Hi everyone,

Recently I bought my first tablet computer (a Sahara slate (model i440D))
and I noticed while trying to select text in a large number of programs (text
editors, web browsers, word processors, etc.), that when I drag the pen over
some text, only words are selected - not text fragments.

Say, for example, you have the following line of text in a text editor such
as PSPad or UltraEdit:

"I'm having fun!"

If I drag the pen over any part of the word "having", the entire word is
immediately selected. If I try to select just the letters "av", the entire
word "having" is STILL selected. In other words, I can't seem to select any
fragment of text that the system doesn't consider to be a 'word'.

Now, as I said at the beginning, this 'functionality' appears to work in
many different programs. There is one text editor program which allows me
to select any text fragments I want - "TextPad" - but I don't know why it
works in this program. Needless to say, I'm currently using "TextPad" for
all my text editing because it allows this.

So I guess my question is - has anyone else encountered this problem? And
is there any way around it?

Any help most appreciated.


Thanks.

>> has anyone else encountered this problem? <<

Just verified that this is not happening on my Fuji, so, would suspect
that the taps are possibly being "read" as double taps or possibly
something such as a <tap/hold>

My first thought would be to assure that your taps are not
"tentative..." and suggest experimenting with faster dragging
immediately after the insertion cursor appears.

Make sure that you don't have the tip <shift> or other keys depressed as
that is a factor as well.

What pen tech does the Sahara use? The Fuji has Wacom so, if your's is
different, such as touch, there may be an interface difference.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Also, check your pen settings including the interval settings.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

In message <63258B3F-FE1A-43EC-8B6E-F2259E927F57@microsoft.com>,
Stretch65 <Stretch65@discussions.microsoft.com> writes
>Hi everyone,
>
>Recently I bought my first tablet computer (a Sahara slate (model i440D))
>and I noticed while trying to select text in a large number of programs (text
>editors, web browsers, word processors, etc.), that when I drag the pen over
>some text, only words are selected - not text fragments.
>
>Say, for example, you have the following line of text in a text editor such
>as PSPad or UltraEdit:
>
>"I'm having fun!"
>
>If I drag the pen over any part of the word "having", the entire word is
>immediately selected. If I try to select just the letters "av", the entire
>word "having" is STILL selected. In other words, I can't seem to select any
>fragment of text that the system doesn't consider to be a 'word'.
>
>Now, as I said at the beginning, this 'functionality' appears to work in
>many different programs. There is one text editor program which allows me
>to select any text fragments I want - "TextPad" - but I don't know why it
>works in this program. Needless to say, I'm currently using "TextPad" for
>all my text editing because it allows this.
>
>So I guess my question is - has anyone else encountered this problem? And
>is there any way around it?
>
>Any help most appreciated.
>
>
>Thanks.
>
I don't know for certain, but my guess would be that this behaviour is a
consequence of the faulty(?) editor's all using the Microsoft Rich Text
editor library. TextPad does not (AFAIK) use the Rich Text DLL, and
consequently it does not exhibit the fault/feature!

In MS Word under Options/Edit there is a checkbox that enables "When
selecting, automatically select entire word". I suspect that the Rich
Text editor library has something like this option enabled. I have no
idea how to turn it off in the Rich Text library. Have any of the
editors got an appropriate option?

There is probably a registry key involved, but Rich Text is not well
documented by Microsoft. You could try raising a fault with them.

Most programs that use the Rich Text library simply hand over a buffer
to the Rich text DLL, and it deals with the edit process. The
interaction between the Rich Text Library and the Tablet TIP is
different on Vista than on XP. Programs that behave one way on XP do
something different on XP - but the interface is not well documented.

If you get any joy, please let us know

--
Peter R Cook

Thanks Peter. I think you've identified the most likely cause. I'll speak
to Microsoft. Incidentally, I've also noticed problems using JEdit (a
Java-based text editor) - either my left clicks are ignored, or they're
interpreted as double clicks. JEdit also suffers from the word selection
problem. Apart from this, I haven't had ANY other problems using any other
software, so I don't think my pen is malfunctioning.


"Invalid" wrote:

> In message <63258B3F-FE1A-43EC-8B6E-F2259E927F57@microsoft.com>,
> Stretch65 <Stretch65@discussions.microsoft.com> writes
> >Hi everyone,
> >
> >Recently I bought my first tablet computer (a Sahara slate (model i440D))
> >and I noticed while trying to select text in a large number of programs (text
> >editors, web browsers, word processors, etc.), that when I drag the pen over
> >some text, only words are selected - not text fragments.
> >
> >Say, for example, you have the following line of text in a text editor such
> >as PSPad or UltraEdit:
> >
> >"I'm having fun!"
> >
> >If I drag the pen over any part of the word "having", the entire word is
> >immediately selected. If I try to select just the letters "av", the entire
> >word "having" is STILL selected. In other words, I can't seem to select any
> >fragment of text that the system doesn't consider to be a 'word'.
> >
> >Now, as I said at the beginning, this 'functionality' appears to work in
> >many different programs. There is one text editor program which allows me
> >to select any text fragments I want - "TextPad" - but I don't know why it
> >works in this program. Needless to say, I'm currently using "TextPad" for
> >all my text editing because it allows this.
> >
> >So I guess my question is - has anyone else encountered this problem? And
> >is there any way around it?
> >
> >Any help most appreciated.
> >
> >
> >Thanks.
> >
> I don't know for certain, but my guess would be that this behaviour is a
> consequence of the faulty(?) editor's all using the Microsoft Rich Text
> editor library. TextPad does not (AFAIK) use the Rich Text DLL, and
> consequently it does not exhibit the fault/feature!
>
> In MS Word under Options/Edit there is a checkbox that enables "When
> selecting, automatically select entire word". I suspect that the Rich
> Text editor library has something like this option enabled. I have no
> idea how to turn it off in the Rich Text library. Have any of the
> editors got an appropriate option?
>
> There is probably a registry key involved, but Rich Text is not well
> documented by Microsoft. You could try raising a fault with them.
>
> Most programs that use the Rich Text library simply hand over a buffer
> to the Rich text DLL, and it deals with the edit process. The
> interaction between the Rich Text Library and the Tablet TIP is
> different on Vista than on XP. Programs that behave one way on XP do
> something different on XP - but the interface is not well documented.
>
> If you get any joy, please let us know
>
> --
> Peter R Cook
>

