Chapter 2. Tablet PC Input Panel and Ink
The Tablet PC Input Panel is primarily a tool for entering text when a standard keyboard is not convenient or available. This, of course, is something you must do all the time on a tablet, so Input Panel is a large part of your tablet experience. Ideally, you could use your pen and enter information directly into any document by putting the pen to the screen where you want the information to go and starting to write. In fact, this was the original plan for pen input and may be possible as more programs appear specifically designed for the tablet. The problem is that the majority of programs you use on your tablet today were designed for keyboard input, not for pen input. The first attempts at making keyboard-centric programs accept pen input directly worked, but the process was confusing for the user. The solution was to create a system in which the users could place the cursor where they wanted to write but actually write the information with a pen in a separate input area, much like the writing area of a Palm or Pocket PC. The computer would respond as if the user had placed the cursor with a mouse and started typing on a keyboard. That system is Input Panel.
Why Use Input Panel
While Input Panel has its limitations, it will work with every Microsoft Windows application that runs on the tablet, even command-line applications. Part of your success in using Input Panel is knowing which part of Input Panel to use for which situation and when not to use it at all. Each input option has its advantages, disadvantages, and best uses.
On-Screen Keyboard
The on-screen keyboard is a tedious way to enter more than a short sentence worth of text. Since it actually is a keyboard, however, there are no handwriting recognition errors and symbols such as @ are easily accessible. The on-screen keyboard is best for entering passwords, Web addresses that are not real words, uncommon technical terms not found in the tablet’s dictionary, and small on-screen text corrections.
Writing Pad
The writing pad is best for entering up to four or five sentences of normal English. Exactly how many sentences varies with how well the handwriting recognizer understands your handwriting and the language you use, as well as your tolerance for going back and correcting mistakes. The writing pad works well for short e-mail messages, Web addresses based on real words, minor document editing, and many general Windows tasks, such as naming new folders.
Write Anywhere
Write Anywhere is a variation on the writing pad that provides more writing space and a transparent writing surface. The word recognition error rate is the same as with Input Panel but it is more comfortable to enter a paragraph or more of text with handwriting. It’s somewhat harder to use your pen in place of a mouse while Write Anywhere is activated.
Speech Input
Speech input is done through Input Panel and is good for text input of many paragraphs. It’s fast, but it requires concentration to avoid “ums” and “uhs” and time to go back and correct mistakes. Speech input frees you from typing or writing as you think, which can be helpful for getting your thoughts down if you don’t type quickly, and it can be useful for transcribing documents if you’re not a fast typist.
Standard Keyboard
A standard keyboard is still the best tool for entering text quickly and accurately. To use your tablet fully, some kind of external keyboard is required at least some of the time.
Viewing and Using the Input Panel Keyboard
Most of the time you’re using your tablet you’ll want Input Panel hidden because it takes up quite a bit of screen space. To see Input Panel, tap the Tablet PC Input Panel
button on your taskbar. By default, Input Panel will appear at the bottom of your screen in keyboard mode as shown in Figure 2-1. To make Input Panel disappear, either tap the Input Panel button again or tap the close button in the upper right of the Input Panel window. When Input Panel is visible, you can enter text by tapping once on the screen to place your cursor and then tapping in your text using the on-screen keyboard.
Here’s an example for entering text using the Input Panel keyboard. Open Microsoft Internet Explorer, and then open Input Panel. Tap once in the Address box of Internet Explorer to select the text. Using the Input Panel keyboard, enter the URL http://www.microsoft.com/tabletpc/ using the Input Panel keyboard as shown in Figure 2-2. Tap the Enter key on the Input Panel keyboard when you are finished. If you’re connected to the Internet, the Tablet PC home page should appear. Incidentally, this page is a great source of information, tips, and downloads for your Tablet PC. If the page doesn’t load, try entering the full URL of http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/
Remember that using the Input Panel keyboard is just like using a standard keyboard in that you must specify where you want the text to go before you start typing. The most common mistake people make using Input Panel the first few times is forgetting to tap once on the screen to place the cursor.
If you make a mistake as you type, you can Backspace, Delete, and even use modifier keys, such as Ctrl+C for copy, just as you would with a standard keyboard. To use a modifier key, such as the Shift or Ctrl key, simply tap the modifier first and then tap the modified key. To make entering e-mail addresses a bit easier, the Input Panel keyboard has a dedicated @ key as well.
Tip
Keyboard commands, such as Ctrl+C for copy are cumbersome to enter on the Input Panel keyboard. Tap buttons or use the menus instead of the Input Panel keyboard.
The Input Panel keyboard has a few shortcomings. It lacks a number pad, and it’s fairly easy to tap the wrong key inadvertently if the keys are resized too small. If you use an alternative keyboard layout, such as a French or German keyboard, the keys on Input Panel do not appear to change even though they actually create different characters when you type them. If any of these are a problem for you, use the on-screen keyboard built into every version of Windows XP. The on-screen keyboard is found in the Accessibility folder in the Accessories folder in the Start menu. If you use this keyboard often, you can drag the icon to your Quick Launch bar or to your Start menu for easy access. Figure 2-3 shows the Windows on-screen keyboard and the Input Panel keyboard.
Adjusting Input Panel Appearance and Position
There are a couple of ways to make Input Panel a little more space-efficient on your screen. If you don’t mind tapping smaller keys, you can resize Input Panel. You can also enlarge Input Panel to make it easier to tap keys if you want. You might actually find it easier to type text if your keyboard is smaller because you won’t have to move your hand as far to get from one end of the keyboard to the other.
