Getting to Know Windows Journal for Tablet PC
Published: January 20, 2003
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When I use my Acer TravelMate C100 Convertible Tablet PC, my primary point of contact is Windows Journal. Windows Journal is the note-taking accessory that lets you create and organize the handwritten notes you make with your Tablet PC.
I always have three or four different notes open and the more I use Journal, the more natural and comfortable it feels to take notes, add diagrams, or rough in an org chart using this tool. In this column, I'll share some tips on making the most of Windows Journal and answer a couple of frequently asked questions about the Journal accessory.
Take and Organize Notes with Windows Journal
With Windows Journal open, I'm presented with what looks like a sheet of paper, but is far more flexible than a typical pad of paper. I can do all the things I'm used to doing on a pad of paper at a meeting—writing notes, scribbling, and highlighting, but I can also quickly and easily do the following:
| • | Change pens, highlighters, and erasers |
| • | Move items around on the page |
| • | Insert additional space to add items between points in the note |
| • | Insert the original calendar information for the meeting |
| • | Send my notes to the attendees |
See Get Organized with Windows Journal for tips on becoming more productive with this tool, such as creating templates, color-coding pen colors for different purposes, and using flags to highlight items of importance.
The figure below shows notes I've taken in Windows Journal, which gives you a look at the Journal interface.
Change Pens, Highlighters, and Erasers
In this section, when I talk about changing pens, I mean the software tool, sometimes called the tablet pen, not the hardware pen that is also called a stylus.
To change pens:
1. | Tap the Pen button in the Pen Toolbar. |
2. | Select the pen point size from the list or tap Pen Settings and configure options from Extra Fine Point up to a 10.5 mm (1/2 inch) marker and assign any color to the pens. |
To change highlighters:
| • | Tap the Highlighter button, and select the style and color of highlighter you want to use. |
To change erasers:
| • | Select the size of eraser you want from the list. |
If you choose Stroke, the erasure will automatically erase the entire stroke at once, leaving other, unconnected notes around it untouched. Now that's cool!
Move a Note
You can reorganize your handwritten notes in a natural way, by drawing a line around them and dragging to a new location.
1. | Use the Lasso tool to draw a line around the ink you want to move. You don't need to completely enclose it, because the tool will finish the circle for you. The ink you've selected will be highlighted. |
2. | When the cursor is changed to a cross-hatch, simply drag the selected ink where you want it on the page. |
Add or Remove Space on the Page
When you want to add additional words, diagrams, or drawings to handwriting that you've already written, first use the Insert/Remove Space command. This technique improves handwriting recognition results when you want to convert your ink to text.
1. | Tap the Insert/Remove Space button. |
2. | Tap where you want to add or remove the space. |
3. | Drag your pen down to add space and drag it up to remove it. |
4. | Release and the space is added or removed. |
Insert the Original Calendar Information
Windows Journal is a great tool to use when you're taking notes during a meeting. To make your notes even more useful, you can insert the Outlook meeting information directly into your notes.
1. | On the Insert menu, tap Outlook Meeting Information. |
2. | Select the meeting from the list, as shown in Figure 2.  Figure 2 |
3. | Tap OK, and the meeting information is inserted into the current Journal note. |
Now, you've got all the information that was in the original meeting invitation with the notes from the actual meeting. When the meeting is over, you can quickly send the notes back to the attendees listed in the Outlook meeting information.
Searchable Ink
For me, one of the coolest features of Windows Journal is that you can search your notes without converting them to text. This lets you leave your note as you wrote it, and yet still find what you're looking for later. This feature alone is enough to justify the Tablet PC—I can keep all my meeting notes on the Tablet PC in their original format.
For example, at a recent meeting in Redmond, I took notes during a session on future Expert Zone columns. When I looked for column ideas we discussed, I used Windows Explorer to search for the phrase “Column Topics" and my Journal notes popped up. Perfect, I knew I'd taken several notes while I was there, but couldn't remember which one had the list of new topics.
Convert Ink to Text
Often you'll leave your Journal files as handwritten ink, but there are times when you want to convert notes to text—maybe you need to send them to a program that isn't ink-enabled or you want to post a message in a newsgroup. No problem, just convert the ink to text:
1. | Select the lasso tool from the toolbar. |
2. | Select the ink you want to convert text. The ink is highlighted, as shown in Figure 3.  Figure 3 |
3. | On the Action menu, tap Convert handwriting to text. |
4. | In the Text Correction dialog box, shown in Figure 4, you can check the text conversion. Any items that Journal is unsure of are highlighted, and a list of alternative meanings is shown in the Alternative box.  Figure 4 |
5. | When the text correction is complete, tap Copy, and it's sent to the Clipboard. |
Although this feature in Windows Journal makes it easy to convert handwritten notes to text for exporting to another program, sometimes you'll want to write directly with your tablet pen in Office XP programs. If you have Office XP installed on your Tablet PC, you can download and install the free Microsoft Office XP Pack for Tablet PC. With this addition to Tablet PC, you can use handwriting in Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, and Microsoft Outlook 2002 when using Word 2002 as your e-mail editor.
Windows Journal FAQ
You might wonder how to use Windows Journal's scratch-out gesture to erase a word. A gesture is a shape you draw with your tablet pen to send a command to your Tablet PC. In Journal, the scratch-out gesture is useful for erasing a lot of handwritten text quickly. There are two tricks to using the scratch-out gesture to erase:
| • | Your scratch-out gesture needs to be from side to side, horizontally. Vertical scratch-outs aren't supported. |
| • | Make sure your scratch-out stroke is at least as wide as the ink you are trying to erase. |
For more information about using Journal gestures, see Edit with Gestures.
Another common question—how do you share your Journal notes with people who don't have a Tablet PC? Well, two answers for that one:
| • | If they're running Windows XP, there's a new Journal Note Viewer that can be downloaded from Windows Update. |
| • | If the other user isn't running Windows XP, you can still share your Journal notes by saving the note as either a Web Archive or a Tagged Image File Format (.tif) file, using Export as from the File menu. |
Check the Knowledge Base article, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Frequently Asked Questions, for more answers to questions about using your Tablet PC and Windows Journal.
Contact Me
If you use Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and you have a topic you'd like to see me cover in one of my columns, or just want to tell me about how the Tablet PC has changed computing for you, contact me at Charlie@mvps.org. I really want to hear what you think about your Tablet PC and in what interesting ways a Tablet PC helps you work.
I can't acknowledge or answer e-mail messages or provide technical support by e-mail. I regularly participate in the Windows XP Tablet PC Newsgroup and look forward to seeing you there.
