Tablet PCs, tablet devices and Windows XP

[stuart]

Dear microsoft.public.windows.tabletpc,

How're things?

I'm hoping that someone(s) will be able to confirm (or refute) some
observations I've made in investigating the use of MS digital inking
functions for 'handwriting' annotation of Word documents.

Under Win XP, you need a Tablet PC for native support of MS ink
functions in MS Office applications (i.e., MS Word).

Under Win XP, to use an external tablet device, you would need some
third-party software to use MS ink functions in MS Office
applications.

Under Win Vista (and Win 7), MS ink functions were extended to support
the use of an external tablet device as the pen input, and both a
Tablet PC and external tablet device can be used for native support of
MS ink functions in MS Office applications.

Can anyone please confirm I'm on the right track?

Regards, Stuart Palmer

[Invalid]

In message

Post by stuart
Dear microsoft.public.windows.tabletpc,
How're things?
I'm hoping that someone(s) will be able to confirm (or refute) some
observations I've made in investigating the use of MS digital inking
functions for 'handwriting' annotation of Word documents.
Under Win XP, you need a Tablet PC for native support of MS ink
functions in MS Office applications (i.e., MS Word).
Under Win XP, to use an external tablet device, you would need some
third-party software to use MS ink functions in MS Office
applications.
Under Win Vista (and Win 7), MS ink functions were extended to support
the use of an external tablet device as the pen input, and both a
Tablet PC and external tablet device can be used for native support of
MS ink functions in MS Office applications.
Can anyone please confirm I'm on the right track?
Regards, Stuart Palmer

As far as I know (I have used a tablet PC with all three OS's) your
observation is correct - with one (somewhat pedantic) correction.

You don't need a TabletPC under XP to use inking. What you need is the
Tablet version of the XP OS. If you have a copy of that version
installed then a supported (Wacom are, I don't know about others)
external tablet device will support MS ink on any machine. In fact you
can ink on such a machine using a mouse.

However in that the Tablet version of XP was only available for sale
under OEM T's and C's (which theoretically prevent its use with any
other machine) on a TabletPC your observations fit the facts.

Regards

[Beverly Howard]

There are some handwriting extensions within native XP that can be used
with an external tablet... requires downloading, but many of the pieces
are already part of XP Pro...

I used these before my first tablet to get some idea of the handwriting
possibilities using a cheap input tablet

...the best route I have found to get to the setup and downloads is to
use the windows help (start/help) and search on the words handwriting
and ink.

hth,
Beverly Howard

[stuart]

Cheers Invalid and Beverly,

Thanks for the advice.

Much appreciated.

Post by stuart
Dear microsoft.public.windows.tabletpc,
How're things?
I'm hoping that someone(s) will be able to confirm (or refute) some
observations I've made in investigating the use of MS digital inking
functions for 'handwriting' annotation of Word documents.
Under Win XP, you need a Tablet PC for native support of MS ink
functions in MS Office applications (i.e., MS Word).
Under Win XP, to use an external tablet device, you would need some
third-party software to use MS ink functions in MS Office
applications.
Under Win Vista (and Win 7), MS ink functions were extended to support
the use of an external tablet device as the pen input, and both a
Tablet PC and external tablet device can be used for native support of
MS ink functions in MS Office applications.
Can anyone please confirm I'm on the right track?
Regards, Stuart Palmer