The usual "rubber band selection" obviously does not work on a tablet PC. By
this I mean, that one starts a selection by placing the mouse somewhere
"outside " the items that one wants to select then clicks and - with pressed
mouse button - moves to the opposite corner of a rectangle where one
releases the mouse button and thereby selects all elements that are within
the rectangle that gets drawn during that gesture.

When I try this mouse gesture on my tablet PC, then either nothing at all
happens or I get a no-entry sign as soon as I move the mouse while pressed
down (to simulate the mouse movement with pressed mouse button).

Can one enable rubber band selection somehow on a tablet PC?

Michael

What Tablet PC do you have? It works here, like drawing a box around
several items but without holding down the button. Try that.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
http://forums.mobilepcworld.net
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

"Michael Moser" <sorry@too.much.spam.com> wrote in message
news:ON5f7tMjIHA.5660@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> The usual "rubber band selection" obviously does not work on a tablet PC.
> By this I mean, that one starts a selection by placing the mouse somewhere
> "outside " the items that one wants to select then clicks and - with
> pressed mouse button - moves to the opposite corner of a rectangle where
> one releases the mouse button and thereby selects all elements that are
> within the rectangle that gets drawn during that gesture.
>
> When I try this mouse gesture on my tablet PC, then either nothing at all
> happens or I get a no-entry sign as soon as I move the mouse while pressed
> down (to simulate the mouse movement with pressed mouse button).
>
> Can one enable rubber band selection somehow on a tablet PC?
>
> Michael

While tablet specific apps can use the method described by Chris, other
apps designed for mice will probably have problems...

....more details on the exact app in question as well as the tablet
make/model and the stylus design (i.e. switches on the stylus) would
help help.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Beverly Howard [Ms-MVP/MobileDev] wrote:
> While tablet specific apps can use the method described by Chris,
> other apps designed for mice will probably have problems...
>
> ...more details on the exact app in question as well as the tablet
> make/model and the stylus design (i.e. switches on the stylus) would
> help help.
>
> Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Yes, it seems, that some apps only support multi-seclection using Ctrl
and Shift keys (which I find extremely tedious with the on-screen
keyboard), not using rubber band selections. One application where I
recently had that problem when I tried to reorganize some files was
Eclipse (www.eclipse.org).

The tablet I am using is a Motion Computing LE1700 und Vista
Professional.

Michael

>> which I find extremely tedious with the on-screen keyboard <<

Can you elaborate?

May be because of ppc experience, since the osk control and shift keys
are "sticky" I find this to be pretty easy.

In addition, haven't looked in a while, but wonder if one of the stylus
utils might offer shift and control options.

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

I agree completely with Beverly's note about tedious.
Thought I would share a workaround that is working well for me.

I enabled " pen flicks" and changed. two of my flicks (ie. the default
"delete" and the "cut" as I routinely accidentally flicked things: off my
tablet literally.

The flick now reads "toggle CTRL" & "toggle SHIFT"
(flick once to get the keystroke, then flick again when ready to keystroke
it back off.)

Hope this helps you all.

"Beverly Howard [Ms-MVP/MobileDev]" wrote:

> >> which I find extremely tedious with the on-screen keyboard <<
>
> Can you elaborate?
>
> May be because of ppc experience, since the osk control and shift keys
> are "sticky" I find this to be pretty easy.
>
> In addition, haven't looked in a while, but wonder if one of the stylus
> utils might offer shift and control options.
>
> Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]
>

Great feedback! Thanks!

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

I came back to offer another post for how to actually use the rubber band
selector... I finds figured it out.

when doing a selection (ie, in Windows Explorer) try thinking backwards. By
this I mean, locate the last item on the list that you want, then press your
pen so the pen touches the window background just below & to the right of
your win item. Hold the pen to the screen as you draw a box up to the left
side of where your first selection is, then let go of the screen. you should
then see the items selected Try-it!

For the ctrl-selecting, if you have better pen aiming skills than I, the
upper left side of each icon (or the left side in detail view) has a little
check box to use for this function. of you're good, you can click a check
box-(rather than the item itself) and from there locate the next item to
click that check box. You should see both items checked & highlighted so you
know you did it correctly.. I prefer my pen flick method for CTRL selects!
but that is how you do them.

I hope this helps!
- - - -

"Beverly Howard [Ms-MVP/MobileDev]" wrote:

> Great feedback! Thanks!
>
> Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]
>

Ron G. wrote:
> I came back to offer another post for how to actually use the rubber
> band selector... I finds figured it out.
>
> when doing a selection (ie, in Windows Explorer) try thinking
> backwards. By this I mean, locate the last item on the list that you
> want, then press your pen so the pen touches the window background
> just below & to the right of your win item. Hold the pen to the
> screen as you draw a box up to the left side of where your first
> selection is, then let go of the screen. you should then see the
> items selected Try-it!
>
> For the ctrl-selecting, if you have better pen aiming skills than I,
> the upper left side of each icon (or the left side in detail view)
> has a little check box to use for this function. of you're good, you
> can click a check box-(rather than the item itself) and from there
> locate the next item to click that check box. You should see both
> items checked & highlighted so you know you did it correctly.. I
> prefer my pen flick method for CTRL selects! but that is how you do
> them.
>
> I hope this helps!
> - - - -

Hi Ron,
thanks for the feedback!

However, Windows Explorer is exactly one of those apps, with which I have
*no* problems, since it allows such "rubber-band" selections. My problem is
only with apps that do *not* provide this und instead require shift or
control key to be pressed while selecting multiple objects.

Cheers,
Michael