Here's my experience with 2 tablet PCs and writing on PP slides.
Bottom line...finally, both behave flawlessly.
You don't mention what software you use. I started with Office XP (PP
2002) SP1 and then moved to Office 2003 (*without* the latest SP)
because of minor glitches with the writing capability in 2002. Both
PCs have the Win XP Tablet Edition including all critical patches (and
*only* critical patches) from windowsupdate upto but *excluding* SP2.
[You may have realized I am not a big fan of installing the latest
support releases. Bottom line is that I cannot afford glitches in how
the computers behave and tend to update systems only in 'down periods'
that are sufficiently long for me to fully test new releases.]
In PP there are two ways to switch to pen mode. One is the CTRL-
P/CTRL-A keystroke combinations for pen/arrow mode. The other is to
use the pop-up menu/submenus on the lower left side of the screen.
With Office XP (PP2002), there is a downloadable 'tablet update' (or
whatever it is called by MS) for tablet operations. Get it. It's a
very useful update though, if I remember correctly, it doesn't do
anything to resolve problems with writing on a PP slide.
PP2002 slideshow operation: The keystroke combination -- after a few
iterations -- caused PP to freeze/crash. On the other hand, using the
menu on the lower left worked just fine. However, it is inelegant
since the audience can watch the presenter fumble her/his way through
the menu and submenus. Worse, the first option is 'end slide show' --
something that can be -- and *is* -- inadvertently selected!
[Another problem was that in pen mode, the slide show could be advanced
with the ENTER key, but not with the (radio frequency) remote control.
That necessitated the pen/arrow mode switches since, otherwise, one
could just leave the slideshow in pen mode.]
This problem -- desperation can be a wonderful motivator -- was the
major reason for upgrading to Office 2003. [In all fairness, I should
point out that like with any changed product other problems may arise.
For me, the one that stands out above all else is the Office 2003 help
system. It is a pain to use and, in some ways, less useful than its
predecessors. You, of course, may have some other issues to consider
-- or maybe none at all. ;-)]
The plus side is that so far I have been unable to crash PP2003 with
switches between pen and arrow mode using either keystroke or menu
selection or a combination of the two. It works much more reliably
than PP2002. Also, the menu on the lower left has been broken up into
multiple menus. So, 'end slide show' is *not* on the same menu as the
pen controls.
--
Regards,
Tushar Mehta
www.tushar-mehta.com
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