The Toshiba looks like an unassuming notebook. The top lid's casing is silver, while the rest of the notebook is matte black. It's a compact and relatively light notebook that houses an excellent full -sized notebook keyboard and a 12.1" display. It looks professional, but not futuristic or flashy. Like its predecessor, the Portege 3505, the unit as a sturdy center swivel hinge that connects the display to the base of the notebook. This robust metal disk should survive years of use.

Toshiba Portégé M205 Windows XP Tablet Edition Notebook

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A nice review. I noticed that my local CompUSA is carrying tablets again. When I was shopping for a tablet just two months ago the salespeople practically laughed at me when I asked if they carried any tablets. They said, "no, they are slow and too expensive". Well I guess demand is finally forcing them to rethink that attitude. It's the M205-S810 in the review above. It's even one of the feature center items selling for $2149.97 with $350.00 in rebates. Not bad for CompUSA. (not one of my favorite shops) I guess it's a sure sign that tablets are coming of age.
Linuxmon

Very cool. Hopefully more shops will start to pick up the newer Tablet PCs. And display them so that people can try them out.

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Layne, this is the pc I bought. It came with windows xp but no "office". At your suggestion, I bought the student's version of office. I still cannot install the "tablet pack" that came with the machine. Am I missing anything useful with the tablet PC pack?

Ps, do you know how to quickly "wake up" the toshiba when I goes into sleep mode after 3 minutes. The best I can figure out is to close the lid and open it again.

AnnieO :boat:

I hit the power button. Just a quick tap and it'll come out of standby or hibernate. I'm running office XP and the pack installed fine. Which office are you running.
Linuxmon

Linuxmon asks a good question. I'm assuming that you purchased Office 2003 student edition. Is this correct?

Please let us know - as best to your abilities - to explain what you are trying to do to get the pack installed and then we'll see if we can figure out why it isn't installing.

Let us know.

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Yes, I am running office XP Student. What does the tablet pack offer that I am not getting. Curiosity killed the cat...., I don't want to ante up $430 to find out I'm not missing anything!

Well, 2 questions really. How can I make the writing in all of the dialog boxes (and the boxes themselves) bigger. Even with my reading glasses, it is hard to see and select with the tiny writing. I already have the "extra large" fonts selected from the desktop properties bar. I have managed to misplace the external dvd/cd drive. I have the connector wire but the drive itself is AWOL. I still have to check my daughters toybox. If I need to replace it, should I buy it from toshiba? Are there generic substitutes?
AnnieO

About Microsoft Office XP Pack for Tablet PC

By using Microsoft Office XP Pack for Tablet PC, or Tablet Pack, you can use your tablet computer and a tablet pen to insert your handwritten notes into Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, or Microsoft Outlook 2002 using Word 2002 as your e-mail editor.

Tablet Pack offers the following enhancements to the Microsoft Office XP experience:

• Send handwritten notes in e-mail messages.
• Take notes on slides that the audience can view while you give presentations.
• Reuse handwritten notes taken in Microsoft Windows Journal.
• Mark up Word documents and Excel worksheets in your own handwriting.
• Draft slides and documents in your own handwriting.

Besides enhancing the Office XP experience, Tablet Pack also enhances the handwriting capabilities of OLE-compatible programs, such as Microsoft Visio 2002 or Microsoft Project 2002. For OLE-compatible programs, Tablet Pack offers an ink drawing and writing area that can be inserted into the file. An ink drawing and writing area is an object that establishes an area in your document where you can use your tablet pen to draw or write. An ink drawing and writing area also provides the tools necessary for working with the ink that you create with your tablet pen.

I know what your going thru trying to find a compatible/ bootable CD/DVD player. I've been following the discussions over at http://tabletpcbuzz.com. Just search on CD burners in the equipment/ hardware forums or the Toshiba forum. I think I'm going to purchase the Addonics II Pocket DVD +-R/RW http://addonics.com. I currently use a Sony DR 500 ulx to + - RW , but it's huge / heavy. As for text sizes the only other thing that comes to mind is screen resolution. If your running at 1400 x 1050 then the text / icons are smaller. Have you tried 1024 x 1280? I personally just put on my reading glasses in low light conditions. oops showing my age ;)
Good Luck, I hope you find your missing CD. It'll save you money.

Linuxmon

I hope I find the missing drive too. Of course changing the resolution worked. Now I don't need my bifocals so much. Maybe I'll look younger! Thanks! :D Annieo I may need to buy 2 more of these portege tablets for my office. Can I share the drives?

Not only can you share the drives but you can share documents! I've not done it.... share documents.... but sharing drives is easy if you know the secret in XP. When you're ready let me know and I'll send screenshots.

Linuxmon

I don't know what you mean by sharing document. Once they're all networked to a server, I should be able to pull up document folders stored in the server or in another tablet. Right?

AnnieO

Yes, your description of pulling up a document stored in the server is called sharing documents.

Hope this helps.

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Layne P. Heiny / Administrator for Tux Reports Network

Please do not send private messages requesting technical support. Place your request in the proper forum and hopefully someone can help you.

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I was under the impression, maybe mistakenly, that Journal/ One Note could collaborate in real time with multiple users. I'll investigate.
Linuxmon