You can also undock Input Panel so that it becomes a floating toolbar. While docked, Input Panel appears at the bottom of your screen, and any open windows are resized to fit the remaining space. The undocked Input Panel floats on top of other windows, so you may drag it anywhere you want on the screen, though it might obscure some of the window you are using. While undocked, Input Panel can be resized for width as well as height and can be made quite small. To toggle Input Panel docking on and off, tap the Input Panel Tools menu and select Dock. As with pen preferences, whether to use a docked or undocked Input Panel is really a matter of personal preference. Some people like having Input Panel next to the area of the screen where they are entering text; others like having it always on the bottom. Try both and see which works best for you.
Tip
Double-tapping the Input Panel title bar will quickly dock and undock Input Panel.
Whether Input Panel is docked or not, you can hide most of it so that only the title bar appears by tapping the Hide Pen Input Area
button (arrow) on the title bar. If Input Panel is docked, it will retreat to the very bottom of the screen. If it is undocked, the title bar will continue to float, but Input Panel will disappear. While this feature may be useful in certain situations, in general it is just as simple to close Input Panel between uses and have it completely out of your way. It opens and closes instantly and can do so an infinite number of times without causing system problems.
A really cool way to make Input Panel appear is with the open Input Panel gesture. To open Input Panel this way, move your pen back and forth rapidly several times just above the screen but without actually touching it. The motion can be horizontal, vertical, or on a slant, so long as it is rapid and the pen is not in contact with the screen. The motion is also quite large by default, as shown in Figure 2-4, but can be changed in the Tablet And Pen Settings control panel on the Pen Options tab. If Input Panel was docked when it was last closed, it opens still docked. If it was undocked, it appears wherever you made the gesture. This feature is really handy because you can open and use Input Panel without moving your pen to a different part of the screen.
Glossary
A gesture is any pen action designed to send a command to the computer that isn’t a mouse movement or a text entry. Right-tap is also considered a gesture.
Tip
Make the open Input Panel gesture slightly below the area where you want to enter information so that it doesn’t cover the place your text will appear.
Using the Input Panel Writing Pad
The Input Panel writing pad accomplishes exactly the same thing as the on-screen keyboard, entering text when a standard keyboard is not available, but it uses your handwriting as the source for the text. The system for handwriting recognition used on your tablet is the culmination of years of research and is quite arguably the best in the business, but it will make mistakes. The key to satisfaction with the Input Panel writing pad is understanding how to minimize those mistakes, correct them easily where they occur, and use alternative means of text input where the writing pad doesn’t meet your needs.
Entering Text with Handwriting
To switch to the writing pad for text input, tap the Writing Pad tab on the bottom of Input Panel. To test out the writing pad, you will need somewhere for the text to go. The best choice is a word processor, such as Microsoft Word, or a text editor such as Notepad.
Figure 2-5 shows an Input Panel writing example and the resulting text. As promised in the sidebar, "My Handwriting: I promise honesty,” the text shown in Notepad is the actual text as recognized by the tablet.
Take a close look at the word “Writing” as I have written it in Figure 2-5. My “t” has an extra line where I dragged my pen up to cross it rather than lifting the pen and my “g” looks more like a “y” because I did not close it off. Also, my “d” in “Pad” resembles a cursive “l” or perhaps an “el.” The tablet correctly interpreted what I wrote, despite these shortcomings, because it doesn’t simply interpret single letters, it looks at the individual letters and the whole word. Even though my “g” looks like a “y,” the recognition system correctly understood “Writing” because “Writiny” is not a word. The system of identifying both letters and entire words can work for or against you depending on how you write. Table 2-1 provides some general rules, examples of how the errors might look on the screen, and the results on handwriting recognition. Some of the items in the table may seem especially dramatic, but the truth is that most took two or three attempts to get an error at all.
|
Writing Pad Input |
Resulting Text |
Notes |
|
TABLE+ Tablet |
Upper and lowercase work better than all capitals. | |
|
Tablet Fillet |
Cursive works better than printing if your cursive is fairly neat and even. | |
|
Watch yours pacing |
Leave space between words. | |
|
On the line forth.live |
Write on the line. | |
|
Total/ t.our,’de |
Use a normal height to width ratio, particularly when printing |
The Send Button
When you first try out the writing pad, you’ll probably find yourself waiting at the end of each line for the text to disappear from the pad and appear in your document. This is not because the handwriting recognizer is slow. In fact, the recognizer has the word interpreted in a fraction of a second. The speed at which the words disappear off the pad is determined by the Input Panel options. These options are described later in this chapter in "Setting Input Panel Options.” If you find yourself waiting for Input Panel to empty, tap the Send button sitting just below the writing line and your wait will be over.
Tip
Even though it’s called “Send,” this Send button has nothing to do with e-mail; it just sends what it reads to the current program. Don’t tap Enter on Input Panel instead of Send. That will send the text and send an Enter command. If you were writing a filename in a Save dialog box when this happened, the file would save before you could see and correct the filename.
Correcting Recognition Errors
By default, a few keyboard keys appear beside the writing pad. This is the quick keys pad; it’s helpful for putting returns and tabs into a document along with the writing pad text. The quick keys pad also provides arrow, Backspace, Delete, and Space keys for making simple corrections. To correct text, either tap next to the mistake to place the cursor and use the Backspace or Delete keys or select the mistake with the pen and rewrite it using the writing pad or the Input Panel keyboard. Normally the handwriting recognition looks for whole words; however, when you enter letters one at a time on the writing pad to correct text, the system knows you are correcting the word and won’t try to make new words. It’s even “smart” enough that if you add a suffix to a word, such as adding “ing” to “fly,” it usually understands you are adding to a word rather than inserting a new one.
