Getting Started with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Published: October 24, 2002
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I like to take my workstation with me and I've found a great new way to do that—using a Tablet PC. For the last month, I've carried the Tablet PC around the house, the office, and off to a conference. It's functioned flawlessly and replaced my desktop for much of that time. The more I use the Tablet PC, the more ways I find to use it. Sure, it's a cool geek toy, but I'm viewing it as a professional necessity too.
I've been using an Acer TravelMate C100 running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition has all the benefits of Windows XP Professional, plus features that let you use your own handwriting to write on the screen. You can save your handwritten notes or convert them to typed text. Either way, they're searchable. What a great tool!
Tablet PC Hardware
Let's look at the hardware I've been using. The Tablet PC comes in two forms: the "convertible" with an integrated keyboard, and the "slate tablet" with a plug-in keyboard. You can dock both models when you're working at your desk.
The Acer TravelMate C100 is a convertible model Tablet PC. (Although the Acer has no docking solution now, Microsoft anticipates that a future version will be dockable.)
It has an attached keyboard and looks and works a lot like a standard laptop, until you want to use it as a writing pad. Then, you rotate the screen and close it inside out for easy note-taking and pen input. To convert the machine to a tablet form:
1. | Press the two spring-loaded latches on the side of the screen. |
2. | Twist the screen around and fold it all the way down, so it latches in the tablet position. Now your keyboard is hidden. |
3. | Reach for the built-in stylus. 
Figure 1: the Tablet PC
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The high-resolution LCD display has a digitizer under the screen that enables pen-based input and provides 10.4 inches diagonal display. The Acer also has an attached keyboard, a 20-GB hard drive, and external DVD/CD and floppy disk drives. It includes really great connectivity—built-in 802.11b, built-in network adapter, built in IEEE 1394 (FireWire) and USB ports, and a built-in modem, which means I can connect to the corporate network without problems.
Note: The Tablet PC comes with a stylus, which is a digital pen that you use to control the computer and to input information in your own handwriting. The stylus included with my Acer TravelMate C100 was awkward to use, and lacked an eraser. I found an excellent electromagnetic pen that I like a lot. It's the 703E Pen from Wacom and has an eraser, a button on the side that you can program to right-click selected objects, and a natural feel that made using it much more comfortable than the stylus. It's available from WacomDirect for $29.95.
How Handwriting Recognition Works
The Tablet PC needs to be able to recognize virtually anyone's handwriting. Rather than using a mechanism that requires you to teach the software how you write, instead the software takes what you've written and makes pretty intelligent guesses as to what you were trying to say. (See the Microsoft Research article, Inventing the Tablet PC, for more information on the methods used to develop handwriting recognition.)
I admit it—my handwriting is awful, but so far the Tablet PC has done remarkably well at reading my writing. I've had to meet it halfway by concentrating on writing better, but I've easily done away with standard keyboard input even at the command line! I write with the pen in the Input Panel and it sends my text to the command line. Want to write an email message—just write it and send it. Either in your own handwriting or convert it to text.
Using the Input Panel
One way to write with the digital pen when you're not using your keyboard and mouse is by going to the Input Panel. The Input Panel has two views, the writing pad and the keyboard. You can input text into applications using your own handwriting on the writing pad or tap in characters using your pen with the on-screen keyboard.
By default, the Tablet PC Input Panel is hidden when you first start, but is easily opened.
To open the Input Panel:
1. | Click the Input Panel button on the task bar. The Tablet PC Input Panel opens. The Writing Pad is shown in Figure 2. The on-screen Keyboard is shown in Figure 3. 
Figure 2: the writing pad
Figure 3: the on-screen keyboard
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2. | To hide the Input Panel, click the Input Panel button again. |
That's all there is to it. You can even plug an external keyboard and mouse into a USB port when the regular keyboard and mouse are covered up in tablet form. For example, when working on a spreadsheet, I use an external keyboard to enter a long series of numbers, but the pen to draw my graph.
Converting Handwriting to Text
The Input Panel has a tool that helps convert your handwritten text into typed text by identifying words that may have been recognized incorrectly and by giving you a list of alternative words. It's called Text Preview.
To preview and convert to typed text:
1. | On the Tools menu of the Input Panel, click Text Preview. |
2. | Write in the writing pad, and the text appears as typed text above the Input Panel. |
3. | Correct any mistakes in recognition. |
4. | Click the Send button in the right of the preview pane to insert your text in the current application. |
5. | To send the text to a different application, click the open application so that it becomes the current window. This can be any application, including a simple command line. |
Writing Anywhere on the Tablet
Want to take notes in a meeting? Then open Microsoft Windows Journal and you're in business. You can quietly take notes in your own handwriting, just like on a piece of paper. Here's the really cool part—you can later convert those notes to text if you wish or leave them as "ink," in either case, they're completely searchable! Just try doing that with a stack of meeting notes you've taken over the length of a long project. You can also create drawings or graphics that can be saved or sent to other applications from Windows Journal. And you can change the screen orientation so your Tablet PC is oriented in either landscape or portrait mode.
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition also includes a Sticky Notes application that lets you scrawl a quick note and "stick" it on a Word document (or any other application that needs marking up and that supports OLE.)
There's also a cool Snippet program that let's you quickly draw a line around a Web page, add a comment or two, and send it to someone. You can download Snippet from the Tablet PC home page. And the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition even comes with its own game, Inkball. I expect all sorts of new software to show up in the next year or two that takes advantage of the pen interface.
Take the Workstation with You
Probably the thing I like the most about this Tablet PC is that it goes where I go. It weighs a little over three pounds at its minimum weight. Adding the CD drive and power pack brings it closer to five pounds. I'd love it even more if it lost a pound or two.
Because all Tablet PC's run Windows XP Tablet PC Edition (a superset of Windows XP Professional), it's very much a full-fledged computer. You can choose between using a keyboard and mouse or the pen. That makes it easy to take to a meeting where I want to take handwritten notes, because the tablet form is much less intrusive than a regular laptop would be. When I've got some serious writing to do, I can easily open it up in the laptop mode and get right to work on BART. And when I get home, it instantly recognizes the 802.11b network I have there, and I can sit in the family room and answer e-mail while watching This Old House. Or take it out in the yard to work while I watch the new puppy explore his turf.
When I was on the road last week, I took notes in a meeting and transferred them to a white paper I'm writing using Offline Files. When I got back to the hotel in the evening, I just plugged the tablet into the phone line, set up my VPN, and updated the files in the home office.
Final Impressions
This is a borrowed Tablet PC, but I'm really hoping they let me keep it! I've tried and abandoned half a dozen PDAs over the years, but this mobile machine is a keeper. I realize I'm just beginning to scratch the surface of different ways to use it.
I'll be writing more about the Tablet PC and applications for it in the future, so stay tuned. If they don't let me keep this one, I know what I'm putting at the top of my list for this holiday season!
Send in Your Questions
If you use Windows XP Professional at work, and you have a topic you'd like to see me cover in one of my columns, feel free to write me at Charlie@mvps.org. Please understand that it's impossible for me to acknowledge or answer individual e-mail messages, and I can't provide individual technical support by e-mail. But I really do want to hear from you and I will be happy to consider your topic request for a future column.
