I'm working on an InkShow to highlight some of the new features of Bluebeam PDF Revu 6.0, so I found these latest tips from Bluebeam Insider to be quite beneficial.

Is there a way to go back to the old look of Revu, prior to 6.0?

While we don't have a time machine to go back to your old Revu interface, with version 6.2 you can now choose "classic mode". This will sync your Revu interface with the color settings you've selected for your Windows desktop.

Here's how to change to "classic mode"

Am I able to Search a PDF for particular key words?

Yes, using the Search tool, you can search not only the current PDF document but you can also search all open documents or even entire folders. Then, check off individual search results to Highlight, Strikethrough or Redact, just to name a few.

See the time saving features of Search

Last week came word that Microsoft had to delay the release of XP SP3 and Vista SP1 due to some complications with the Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System.

Well, it looks like the issues have been worked out temporarily and the service packs will now be available again via Windows Update. Microsoft developed a filter that will prohibit machines running Dynamics RMS from installing either of the two updates. Microsoft is still working on a fix that will resolve the issue completely.

Via News.com

Microsoft is continuing to build upon the Zune service with a new software release that brings television shows to its video offerings, as well as other software enhancements. Launch your Zune software to get prompted for the new update. I'll be doing the same later today.

By the way, we are experimenting with some podcast production changes that we hope will finally allow our podcasts to be synced to Zunes.

Microsoft Corp. today announced that Zune, the company’s all-in-one digital entertainment brand, is adding new software features and content to the Zune online store, music community and Zune Pass monthly subscription service. Zune is expanding its video store to include downloads of popular television shows from COMEDY CENTRAL, FUNimation^® Entertainment, MTV, NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, Starz Media (including Manga Entertainment), Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship^® (UFC) and VH1 that consumers can sync to their device and enjoy on the go. In addition, by further integrating the Zune music community into the core experience, the new software makes it easier for people to find and listen to the music they want, share it with friends, and take it with them wherever they go — whether they choose a Zune Pass or a la carte MP3 downloads. Zune Pass subscribers can now set up automatic, real-time feeds of the music their friends are listening to and add those songs to their collection or Zune device.

New updates to the Zune online music community include the following:

• Syncing Zune Cards to a device. Consumers simply drag and drop Zune Cards from friends to a Zune device and get updates on what friends are listening to every time they sync. If the song is available with Zune Pass, subscribers automatically have the full tracks on their Zune while nonsubscribers have full album information and artwork. If consumers hear something they like, they can add it to their collection with one click. Next time the user syncs his or her Zune, he or she will be asked to confirm the purchase.

• Enhanced friends search. Consumers now have the ability to add their name, location and bio to their Zune music community profile, making it easier than ever to find their friends.

• Instant friends. The true power of the Zune online music community is unlocked when friends are added and consumers can follow the music they’re listening to. Now, when new Zune owners join the Zune online music community, they’ll find the top music editors from the Zune Marketplace team already added to their friends list, giving them a head start in finding new music.

• Artist and album reviews. Inside the Zune music community, members have the ability to write and post their own reviews for artists and albums, providing another community-driven feature to support the exploration and discovery of music. The music community helps to find and recommend the best music.

• Reputation badges. Now members of the Zune community can earn badges that are displayed on their Zune Card showing they’re passionate fans or active members.

• Windows Live connections. Windows Live Messenger contacts will now be able to see what users are listening to via the Zune software. Clicking on the tracks displayed in the “Now Playing” feature will connect the Windows Live Messenger friend directly to that artist’s page on the Zune Social.

• Auto playlists. Users can create an auto playlist that updates itself automatically as new music is added.

• Browsing videos. Consumers can browse their video collection by genre and series, plus they can preview videos before they play them on full screen.

• Editing album and track information. Users are able to edit track or album information (metadata) quickly via multi-select and drag-and-drop. The advanced metadata editing features make it easy to edit multiple tracks or survey albums and artist information.

• Organizing collections. In addition to sorting by artist or album, consumers can now sort by genre. While browsing by genre they can further sort music by artist, album or release year.

• Gapless playback. Consumers will now be able to listen to an album without the brief gap between tracks, both on their Zune and in the Zune software. This is a must-have for live-concert recordings and compilation albums.