Fixing Symbols and Punctuation
Entering symbols such as _ and + in the writing pad can be very difficult. These symbols usually appear as E and t. The numbers 1 and 0 are also a challenge as they usually come out as the letters l and O. Tapping the Symbols Pad
button (&) on the Input Panel title bar opens a palette of commonly used symbols as shown in Figure 2-6. The symbols pad closes automatically after you tap a single key. You may drag the symbols pad off the title bar and keep it available as a floating palette. This is called tearing off the palette. It will then remain visible until you close it or hide Input Panel.
Tip
If you want more space on the writing pad, you can also add the quick keys pad to the Input Panel title bar as a button and remove the quick keys pad from the main Input Panel window. See "Setting Input Panel Options" later in this chapter for more information.
Using Text Preview
The text preview pane lets you view and edit text after it’s converted from handwriting but before it’s inserted into a document. To view the text preview pane, tap the Tools menu on Input Panel and select Text Preview. The text preview pane will appear above Input Panel. Now when you write on the writing pad, the interpreted text appears in the text preview pane rather than in a Windows application. To send the text from the text preview pane into an application, tap once in the application where you want the text to go and then tap the Send Text button in the text preview pane. Figure 2-7 shows this process.
Note
If text appears in the text preview pane but the Send Text button is grayed out, you probably haven’t placed the cursor telling Input Panel where you want the text to go.
Alternate Words List
While the text is in the text preview pane, you have an additional tool for text correction. The handwriting recognition system inserts its best guess for your word in the text preview pane. It also keeps on file up to ten more words that are strong alternate possibilities. Single-tap or double-tap any word in the text preview pane, and a small green carat appears on the upper left of the word. Tap the carat, and a list of alternate words appears. In Figure 2-8, the text "Alternate Words List" was recognized as "Alternate Words List,” but the correct word was on the list of alternates. Words capitalized incorrectly is one of the most common handwriting recognition problems in Input Panel. You’ll notice that the first alternate in the list will always be the same word, but with opposite capitalization. The alternate words list functions like most spelling checkers. Select the correct word from the list, and it replaces the original. A small version of the original ink also appears in case you can’t remember what you wrote. Even when the words chosen by the system seem way off, the correct words may still be on the alternates list. I had “tomorrow evening” come up as “terrarium every” once, but the correct word was available for both of them.
You may select many words at once or parts of a word to correct. Occasionally this allows you to correct two words at once but usually not, and the original ink does not appear with groups of words. Options to delete or rewrite the word also appear, but these are a bit superfluous. If you want to rewrite a word in the text preview pane, select it by double-tapping and write a new word on the writing pad. The new word will replace the old one. The text preview pane can hold many paragraphs’ worth of text, and you can drag and drop to rearrange words.
Tip
With many applications, once the text leaves Input Panel the alternates list is lost. Some applications, however, such as Word 2002 (with the Microsoft Office XP Pack for Tablet PC installed), let you access the alternate words list even after the text is inserted into the document. If the application you are using has this type of pen integration, then the text preview pane serves little purpose.
Building the Dictionary
The writing pad will not learn your handwriting, but it can learn your vocabulary. Because recognizing the whole word is a major component of handwriting recognition, adding words to your dictionary is critical. At first you may be adding dozens of words a day, especially if your work involves technical or industry-specific terms. Stick with it. As you use your tablet, the frequency with which you add words will decline rapidly, and the tablet’s ability to understand your writing will astound you.
Adding a word to the dictionary is a two-step process. First you must correct the word as it appears on screen. Once it’s correct, you can add it to the dictionary. Figure 2-9 shows how the word Hayabusa, the Japanese word for Peregrine, was interpreted as Hayabuga. Presumably my “s” looked more like a “g.” It’s useful to note that the recognition system chose to use the letters as it saw them rather than making the letters into a dictionary word, such as Hamburger. This means there were no dictionary words close enough to the string of letters I wrote. Notice as well that the Add To Dictionary option appears for Hayabuga, in case it is a new word the tablet should learn. Once you correct the text, you can add it to the dictionary. In the future, the recognition system will substitute the real word Hayabusa, even when an “s” looks like a “g”, because there is a real word that is very close.
The option to add words to the dictionary can be a bit confusing. It only appears when you select a single word that is not already in the dictionary, yet sometimes it doesn’t appear when you think it should. In Figure 2-10, the word “Jabberwocky” was interpreted as “Jabberw oh y” You can see the recognition system understood my letters fairly well, only mistaking a “ck” for an “h”, but stumbled organizing them into words. Tapping the green carat shows a list of alternates, but no Add To Dictionary option appears because more than one word is selected. Because none of the alternates is close, we need to fix the word manually.
You could tap the “oh” and hope “ock” is on the alternates list, and then use Backspace on the quick keys pad to take out the spaces. A faster way is to select the “oh” and the spaces on both sides and then write “ock” on the writing pad to replace it, as shown in Figure 2-11.
Now that you have the single correct word, you can select it to add it to the dictionary. If you try this, however, you will not see an Add To Dictionary option, as shown in Figure 2-12. The reason is that both “Jabberwocky” and “jabberwocky” are already in the dictionary, as evidenced by the lowercase version in the alternate list. Jabberwocky didn’t appear before now because the system thought the text was more than one word.
