TeacherTabletPC

Craig Pringle had the perfect post title, so I had to steal the idea.  Here are some recent posts on some basic tablet functionality:

• Blog:: Craig Pringle – Tablet 101: Entering Text with the TIP
• The Student Tablet PC – OneNote 2007 Tip: Scratch Out
• Working in Ed Tech: Great video on Tablet advantages

I’ve been trying to figure out how to get other people who’d just gotten their hands on a convertible tablet to really use it as a tablet. Craig Pringle’s “10 Things to do with your new tablet” is exactly the list of ideas I’d been looking for (see his post for the descriptions that go along with the 10 things):

[H]ere are 10 tips – things you can do with your new tablet to get you started.

1. Install Vista …
2. Make a Mind Map …
3. Ink on a PDF …
4. Take some notes …
5. Do some drawing …
6. Read a book …
7. Ink in Word …
8. Ink on PowerPoint Slides …
9. Ink Instant Messages …
10. Most importantly of all – Have fun!

Since I’ve been asked and I thought it might be generally useful for people to know…  Near as I can tell, this requires OneNote 2007 and Word 2007, but I haven’t tried it extensively since I’ve only got the 2007 trials on my review X60 (my own X41 is running 2003).

In OneNote 2007, create the blog entry on a single page.

If you want handwritten stuff to stay handwritten, select it and go to Tools > Treat Selected Ink As > Drawing (otherwise it tends to turn into plain text, which isn’t so good if your handwriting is as illegible as mine can be sometimes).

Go to File > Send To > Blog.  This will send you off to Word 2007, where you configure your blog settings, do any final editing, and actually post the thing.

Though I’ve been terribly tempted to spend entire meetings posting making blog posts, I’ve thus far managed to hold back the urge.  jkOnTheRun’s Stealth Blogging Primer is a pretty good indication that I’m not the only one multitasking with my tablet and others have put a lot of thought into it:

Stealth blogging is blogging from any location where you typically are not supposed to blog. For me that usually means long, boring meetings where my presence has been requested but in reality is not required. So for me, lots of boring dead time Tablet PC EV-DO = Stealth Blogging.

I’ll follow the lead of Warner Crocker’s GBM post where I found this and make you go and read the article for the actual tip, since it’s just too cool.   From Vitamin CH:

Jim Norman invited me to speak at his Storyboarding Conference over the weekend. I showed off OneNote and learned quite a bit about storyboarding in general. But the best tip I think I got all weekend was from Jim himself.Jim got his first Tablet PC for a Christmas present. I was excited to see how he was adjusting to it, since he has been admiring my tablets for the whole time we have known each other. Right away, I noticed that Jim had adapted his pen. …

Though I’m still living in an XP world, anyone using Vista might be interested in GBM How-To Series #7 : Using Vista Pen Flicks:

Flicks are a new Vista feature that allow you to navigate documents or change data using only your stylus. So you may ask, what’s the difference between a gesture and a flick. There are only eight flicks available. Up, Down, Left, Right, and of course, the four diagonals and they are not bound by the input panel. You can use a flick anywhere on the tablet screen.

Since I’m on spring break, my daily posts may tend more toward the afternoon… you know, when I wake up.

Warner Crocker at GBM picked up on a tip at Gizmodo, referencing a MacApper post about using the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to clean various case surfaces on various notebooks and tablets. While the concern over the chemical content/toxicity of the Magic Eraser seems to be unfounded, I might be a little concerned about the long-term abrasive effects of it, but given the results from so many people, I’d certainly give it a shot for a really dirty machine.

Gizmodo: Quick Tip: Use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to Clean a Black MacBook:

Those of us that own the black MacBook know that fingerprints are the devil. Smudges and fingerprints show up all over the black matte finish. Josh, over at MacApper, figured out the most efficient way to get rid of the nastiness, with the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Josh put together some pretty detailed instructions about how to use Mr. Clean to tidy up that MacBook, so hit up the link and let us know how it goes, fellow BlackBook owners.

GottaBeMobile.com: A Case Cleaning Tip:

… what ends up on your fingers ends up as residue on your keyboard or your case. Greasy fingers make for greasy fingerprints.I’ve noticed this on the Lenovo Thinkpad X60 Tablet PC, just like I noticed it on my Toshiba M200. It is not a killer problem, but one of those niggling ones that drive me crazy every now and again.

A week or so ago I picked up this tip up from Gizmodo for cleaing cases on the Black MacBook and I thought I’d give it a try. Well, today during my lunch hour I picked up a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and gave the case a once over.

It works quite well in removing those greasy marks, especially on the space bar. Now if I can just find the self control to keep from eating at my desk.

You know the annoyance of trying to select multiple files with a pen (or touchscreen or other such interface), especially on a device with no option to “convert” and use a keyboard? Microsoft seems to have provided a solution in Vista, though it’s not on by default and not necessarily easy to find.

From GottaBeMobile.com (since, you know, I still use XP and haven’t even touched a Vista machine):

Here is how to turn on checkbox file selection:

1. Go to Start, Computer
2. Next, go to Organize, Folder and Search Options
3. Then, Go to View, and scroll down to “Use checkboxes to select items” and check it.
4. Click Ok
5. Now, when you hover over a file name with your pen or mouse, a checkbox will appear that will let multi-select items much easier ( see image below ). For touch users, you “just have to know” that the checkboxes are on the upper left hand corner or beside the folder – another nuance of not having hover in touch. By touching in that empty area, the checkboxes will work. It just takes a little practice to figure out where they are.

A post at The Student Tablet PC gave some tips for using Journal–stuff I hadn’t discovered yet. The two that I’m most likely to remember and use are that you can tap-hold-drag to lasso while in ink/highlighter mode and that scratchouts work best if it’s about five times as wide as high and covers at least half of the ink to be erased.

Here are some productivity tips from CNET.

(My new plan is to try to post at least once a day, even if I’m just giving a link to something that could be useful.)