• Syncing groups. Zune software now syncs to multiple Zune players simultaneously. Users can prepare which content on their computer to sync even when their Zune isn’t connected. Consumers can create custom sync groups for music, pictures and videos.

• Zune reminders.

Congratulations to the following GBM Readers who won a 1 year 60 GB SugarSync account!

• Tom Escott
• Sharon (aka Sbtablet)
• Medic
• Steve Beller
• Adam the Dentist
• Benz145
• Eve
• Raymond Schaf
• Steven Vance
• Jamie Wright

Look for an email from us and SugarSync regarding your account upgrade to 60GB! Special thanks to SugarSync for sponsoring this contest.

For more information on SugarSync, stay tuned. I'll be doing another write-up later this week. In the meantime, be sure to checkout SugarSync and see if it might need your file syncing needs!

A number of folks are very excited about Xobni (that’s Inbox spelled backwards) the Outlook plug-in that promises to make handling your email a little easier. So for all of those who didn’t get into the closed beta, now’s your chance to experience this for yourself. Both The New York Times and VentureBeat are running articles on the release. You can download the public beta here.

Microsoft announced that it is withdrawing its bid to acquire Yahoo! after the two could not settle on a price. More info and the text of a letter to Yahoo! from Steve Ballmer can be found here and more info here.

One of the most common things I do with clients and friends computers is to remove the OEM pre-installed anti-virus and spyware. They are typically the worst culprits for a slow running computer. I normally install AVG Free Edition, ensure they have Windows Defender, and make sure the default Windows Firewall is on. I've also experimented with NOD32, which is really good, too.

What do you use for anti-virus + spyware protection, and why?

I may be wrong on this, but I think the HTC Shift is the only UMPC currently shipping with the new Origami Experience 2.0. I’ve had a chance to get my hands on a pre-release copy and will be reporting in soon. OE 2.0 will be made available in the future for public download.

But in the meantime if you want to know a bit more about OE 2.0 you might want to check out Jenn’s post on Pocketables. She’s inserted some pictures in her post that lays out the 10 page mini-manual that comes with the HTC Shift. 

Intriguingly, after walking through the manual, she closes her post with this comment:

So that's Origami Experience 2.0. It's a nice finger-friendly interface, to be sure, but I never use it. The Shift's 7-inch screen makes navigating Vista easy (no need for Origami Central then) and Origami Now essentially duplicates the function of SnapVUE, which doesn't rely on Vista and has stellar battery life (about 2 days). If it had been an option on my Shift, I wouldn't have chosen it. But that's just me.

Hat tip to jkOnTheRun

A short while ago word came down that there would not be a fix for those running Vista X64 machines for the missing Send to OneNote functionality until the next release of OneNote. Daniel Escapa of the OneNote team has posted a workaround that he uses that sort of kinda offers some help in the matter.

Essentially you install a converter program to output image files when you choose to “Print” and use this method to print a TIFF file into OneNote. The downside? The TIFF file isn’t OCR’d so if there is text invovled it won’t be searchable.

I’ll have to give this a try on the HP tx2051.

More details on Dan’s OneNote Blog

Interesting little meme on Twitter this morning started by Robert Scoble with this Tweet:

My Microsoft Office trial is over. I am not spending $450 just to get Outlook. Gmail and Google Calendar win this game: big time

That prompted quite a few others to chirp in and say that with the exception of Outlook and OneNote they’ve moved to other solutions, mostly on the web.

How about you? Are you still using Microsoft Office applications and if so which ones? I know I still use Word and Excel quite a bit because the functionality I need isn’t there yet in online solutions.

Don’t forget you can follow GottaBeMobile.com on Twitter.

We are all familiar with the Pen Flick Gestures in Vista. What about hover-based gestures that get activated without the need to press the pen to the screen? How could technology like this helping you with your Tablet PC experience? Take it a step further - what about capacitive-touch based hover gestures? How about multi-touch hover-based gestures?

Here is a video and PDF paper by Microsoft Research's Ken Hinckley and Tovi Grossman exploring the idea of hover-based gestures.

Hold the train. Just as news was starting to spread that Microsoft was about to release XP Service Pack 3, comes word of yet another delay. According to CNet’s News.com:

The software maker said there is a "compatibility issue" between the XP service pack and Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System, a retail chain management program for small and midsize businesses.