In addition to dictionary words, it’s helpful to add strings of text you often use to the tablet dictionary, such as Web and e-mail addresses that you use frequently, abbreviations and slang that appear in your e-mail messages, and unusual names and places. Don’t worry about overloading the dictionary.
Caution
It’s very tempting to add passwords to your dictionary so that you can write them quickly rather than tapping them out with a keyboard. Unfortunately, this is a security risk, as anyone with some technical savvy could open your dictionary and see all your passwords. Unless you don’t care who might get at your password-protected data, don’t save your passwords in the dictionary.
Previous and Next Text
The text preview pane also keeps a list of all the text you viewed in the window. If you want to enter the same text several times in a document, you can scroll back through a list of text strings you wrote using the arrow buttons (Recall Preview Text and Recall Next Text) on the right of the text preview pane, find the text you want, and tap Send Text. This applies only to text you wrote with the text preview pane open. Any text you wrote while text preview was closed is not saved.
More Writing Pad Tips
Here are a few more tips to help you get the most out of the writing pad:
Because the ratio of height to width of letters is important, adjust the height of the Input Panel window so that you can write comfortably while still having your capital letters use about 7/8 of the writing area.
If the handwriting recognizer keeps interpreting single words as many small words or individual letters, your letters are too far apart. Either make them closer together or use cursive handwriting.
The longer the writing pad area relative to its height, the more words you can fit in before you run out of space.
The smaller you write, the closer together your letters should be. It’s even okay if they occasionally overlap. This is especially important if you reconfigure your writing pad to show two lines instead of one line.
If you use the writing pad to input full sentences on a regular basis, try decreasing the time before text automatically inserts or try a two-line writing pad. Either option allows you to write continuously without waiting for ink to disappear. See "Setting Input Panel Options" later in the chapter for more information on a two-line writing pad.
To input long sections of text to older programs, fill the text preview pane with an entire message and then correct it all at once.
If the system keeps misunderstanding a word, spell it out one letter at a time and then add it to the dictionary.
For better results when correcting single letters, use cursive to create lowercase letters and print for uppercase. The one exception is capital I.
Use a cursive for capital I and draw the upper hook and lower horizontal of a 1 (one) to distinguish them from l (el).
To create an ampersand (&), you can write the common abbreviation of “E” with a vertical line through it.
Write the http:// prefix for Web addresses.
The writing pad often adds a space on the end of each word. This can cause a problem with some filenames, login names, and passwords. If you’re having trouble with something that appears to be correct, try pressing Backspace to remove the last character after text appears. Capitalization errors can cause similar problems.
Writing Pad Gestures
There are four gestures that provide keystroke shortcuts while you are using the writing pad. These gestures are pen movements that will not be transformed into text. Instead, Input Panel will behave as if you tapped a button on the quick keys pad. Gestures work only on a blank writing pad, so you must wait until it is free of ink. You may use the gestures to control the cursor in a document or in the text preview pane. Gestures are sent immediately, so the ink will not stay in the Input Panel window for a moment before disappearing. If it does stay for a moment, then the gesture was misinterpreted as text.
Keystroke Gestures
The key to executing a good gesture is to do it fast and with authority. Timid gestures just don’t work as well. Table 2-2 shows both a generic version of the gesture and an example of what this might look like on the writing pad. Notice how the Space and Backspace gestures use most of the pad area. This is not required, but it seems to give more consistent results.
Caution
If you have text selected in the text preview pane or in a document and you make a gesture, the selected text will be deleted.
Scratch-Out Gesture
In contrast to the keystroke gestures, the scratch-out gesture requires that you have ink on the writing pad. Scratch-out allows you to erase ink you just wrote before it leaves the writing pad. A scratch-out must be at least 2.5 lines, shaped like a flat Z, that intersect the ink you want to erase. Scratch-out works more consistently if you don’t try to cover the ink you want to erase with the scratch-out mark. Instead, go back and forth over the same line in a very horizontal motion. Whatever ink intersects that line should disappear. Both examples in Table 2-3 can result in a scratch-out, but the upper one will produce more reliable results.
Try This
Open a blank document in your favorite e-mail program, and try writing a quick letter to a friend using Input Panel. Use the pen to tap your way through creating a new message and entering his or her e-mail address. Use the Input Panel keyboard to tap in your e-mail address in the CC box. Write a sentence using the writing pad with text preview off, and correct it in the message. Next write a sentence with text preview on, and make your corrections in the text preview pane. Try mixtures of the different input methods and see which system works best for you and in what contexts.
Write Anywhere
The Input Panel writing pad works well for a few sentences, but writing on the same line over and over is not how we really handwrite messages. The Write Anywhere feature essentially turns most of the tablet screen into a transparent writing pad. This is a powerful feature, but it can be confusing because it appears that you’re writing directly on a document, as you can with Windows Journal and Microsoft Office XP with the Office XP Pack for Tablet PC. You’re not. Write Anywhere is a version of the Input Panel writing pad and is still a method for text entry when the keyboard is not accessible or convenient.
Turning On Write Anywhere
To use Write Anywhere, first open the document in which you want to place text. Next open Input Panel, and tap the Write Anywhere
button on the title bar. The Write Anywhere button has an image of a pen on it. If the Write Anywhere button is not visible, tap the Tools menu on Input Panel and tap Options to display the Options dialog box. On the Write Anywhere tab, check the Show The Turn On Write Anywhere Button On The Title Bar check box and tap OK.
When you tap the Write Anywhere button, a Write Anywhere information dialog box appears. Tap OK, and the Write Anywhere boundaries appear on the screen as shown in Figure 2-13, where Write Anywhere is open on top of a new message in Microsoft Outlook Express.
