Live Writer – Tablet PC Frustrations

While using Motion’s newest Tablet PC, the F5, this past month, I’ve grown to really appreciate the elegance and practicality that a well designed slate Tablet pc offers. It is amazing how much a slate will force you to work differently and exercise a different part of your brain – the creative and personal part. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting back to slate land, thanks to the F5.

Being forced to ink more, I have begun to notice some inconsistencies in how the TIP is handled in some of Microsoft’s own software, namely Windows Live Writer.

For example, the title and article text fields do not display to floating TIP icon, which I have grown to rely on in my inking experience. The only way to use the TIP is by docking it at the top or bottom, and activating it from the taskbar. By comparison, though, any of the other fields like tags, hyperlinks, and other properties do display the floating TIP icon. By way of another comparison, the subject and email text fields in Windows Live mail also display the floating TIP icon.

The F5 I’m using has Windows XP SP 2 installed, so I’m also seeing just how much improved the recognizer and TIP experience is in Vista compared to the XP Tablet Edition. We have much to appreciate in Vista. If there was ever a reason to upgrade to Vista, Tablet pc is it.