After years of using a mouse, I’ve found that using the pen while surfing the web is faster than using a mouse. A typical movement on my screen is scrolling a webpage while I’m reading the site. Grabbing the scrollbar with a pen and dragging it is faster than grabbing for the mouse especially if I’m moving the page up and down.

Another key benefit is using Yahoo mail with a pen. I receive an average of 2000 emails daily in one of my boxes. I keep the pen handy to quickly check the box for delete or to move the email. I am also able to answer emails faster by using the TIP in the compose reply box.

Note: This post was done only using the TIP and without the keyboard. In fact, I’m going to try and post on this site solely in tablet mode.

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I normally refrain from "I agree" posts, but in this case I have to say it: I completely agree.

I think the big difference is the freedom of motion of using the pen versus the mouse/touchpad. Using the pen, I feel more like I'm using my finger to "touch" (hence click) a hyperlink; this feels more intuitive than sliding the pointer across the desktop then clicking.

Also, I use an Acer TravelMate which has up and down arrow buttons next to the screen (on the bottom in laptop mode; on the right side for Tablet mode.) These make scrolling a web page so much easier than scrolling using the touchpad or even the pen. While they work well with Word and Excel documents, I've found they sometimes don't do so well in OneNote and Journal. I imagine these are comparable with the scroll wheel on the Compaq tablet models.

Anyway, thanks for bringing this topic up. Sometimes I find myself doing something that's *so* much easier than before it no longer becomes noticeable that I've changed my routine.

GeneT.

Gene, are you using OneNote with SP1?

I agree too;) The direct eye:hand coordination allow me to work much faster than with a mouse or a touchpad.

Point & click goes faster and drawing is easier. Oh, for those of you who need precision and accuracy with your pen, Loren has an interesting bit about checking Tablet PC grid calibration on his blog.

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-- Lora Heiny

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Yes, Version 2003 (11.6360.6360) SP1

Interesting. I'll have to see if I can borrow someone's Acer to see what's going on. Is it all the time? or like when you're in subpages? or?

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You're talking about the up and down buttons in OneNote, right?

If so, I found out what the deal is. The up and down buttons will only work when you're in Type/Selection mode, not Ink mode. I think it has to do with the fact that the buttons move the cursor up and down, line-by-line. They don't directly move the vertical scroll bar. When in Ink mode, there really is no cursor on the form, hence the buttons don't have anything to move up and down. At least, that's what I worked out. :)

I just figured this out a couple of days ago. I forgot I had posted this on here a month ago. Thanks for reminding me.

GeneT.

Yes, I took this off topic and was referring to the buttons. :)

I tried it on my tablet, which has a central button for up / down / left / right. Once I have ink written into a OneNote page, I can scroll through the ink / text boxes, just as you described.

In IE, the button moves the scroll bar.

Very interesting difference! Thanks for bringing this to my attention! Previously, when in OneNote I had just used the pen.

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-- Lora Heiny

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