There are three important items to note in this figure:
The writing area does not extend to the edges of the screen. Only handwriting drawn within the bounded area is translated to text. Pen actions outside the area are interpreted as mouse commands. This division keeps menus, the taskbar, and open and close boxes free of the writing area for easy access. You can still control the mouse under the transparent writing area, but it’s a bit trickier.
Input Panel should be docked and hidden at the bottom of the screen. This is not required, but it’s a good way to start out when using Write Anywhere. If the writing pad of Input Panel is visible under the Write Anywhere transparency and you write over the actual Input Panel writing pad, the writing pad overrides Write Anywhere. The result can be confusing and is best avoided until you get comfortable with Write Anywhere. Either hiding or docking Input Panel will avoid the problem. I prefer to do both.
The cursor is ready at the point in the document where the text should go. It doesn’t matter where on the writing area you write, the text will insert at the cursor in the order you wrote it. To place the cursor in a different position, tap that point on the screen. If you are placing the cursor somewhere under the writing area transparency, it should be a firm tap you hold for a moment so that the system knows it’s a tap (mouse action) and not a period (handwriting).
Using Write Anywhere
Once the writing area transparency is open and the cursor is in place, you can begin writing. As shown in Figure 2-14, wherever you start writing, a black line appears to help you write horizontally across the screen. You do not need to write on the line, but the recognition is better if your handwriting does not wander all over the screen. As with the writing pad on Input Panel, there’s an adjustable delay before the ink disappears and the text appears in the document.
When you’re using the Input Panel writing pad, you must specify each Enter, extra Space, and Tab. If you do not, the system will put all your text together no matter how you organize it on the screen. You can send these commands using the same gestures as with the writing pad, but the entire writing area transparency must be clear of ink. Because the ink tends to persist longer in Write Anywhere, this isn’t always convenient. Another method is to open the quick keys pad from the Input Panel title bar while Write Anywhere is still open. You can tap an Enter, Tab, or other key on the quick keys pad without waiting for the ink to disappear; however, as soon as you tap a key all the ink currently in the writing area will be immediately converted to text. Figure 2-15 and Figure 2-16 show how the system would ignore text organization (new lines, tabs, and so on) and how it could be corrected.
Tip
Write Anywhere also understands the scratch-out gesture to remove ink before it is converted to text.
Selecting an entire paragraph with Write Anywhere open is simple if you start the selection on the edge of the screen, outside the writing area. Press down with the pen at the beginning of the selection, and drag the pen over the text you want selected. To select text underneath the transparency, press and hold on a point under the writing transparency. The transparency temporarily vanishes and remains absent as long as you keep holding. Without lifting the pen, you may now drag the pen over the text you want selected. As soon as you lift the pen the transparency reappears, but the text remains selected. You must either disable the Press And Hold For Right-Click option or set a long pause before the shortcut menu appears for this to work; otherwise, you’ll get a shortcut menu instead of a selection. If you use the Press And Hold For Right-Click option, it’s usually easier to close Write Anywhere for a moment, select the text you want, open Write Anywhere again, and continue. Because the writing transparency opens and closes instantly, this hardly disturbs your work.
When you reach the bottom of the writing area, you may continue writing at the top in the empty space, as shown in Figure 2-17. The text will enter your document in the same order you wrote it, regardless of where you wrote it or what is below the transparency. The text at the top of Figure 2-17 was written last and will appear at the end of the sentence.
Write Anywhere is a tool you will probably either love or hate. If you use Write Anywhere regularly, here are a few tips to keep things running smoothly:
Hide or dock Input Panel while Write Anywhere is open. If your pen enters the Input Panel window, it will interrupt your writing.
Tear off the quick keys pad from Input Panel so that it is available as you write. Be careful not to write on top of the quick keys pad, as the keys will respond and interrupt your writing. See "Setting Input Panel Options" later in this chapter for information on how to add the Quick Keys button on the Input Panel title bar, which allows you to tear off the quick keys pad.
If the writing transparency is free of ink, a gesture is even faster than tapping a key on the quick keys pad.
Remember to tap or gesture an Enter command at the end of each paragraph.
Adjust the speed of the automatic insert so that it converts the ink as fast as possible without disturbing your writing. Write Anywhere is a drag if you must wait for the ink to disappear.
Closing the Write Anywhere transparency will immediately convert the ink into text and send it to the cursor, similar to the Send button on the writing pad.
Switching to a different program while there is still ink in Write Anywhere will cause that ink to appear in the new program or be lost entirely.
Try This
Open and tear off the quick keys pad and symbols pad from Input Panel, and then hide Input Panel. Next open a blank e-mail message, and try entering all the information using Write Anywhere. If possible, write a couple of paragraphs so that you can experiment with correction and editing.
Speech Input
Input Panel has speech input capabilities, which allows both dictation, in which your spoken words are converted to text, and voice commands, in which your words control menus and on-screen buttons and can switch between programs. The dictation function works similarly to the on-screen keyboard and writing pad. Place the cursor where you want the text to go, activate the dictation mode, and start speaking. After a short delay, the text appears in your document where you can correct and edit it. If the text preview pane is open, the converted text appears in the window and will be inserted in your document after you tap Send Text. The voice command function is a bit different and is discussed separately later in this section. The speech input controls appear in the speech bar below the Input Panel title bar, as shown in Figure 2-18.
