word (if there is space) and get the word converted correctly!
Secondly, handwriting recognition now has context-sensitivity. For example, if you are writing a Web address, the TIP will ignore spaces since Web address can't contain spaces. If a text field is supposed to contain only numbers, the TIP will convert everything as a number, which really helps when entering phone numbers. Context-sensitivity is also used to provide custom quick keys. You'll notice this feature when entering common URL text strings in a Web address, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Context-sensitive recognition makes it easier to enter non-words.
The third change is in the developer tools and extends beyond the TIP. Developers have much more control of the ink written anywhere on the screen. These changes will facilitate many new ink-aware applications and already allow for things like drawing ink directly into a special form window in Internet Explorer.
Lonestar is still in development, but when it releases, it will be a must-have upgrade for all Tablet PC users. Currently, it is slated to be released as part of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). This service pack will contain other substantial improvements, including enhancements to network security and control. Watch Windows Update or your Automatic Update notifications for the release.
 | 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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