Microsoft finalized the code for Windows XP SP3 last week and had planned to make it broadly available starting Tuesday.

"In order to make sure customers have the best possible experience, we have decided to delay releasing Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center," the company said in a statement.

The glitch also exists between Microsoft Dynamics RMS and Windows Vista Service Pack 1, though that product has already been broadly released. Microsoft started pushing out Vista SP1 last week via Automatic Updates.

We have quite the talented group of readers here at GottaBeMobile.com. One of our readers, Aaron Walker, just started his own eBook publishing company, Walk Broad Publishing and has published his first children's picture book, "Good Morning, Friend Moon".

I recently had the pleasure of reading "Good Morning, Friend Moon" to my children the other night and they absolutely loved it. The illustrations really brought the story to life. It is available via download for only $4.99

Here's the great part: "Good Morning, Friend Moon" was written and illustrated entirely using a Fujitsu 4010D Tablet PC. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Aaron about this project and wanted to share some of that with you.

Where did the idea for "Good Morning, Friend Moon" and Walk Broad Publishing come from?

Walk Broad Publishing got started because I wanted to be able to share ebooks with my 6 year old son at bed time story time. I searched and, whereas I found a few, they usually used some sort of additional software or required an internet connection to view.

I figured there had to be a better way.

The story really was inspired by my son asking me why was the Moon still up one morning while the Sun was in the sky. Not knowing the scientific reason, I did what any parent would do, I made up a good story to tell him :) That was the germ of the idea that produced "Good Morning, Friend Moon" and started Walk Broad Publishing.

You are quite the artist! My children loved your illustrations. What hardware and software did you use to illustrate the book?

I am a committed tablet pc user. The entire book, and website, was done on a Fujitsu Lifebook 4010D. The drawing application I used was Corel's Painter Essentials. The drawings were then imported into Microsoft Publisher 2007 for layout and scripting, then converted to pdf using PDFCreator. Everything was done on the Fujitsu.

When reading the book to my children the other night, I was using the Dell Latitude XT. The flexibility of eBooks are the number of ways in which they can be read. How has the book been optimized for reading?

The reason "Good Morning, Friend Moon" is formatted with pictures on top and words on the bottom is to facilitate helping children with word recognition while also allowing them to still see the pictures. While reading with my 6-year-old son, I like to point to the words as I'm reading and see which words he has learned. It makes things a bit more interactive.  Some picture books have words top, bottom and middle which takes away from the presentation of the book page as a whole while still helping with reading. 

The book is best viewed on tablets (IMHO) using Adobe's Digital Editions in portrait mode.

I've also been following the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, iRex iLiad and the rest. Whereas I don't have any of those devices yet, it occurred to me that parents who did, would probably appreciate good, wholesome picture books to share with their children.

They can let their children read the book in the back seat while traveling with the Kindle for example.

I know the book will lose something in the translation going from full-color to black and white, but there isn't anything else out there. One day e-ink displays will be in color but, in the meantime, parents should have good picture books to share.

Or, if they are tablet users like myself, they can have them for their tablets or devices like the HTC Advantage and any of the UMPCs that support portrait screen rotation.

I try and make it clear on the FAQ on the website that it is not recommended to be viewed on a smartphone, although I'd be interested in finding out about how it would view on an iPhone or other small device with a larger screen, and if there is a way to tweak the setting for a passable reading experience.

 

As an author and publisher, what are your feelings about Digital Rights Management (DRM)?

I currently have no DRM on the books. I believe that people are basically honest and those that can will pay the modest fee for the books I am offering.

They can then transfer it to any device that reads a pdf file and I've tried to optimize the file for the Reader and Kindle as much as possible while not actually owning either device.

Each person who buys this book (or any book from Walk Broad Publishing for that matter) can download the book up to four times at no additional cost.

Being an ebook reader, I know how important it is to be able to transfer a book on my tablet to my phone or read it on my desktop. When people get a new computer or new device, I don't believe readers should be penalized for wanting to keep the book they've already paid for.

Do you have any other books in the works?

I am already at work on the next book "Natty McGumm and the Lazette Street Gazette" that was written and edited in OneNote using only the pen.