Hardware Considerations
For speech input to work even passably well, you need a boom microphone on a headset. Make sure you get one that is designed for use on a personal computer so that it has separate plugs for the headphones and the microphone. Two other features worth the investment are a noise-canceling microphone, which reduces interference from noise in the room, and a microphone on/off switch mounted on the wire running to the computer, which lets you easily prevent accidental voice input when you answer the phone or speak to someone else in the room. At the time of this writing, Radio Shack sold a comfortable microphone with all of these features for about $20.
Tip
If the microphone jacks are in an annoying location on your tablet in portrait orientation, try using the secondary portrait orientation.
Training the System
Before you can input a single word to the tablet, you must train the system to learn your personal speech patterns. Unlike handwriting recognition, which only learns your vocabulary and not your handwriting, speech recognition actually learns how you speak and continues to improve over time. The more time you spend teaching the system the better it will be, but the initial training is required. The information is stored with your login profile, so you must log in as the same user each time when you use speech input.
To open the speech bar on Input Panel, check Speech on the Input Panel Tools menu. The first time you do this, the mandatory Speech Training Wizard opens and guides you through adjusting your microphone and practicing speech input. The tutorial is very clear, but it takes 10 to 20 minutes to complete, so make sure you have at least half an hour for the wizard and trying speech out. Make sure the microphone is comfortable before you begin because changing the position of the microphone later could affect the quality of the voice recognition. After you have been guided through the microphone adjustment, you will read several paragraphs aloud. The words will be highlighted as they are recognized by the system, as shown in Figure 2-19. The highlighting will lag behind what you are actually reading. This is normal. If the highlighting stops, however, you must go back and start reading again beginning at the first un-highlighted word. Speak normally, but without much inflection, for the best results. The text of the first speech training discusses ways to improve the quality of speech recognition and often feels more like a sales pitch than helpful information. A more interesting list of items to read is available when performing further training. Speech recognition uses the same dictionary as handwriting recognition, so it learns your vocabulary as well as your voice.
Caution
Don’t let friends try out the speech function on your login profile. The system will add their voice characteristics to your profile, resulting in degraded speech recognition for you. Create a guest login profile, and let them try speech that way.
Tip
Position the microphone close enough to your lips so that if you pucker them in a kissing motion, you can just barely touch it. Most microphones work better if they are slightly below your lips rather than right in front of them.
Dictation
Once you complete at least the first voice training, you can input text using speech. Open a document and place the cursor where you want to input text. Next open Input Panel and make the speech bar visible. Once you tap the Dictation button, the system will show that it is listening, and everything you say, or something resembling what you say, will appear in your document. If the text preview pane is open, the text will appear there instead. Text that has been heard and is being converted appears as highlighted dots. There’s no need to wait for the dots to disappear before you continue speaking. The memory buffer holding the text is quite large, and unless you speak very quickly and never take a breath it will eventually catch up. As you speak, voice bars appear on Input Panel showing the strength and variation in your voice and indicating whether your speech is too loud, soft, or fast for optimal recognition. Figure 2-20 shows some sample dictation.
Tip
Turn off your microphone between inputs to prevent accidental text input. If you don’t have a switch on your microphone, tap the Dictation button a second time to turn it off or say “microphone,” and it will turn off.
Dictation Control Commands
There are several words which may or may not be converted directly into text depending on when and how you say them. For example, if the word “microphone” is said as part of a sentence, it will be converted to text, but if said as a single word, it will turn off the microphone. Similarly, “voice command” said as part of a sentence will appear as text, but said alone, it will switch speech input to voice command mode. Two other crucial commands you can use within dictation mode are “new paragraph,” which is the equivalent of the Enter key, and “new line,” which is the equivalent of Shift+Enter on your keyboard.
Spelling Out Words
If you want to spell out a word, say “spell it” and then immediately begin spelling the word. The letters will appear as you say them until you pause, at which point the system will revert to normal dictation. There is a second option called spelling mode that differs only in execution. If you say “spelling mode,” you must pause before spelling the word. When you start speaking again, the word is spelled out, and when you stop, the system returns to normal dictation. If you want to select a word that has already been converted to text, you can say “spell that.” “Spell that” selects whatever word is touching the cursor at that moment and lets you replace it by spelling it out. This is handy if you see a word translated incorrectly and you think the problem is that it is not in the dictionary rather than it was simply misunderstood.
Saying Punctuation, Numbers, and Symbols
You must say all punctuation as you go, so the sentence “He said: ‘With this device, I can rule the world!’” would be spoken “He said colon quote with this device comma I can rule the world exclamation point quote.” This system works well except for the odd sentence like: “That’s my final offer, period!” which comes out “That’s my final offer, . !” In these cases, the best thing to do is use the “spell it” command and spell out the word or correct it later. The system also automatically adds a space after a comma or a period and capitalizes the first word of a new sentence.
Numbers follow some special rules. The numbers zero through twenty will be spelled out. Numbers higher than that will appear as numeric values. If you want a number less than 21 written numerically, say “force num” and then the number. You do not need to spell out very large numbers, but you do need to say “point” or “decimal” for the decimal place. The speech “One million two hundred thirty-five thousand and thirteen point five” will appear as “1,235,013.5.”
Most symbols can simply be spoken, and they will appear correctly. The beginning of a Web address is said “http colon slash slash.” Some symbols have special ways of being said that help you get exactly what you want. The dollar sign symbol ($) is best said “dollarsign” as if it were one word. Saying “dollar…sign,” with an exaggerated pause, will result in words “dollar sign.” Table 2-5 lists some common symbols and how to say them:
Voice Commands
If you pause for a moment in dictation mode and say “voice command,” the system will switch to voice command mode. Voice commands have two main functions: to correct the text you input through speech and to control the tablet without a pen or a mouse.
