Absolute Beginners Guide to Tablet PCs

Visio 2003 allows you to draw as well as drag-and-drop objects. With ink, you can add fine touches to your diagrams, and annotate them as you go. To add ink to a Visio diagram, simply tap on the Ink Tool button on the button bar, as shown in Figure 15.25.

Figure 15.25. Tap the Ink Tool button to add ink to your Visio diagram.

You can also display the Ink toolbar by tapping on View, then Toolbars, and checking the Ink toolbar. You will then have five pens to choose from; these pens can be modified in the Customize Pens dialog, which is accessible from the Pen Tool drop-down list on the main toolbar.

When you add ink to your drawing, you will see a selection box surrounding the ink after a brief moment, as shown in Figure 15.26.

Figure 15.26. Ink will automatically be clumped together as a single object until you choose another tool or tap the Close Ink Shape button on the Ink toolbar.

The ink you use is treated as an object. When you are finished drawing a shape, you can tap the Close Ink Shape button on the Ink toolbar to keep it as an object separate from other ink. Otherwise, all the ink you lay down while you have the ink tool open will be combined as a single object.

Because the ink is treated as an object, there is no annotation capability (where the annotations can be viewed/hidden).

The Absolute Minimum

Here are the key points to take away from this chapter:

  • Microsoft Office 2003 has the native ability to handle ink. Office 2003 is better for the Tablet PC than Office XP.

  • Install the Office XP Pack for Tablet PC even if you have Office 2003.

  • There are three modes of inking in Office: annotations (where ink can be placed anywhere on the document, and can also be hidden); drawing and writing (ink is inserted into the document, with or without a box, and cannot be hidden); and comments (where collaborative comments can be written instead of typed into Word).

  • If you use Outlook for email, enable Word as the email editor so you can use ink in your email messages.

  • Ink in PowerPoint can add new dimensions to your digital presentations, enabling on-the-fly annotations, drawings, and note-taking of audience comments. It turns PowerPoint into a full-fledged digital overhead projector.

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