And there will probably be at least two more books featuring Friend Moon, Friend Sun and Friend Star.

How can folks stay up with what you doing?

Of course, they can visit Walk Broad Publishing to view current books for sale. I also have a blog where I write about upcoming projects and more.

I know I'll be following your blog as my children will want to know what Friend Moon and Friend Sun are up to. Keep up the great work.

We've got five exclusive Windows Live Mesh invitations to giveaway to some lucky GBM readers that would like to give it a try. As you might expect with a tech preview, there is a lot of functionality missing right now, but you'll be able to get in early, test it, play with it, and use it more as clients, devices, and syncing functionality are added.

Leave a comment here telling us about your favorite GBM InkShow, Shortcut, or news post. Include your email address in the email field of the comment submission form so we can get in touch with you. We'll pick from among all the submissions 5 lucky winners. Submissions are open until 10:00 PM MST.

By the way, if you want to try out a fully working syncing application across multiple devices and platforms, be sure to also enter our SugarSync contest. Windows Live Mesh is coming and looks really promising, but complete syncing via SugarSync is here now.

If you’re interested in what’s going on with Origami Experience 2.0 you might want to head over to the The Windows Experience Blog and check out Brandon LeBlanc’s post, Taking a Closer Look at the Origami Experience 2.0. That post is the intro to a 4 part series that Brandon is planning that covers web browsing, the interface to control your media, Origami Now, and Origami Picture Password. Matt, Rob and I got to check this out in Beta earlier this year. I won’t dare speak for Rob or Matt, but I came away particularly unimpressed. I’m well on record saying that I think that the UMPC form factor has seen its short day, and the fact that this application from Microsoft is still trying to find its way out the door only adds some fuel to that fire in my opinion.

That said, that’s my opinion and may not be yours, so if you’re interested, check out the post here.

Seems like everybody has been playing around with Xobni lately and for good reason - it's and interesting tool to add to Outlook.

I have five - but let's try and help everybody else out too - You don't HAVE to, but it sure would be great if we could help out the GBM community...  Why??  Well, because when Rob put up his 10 invites, there were 60+ comments...  that's a lot of comments for 10 invites...

I will put up my 5 - then - people who get those 5 invites, it would be great if you head over to this thread and share just a couple of them.  If each person does that, then everybody can get one!  Follow the lead of ascalon and everybody can enjoy - even if it's just one or 2 of your invites.

First Five to post here start (or kill) the sharing frenzy!!  NOTE - make sure and leave your email address in blank on the form - if in the right place, nobody will see it but the GBM staff.

Ken Hinckley just let us know that version 1.1.425 of InkSeine has been released. Ken has all the details on the new release, but I've listed them here as a summary. Because AutoUpdate is now live in InkSeine, you should be able to get this new build by simply starting and then exiting InkSeine. If you have trouble, just head over to grab the new build. Be sure to visit our InkSeine forum to discuss this new build!

In addition, Office Labs just launched. This is a new website featuring some of the latest prototypes being developed by Microsoft interns and employees. Office Labs is a site you'll want to visit often to try out some of the latest ideas being floated about Microsoft.

New InkSeine features and bug fixes :

• Rotation and Reflection: InkSeine now supports rotation of any lasso selection.
• Antialiased Page Thumbnails: It's now much easier to recognize pages from their thumbnails.
• Search for & Open OneNote sections. Previous builds of InkSeine only handled OneNote pages that were saved into individual .one files. InkSeine now returns OneNote sections with its search results, and you can open them and insert hyperlinks to them in your InkSeine notes.
• File association fixed: The association for InkSeine files (.iks extension) now installs correctly.
• Saves the last Pen and Highlighter: InkSeine remembers which pen and highlighter you were using so they are ready to go when you next launch InkSeine, or open another note.
• Performance improvements, particularly while dragging selections.
• Improved Stroke Eraser: It no longer leaves "debris" on the screen on occasion
• Tool Ring bug fix: The Tool Ring will no longer activate the camera or the close icon if you happen to end your pen stroke over them while circling-to-scroll or while using the tool ring as a flickpad on Vista.
• AutoUpdate server is online! With the launch of the Microsoft Office Labs site, the Office Labs AutoUpdate server is also now online.
• To get updates, your computer must be on the internet. Start InkSeine and make sure that it has been running for a few minutes. When you exit, you will be prompted to install the update (build 1.1.425.0). Note: Make sure that "Automatically check for updates" is checked in the upper-right corner of the InkSeine options dialog. You can open the options from the question-mark menu. You may disable checks for automatic updates by unchecking this option, or by opting out during your initial installation of InkSeine.
  