Making Corrections
You may correct converted text with voice command, as well as using Write Anywhere, the writing pad, or the Input Panel keyboard. Voice command lets you perform the Input Panel correction functions and provides some additional capabilities. Figure 2-21 shows the sentence “The voice command mode allows you to make changes using nothing but your voice” with an obvious error. While in voice command mode, saying “select Lloyd’s” would select the incorrect text. Saying “correct Lloyd’s” both selects the text and opens the alternate word list as shown in Figure 2-22. To replace the text with an alternate word off the list, say “select” and the number on the list of the correct word. To delete or respeak the text, read the name of the desired command aloud. Saying “unselect that” would cancel the selection. Voice command also allows you to select all visible text, select after certain words in the text, select text beginning at one word and ending on another, and insert the cursor before or after a specific word. Once you have made a selection, you can also change capitalization in the sentence with your voice.
What Can I Say?
Voice command does much more than give you verbal control of Input Panel. With voice command, you can open and close files, switch between applications, access the Start menu, navigate a document, and more. There are too many commands to describe them all here. To see all the commands available by voice say "What Can I Say?" while in voice command mode and a list similar to the one in Figure 2-23 appears. What Can I Say is context-sensitive, so the exact content of the list depends on which application you are in and even what you are doing in that application. This feature is invaluable if you use voice for anything more than dictation.
Tip
When you control a program with speech, every menu command is available even if it is not on the What Can I Say list. To control menus with speech, say the name of the menu and then the full name of the command. To see print preview, the voice command would be “File…Print Preview.” If the menu doesn’t show all the options right away, just pause longer after saying the menu name, and the rest of the menu will appear.
Speech Bar
The speech bar has its own options menu, shown in Figure 2-24, providing access to What Can I Say, speech help, and several speech input settings. If you’re having speech recognition problems, the Microphone Adjustment option is quick and can help, especially if you are in a different room than you normally use for speech input. The Voice Training option is very helpful, but each session takes fifteen to twenty minutes. If you like speech input, it’s worth your time to go through several of these sessions. You’ll get the time back in the form of fewer corrections later on.
The speech recognizer understands the pronunciations of words based on spelling and grammar rules. Sometimes what it thinks the word should sound like does not match the real word very well, especially for unusual words you added to the dictionary. You have some control over this. Choosing the Add Pronunciation For A Word option opens the window shown in Figure 2-25, containing words you added. After selecting a word, you will hear the speech recognizer’s top choice for the pronunciation. If it isn’t correct, there is an option to record the correct pronunciation. The Record Pronunciation function is a bit misleading in that it does not record your pronunciation and associate it with the word. Instead, Record Pronunciation listens to what you say and matches your pronunciation to its list of possible pronunciations based on spelling and grammar rules. If one of its alternate pronunciations is close to yours, the association is changed and the word will probably be recognized correctly in the future. If your pronunciation doesn’t match one of the alternates, then nothing happens. In my case, the correct pronunciation of Hayabasa (Hi-ya-ba-sa) doesn’t match any alternate, so if I say it during dictation it always converts as “high above the.” If I mispronounce it to match the way the recognizer thinks it should be said (Hi-yab-a-sa), it converts it to text correctly every time.
If you find it annoying to keep switching between dictation and voice command mode, you can make groups of voice commands available in dictation mode. The benefit is you don’t have to switch modes to select and edit words. The downside is your dictation may be misunderstood as a command. To add commands to dictation mode, select Voice Command Configuration, select Working With Text, as shown in Figure 2-26, and tap Details. Check only the groups of commands you want, and check the Enable During Dictation check box.
Other Speech Tips
Here are a few more tips to get the most out of speech input:
Often a combination of speech, writing, and pen in place of the mouse works best for maximum productivity.
Different room acoustics, low-level background noise, and even your having a cold can interfere with speech recognition.
If you hide Input Panel, the speech bar is still visible.
Double check the choice of homonyms such as “there,” “their,” and “they’re”.
If you’re trying to control an application with speech and it isn’t working, it probably isn’t in the foreground. Tap the title bar of the application window to ensure it is the foremost application.
If you regularly use speech input in a variety of noise environments, you can create separate speech profiles for each one using the Speech control panel. This will improve recognition overall, but requires training each profile separately in the appropriate environment.
Try This
Even for a good typist, retyping a document can be tedious. Reading it and having Input Panel do the typing is much more fun and usually works pretty well. Find a printed document that you would like a copy of on your computer. Open a blank word processor document, place the cursor, and activate speech input in dictation mode. Read all the paragraphs, saying “new paragraph” when needed, without correcting any mistakes. Next switch to voice command mode, and save the document with voice commands, switching to dictation briefly to give it a name. Finally, try correcting the recognition mistakes with a combination of voice commands, pen taps, and writing pad inputs.
Setting Input Panel Options
Customizing Input Panel so that it matches your needs is essential for long-term enjoyment of your tablet. As with the pen settings, the default settings are geared toward the complete beginner. Once you gain experience using the various Input Panel functions, using more advanced settings will increase the speed and utility of Input Panel. You can open the Input Panel options by tapping the Tools menu in Input Panel and tapping Options.