I think the behavior that you're describing makes much more sense 99% of the
time, but the 1% it can be annoying. What should work however, is dragging
the selection anchor "backwards" a little which should kick it into
character selection mode. It's hard to describe but lets say in your example
"I'm having fun" if you click on the "v" in "having" and start to drag
towards the right, the whole word will be selected. Now (without lifting the
pen) backtrack left to before the "v" and the selection should snap to the
character. Then start dragging right again. It takes a little practice but
it becomes second nature. In fact, I had to think about it to remember what
I actually do to select char by char (as a developer it comes up quite a
bit).

--
Josh Einstein (Tablet PC MVP)
Einstein Technologies
Tablet Enhancements for Outlook - Try it free: www.tabletoutlook.com


"Stretch65" <Stretch65@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:63258B3F-FE1A-43EC-8B6E-F2259E927F57@microsoft.com...
> Hi everyone,
>
> Recently I bought my first tablet computer (a Sahara slate (model i440D))
> and I noticed while trying to select text in a large number of programs
> (text
> editors, web browsers, word processors, etc.), that when I drag the pen
> over
> some text, only words are selected - not text fragments.
>
> Say, for example, you have the following line of text in a text editor
> such
> as PSPad or UltraEdit:
>
> "I'm having fun!"
>
> If I drag the pen over any part of the word "having", the entire word is
> immediately selected. If I try to select just the letters "av", the
> entire
> word "having" is STILL selected. In other words, I can't seem to select
> any
> fragment of text that the system doesn't consider to be a 'word'.
>
> Now, as I said at the beginning, this 'functionality' appears to work in
> many different programs. There is one text editor program which allows
> me
> to select any text fragments I want - "TextPad" - but I don't know why it
> works in this program. Needless to say, I'm currently using "TextPad"
> for
> all my text editing because it allows this.
>
> So I guess my question is - has anyone else encountered this problem?
> And
> is there any way around it?
>
> Any help most appreciated.
>
>
> Thanks.
>

Thanks for the advice, Josh, but I have to say I've tried this and it does
NOT work - at least not on my machine. I've tried keeping the pen down and
dragging in either direction.

In both cases, the next or previous 'word' is added to the selection. I've
even tried lifting the pen for a moment and then dragging but it still
doesn't work! It's so annoying.

Does anyone know how I raise this with Microsoft - preferably without having
to pay a fee - after all, it does appear to be a bug?



"Josh Einstein" wrote:

> I think the behavior that you're describing makes much more sense 99% of the
> time, but the 1% it can be annoying. What should work however, is dragging
> the selection anchor "backwards" a little which should kick it into
> character selection mode. It's hard to describe but lets say in your example
> "I'm having fun" if you click on the "v" in "having" and start to drag
> towards the right, the whole word will be selected. Now (without lifting the
> pen) backtrack left to before the "v" and the selection should snap to the
> character. Then start dragging right again. It takes a little practice but
> it becomes second nature. In fact, I had to think about it to remember what
> I actually do to select char by char (as a developer it comes up quite a
> bit).
>
> --
> Josh Einstein (Tablet PC MVP)
> Einstein Technologies
> Tablet Enhancements for Outlook - Try it free: www.tabletoutlook.com
>
>
> "Stretch65" <Stretch65@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:63258B3F-FE1A-43EC-8B6E-F2259E927F57@microsoft.com...
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > Recently I bought my first tablet computer (a Sahara slate (model i440D))
> > and I noticed while trying to select text in a large number of programs
> > (text
> > editors, web browsers, word processors, etc.), that when I drag the pen
> > over
> > some text, only words are selected - not text fragments.
> >
> > Say, for example, you have the following line of text in a text editor
> > such
> > as PSPad or UltraEdit:
> >
> > "I'm having fun!"
> >
> > If I drag the pen over any part of the word "having", the entire word is
> > immediately selected. If I try to select just the letters "av", the
> > entire
> > word "having" is STILL selected. In other words, I can't seem to select
> > any
> > fragment of text that the system doesn't consider to be a 'word'.
> >
> > Now, as I said at the beginning, this 'functionality' appears to work in
> > many different programs. There is one text editor program which allows
> > me
> > to select any text fragments I want - "TextPad" - but I don't know why it
> > works in this program. Needless to say, I'm currently using "TextPad"
> > for
> > all my text editing because it allows this.
> >
> > So I guess my question is - has anyone else encountered this problem?
> > And
> > is there any way around it?
> >
> > Any help most appreciated.
> >
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
>