On Sunday afternoons, I normally sit back in a quiet area in our house to do some reading, as well as planning for the next week. I'm normally in tablet mode, sitting back in a recliner, working in MindManager for the planning part. The really nice part of a Sunday afternoon is turning the Tablet off and getting in to some good reading ( which typically leads to a great nap! )

In our weekend discussion of why a person should look at a Tablet PC, the value of the below MindManager map is hard to explain to someone. Notice the personal handwriting, links to Outlook emails, links to sections in OneNote, and more. This is typically a map I'll work out of the entire week, make changes / additions, etc. Sure, a person can MindMap and hyperlink with a regular notebook, but nothing compares to working in tablet mode and doing it with a pen. I'm able to stay much more creative when working with a pen than with a keyboard.

Ok, time to run. There is a big, fluffy pillow calling my name.

Bluebeam has just released version 6.2 of their popular PDF annotating tool, Bluebeam PDF Revu. This new version brings some enhanced Tablet PC features as requested by Tablet PC users.

Download the update here. This update is free for version 6.0 customers. We are planning an InkShow on this new version within the first week or two of May.

Peter Noyes, one of the developers that works on Bluebeam PDF Revu, wrote up this nice description of the new Tablet PC features in version 6.2:

In addition to many of the new features for 6.0 and 6.2 there are two specific Tablet PC features. The first is pressure sensitivity for the Pen tool. The pressure sensitivity is on by default, but can be turned off in Edit->Preferences under Tablet. The second Tablet PC specific feature is copy/paste compatibility with other Ink aware applications. However, in order to have this functionality work under Windows XP Tablet Edition a few updates may need to be installed. First SP1 for the .NET Framework 2.0 needs to be installed, and secondly Microsoft Update (KB900722) may need to be installed. On Vista it should work fine without needing any updates. The copy/paste interoperability can also be turned off under Edit->Preferences for users who would prefer to copy the recognized text instead.

Additionally there have been a few new features that are not specific to Tablet PCs per say but may still be of interest to Tablet PC users. The first is the Typewriter tool, which now allows text placement without having to first define a bounding box, you can just click anywhere and start typing, and our TIP is compatible with this feature. The typewriter tool is ideal for filling out forms. The second feature is a Viewer profile. Revu has supported profiles for several versions, but for 6.0 we moved the profile button (the button of the person with the bow-tie) to the Navigation bar. The user can now choose a Viewer profile which hides most of the user interface giving the user something very close to a full screen mode. If the user wants to ink while in this mode they could open the panel with the toolchest (should be the left panel) and have it show only 1 row of buttons to still have a large amount of screen real-estate available to the drawing while having access to pen tools.

In addition to the work I do at GottaBeMobile.com, I also have a side project I've headed up from the early days of Tablet PCs  - TabletBible.com, which brings inkable Bible texts, and other popular texts, to the Tablet PC for free.

In partnership with Nelson Bibles, I'm pleased to announce the availability of the New King James Version for OneNote 2007. It is now available for download at TabletBible.com for free.

Each book in the Bible is a separate OneNote section, with each chapter in the book belonging to a page within that section. Using the built-in functionality of OneNote 2007, you can insert your own ink notes, view the Bible text and notes in full screen mode, search your ink and text notes, sync your Bible notes between multiple computers, record the audio of sermons and play it back in time with your notes (with permission of course !), and insert additional pages and sections. The text has been specially formatted to allow plenty of space for marking up and taking ink notes: wide margins, double spacing, and more.

In addition to the NKJV, the English Standard Version for OneNote 2007 is also available.

If you would like to contribute financially to this effort, click here. All donations help offset licensing fees, hosting costs, and the time it takes to produce these texts and keep them up to date with current software versions. I'm currently working on bringing all GoBinder formatted texts current with OneNote 2007.