Improving Writing Speed
If you fill the writing pad with ink faster than the tablet takes it away, you have two options. As shown in Figure 2-27, the writing pad options allow for a two-line writing pad and a shorter delay before the ink is converted to text. The two-line pad allows you to fill one line with ink and then continue on the second. By the time the second line is full, the first line should be empty, and you continue writing up there. This back and forth actually flows quite naturally after a few tries and works quite well. The only disadvantage is you must write a bit smaller and with your letters closer together, or you must resize Input Panel to take up more of the screen. A shorter insertion time has a similar effect except that the ink is disappearing off the beginning of the line as you are writing on the end. The setting can actually get so fast that the ink disappears before you even finish the word! Try various combinations of both settings until you can both write comfortably and see your ink for at least a moment before it disappears, never waiting more than half a second or so for a place to write.
Write Anywhere has a separate setting for automatic insertion time. Since Write Anywhere is already a several-line writing pad, the delay can be much longer. In fact, it is usually helpful to have extra time in Write Anywhere to scratch out mistakes. Still, the delay should be short enough so that you are never waiting for a place to write. The setting for the Write Anywhere insertion time is on the Write Anywhere tab in the Input Panel options.
Note
You can turn off automatic insertion altogether, so you must tap the Send button to clear the ink. This setting only applies to text. Gestures are immediately interpreted and cleared from the writing pad.
Better Tool Access and Configuration
There are several settings that allow you to customize your workspace for maximum utility.
Title Bar Buttons
The Advanced tab of Input Panel options lets you put quick-access buttons on the Input Panel title bar for opening the quick keys pad, the symbols pad, and hiding or showing Input Panel. As mentioned earlier, after tapping the button for the quick keys pad or symbols pad you may make a one-key tap or tear off the pad into a floating palette. The title bar button to turn Write Anywhere on and off is activated on the Write Anywhere tab.
Input Panel Autohide
On the Advanced tab, you can set an undocked Input Panel to automatically minimize to a title bar after a period of inactivity, so long as it is undocked. The full Input Panel reappears as soon as your pen comes near the title bar. This is a great feature if you like an undocked Input Panel. Making the delay very short, one second or less, has the effect of having Input Panel appear the moment you need it and roll up into an unobtrusive title bar a moment after you are done. Floating palettes and the speech bar will not disappear with autohide.
Automatic Text Preview with Speech
When you dictate, Input Panel can check and see whether the application you are dictating into supports alternate words. If it does, the text goes directly to the application; if it does not, the text preview pane opens automatically, and the text appears there instead. This option is activated on the Speech tab.
Pen Width and Color
The pen width and ink color for both the writing pad and Write Anywhere are configured on the Write Anywhere tab in the Input Panel options. The setting is purely one of personal preference and can be different for the two writing situations.
Tip
Set the Write Anywhere ink color to something not commonly used by Windows and visible over both light and dark backgrounds. I use a darkish magenta. This lets you see the ink on the writing transparency regardless of what image is beneath it.
Writing Tools
You have already seen how the quick keys pad can appear both as a floating palette and in the writing pad window. The Writing Tools tab sets whether the quick keys appear on the writing pad as well and whether they appear on the right or the left. The Writing Tools tab also lets you use a character recognizer for text input using either the Palm Pilot Graffiti or Pocket PC letter system.
The Writing Tools tab in Input Panel options allows you to enable the character recognizer for Input Panel and convert shorthand symbols, like those used on a Palm Pilot or Pocket PC, into typed text. As shown in Figure 2-28, the character recognizer takes up a lot of space, which makes the writing pad less useful. One interesting benefit of the character recognizer is that it can correct text and replace the quick keys pad for typing Enter, Tab, Space, and Backspace keys. If you do use the character recognizer, a character reference appears in the Input Panel Help files. Somewhat akin to the difference between hunt-and-peck and touch typing, after a little practice, using your own handwriting will always be faster and more efficient than using shorthand symbols.
Send as Text vs. Send as Ink
As flexible and useful as Input Panel is, we have been looking at it as a bridge between old and new technology. It is a method of translating from a medium humans understand, handwriting or speech, to a medium the computer can manipulate, standardized characters. Once the ink vanishes off Input Panel and converts it to text, it is lost.
Input Panel can send the actual pen strokes, or ink, from the writing pad, as well as the list of possible meanings, to the application. Some applications can’t accept this kind of data, but many can. Exactly how the ink will appear in the document and to what extent you can edit it varies; in some the pen strokes and the alternate word list are available, and in others the ink is converted into a static, un-editable image.
To send ink off the writing pad as ink, place the cursor in the document where you want the ink to appear and then tap the down arrow to the right of the Send button on Input Panel. If the Send As Ink option is available, the application you chose will accept the ink. Select Send As Ink, and whatever you write will appear in the document as ink. Figure 2-29 shows an example with Word 2002. We will explore sending ink directly to applications further in Chapter 6. In the next three chapters, we will look at Windows Journal, in which the ink goes directly into the application without the need for Input Panel at all.
Key Points
Input Panel is used primarily for text input when a standard keyboard is not available or convenient.
Input Panel works with all applications that run under Windows XP.
Maximum productivity and satisfaction come from using the various input methods on Input Panel in conjunction with a standard keyboard. Select the proper tool for a given task.
The handwriting recognizer doesn’t learn your handwriting, but following some simple guidelines will improve recognition accuracy.
The handwriting recognizer does learn your vocabulary, and adding words to the dictionary is critical for improved handwriting recognition.
The speech recognizer learns both your speech pattern and your vocabulary. Training the system and adding words to the dictionary are both important.
Some applications allow text correction in the final document. For the rest, use the text preview pane.
Time spent customizing Input Panel to meet your work preferences is time well spent.
Input Panel is most often used to convert your handwriting to text, but it can send original pen strokes (ink) to an application as well.