Thinkpads Forum

Still playing around with this X61T, I have never used a tablet PC before. Just wondering what good tablet apps are out there. If I want to brainstorm on a plane or train, what app would be good to jot down notes, diagrams, etc.. and easily save them? Is there a specific format file for this or should I do it in Word?

Onenote is a great program for note taking. Artrage is just plain fun. For now, you can use Windows Journal to write. Office 2007 also has some good inking tools. Acrobat Pro can accommodate your pen, though it's more like a really precise mouse (highlight, write, etc.).

Try Mind Manager for brain mapping.
Check out http://www.gottabemobile.com/On+The+Roa ... olbox.aspx

For marking up pdfs (handwritten notes on them, etc) Pdf Annotator and Bluebeam Revu are both very good (probably the best in the business). If you are a student, you can get a substantial reduction on Bluebeam Revu (I think the final cost is then $35 or so) which is a big plus (and not well advertised on their site), because it is not a cheap program.

Pdf Annotator is nice because you can set the pen to be pressure sensitive, which makes for 'prettier' handwriting. Bluebeam Revu lacks this feature (though they plan to incorporate it at some point, one of their tech persons assured me) but it has a better set of tools, overall.

Beware, however, that neither of these programs have an Autosave feature! Why programmers who write programs for creating pdfs, rather than other types of documents, feel themselves immune from the requirement of providing this essential feature, I have no idea. Woe betide you if you don't save every 3 minutes and your Thinkpad crashes (which with Vista it is more likely to do when you are on battery and scribbling away on the tablet). You will lose all your recent notes.

A rather annoying 'feature' of Bluebeam Revu is that the software install routine installs all sorts of stuff without you asking, and without it being obviously connected to marking up pdf files - such as an ftp client, for some reason. There is no option to selectively uninstall this extra stuff, either. Pretty rude and inconsiderate, in my opinion.

Aside from these issues, I still think these are good apps.

Thanks for both of your replies. I have been playing around with the tablet functionality and it's quite good. I am studying Japanese and I have some work books to practice writing chinese characters in little boxes, I used to print these pages out and write on them. I think it would be fantastic I could write using the tablet for these exercises thereby saving paper and time.

I noticed that some of the apps (I think even the pencil in Acrobat) make "corrections" to the writing. Does the Annotator allow freehand writing on it without distorting the writing?

I don't know about annotator, never used it.

Sometimes I find when I am typing a document for class in Word (sometimes over Onenote, it just depends), I will quickly click the "Reveiw" tab, and than click 'markup' and than I can just ink right on the screen freehand and add what I need to my document. That feature has come in handy.

noetus wrote:[...]
If you are a student, you can get a substantial reduction on Bluebeam Revu (I think the final cost is then $35 or so) which is a big plus (and not well advertised on their site), because it is not a cheap program.

You can buy the downloadable version of Bluebeam from Journeyed.com for US $29.98: http://journeyed.com/itemDetail.asp?ItmNo=56678443

I'm going to try it on my x60t. Thanks for telling about it.

Edit: PDF Annotator also has educational pricing: http://www.ograhl.com/en/educational.ph ... fannotator

I realize you're probably running Windows, but I think I should at least mention a few linux apps for completeness

Xournal is a great app for taking notes and things. Aside from the lack of handwriting recognition, I think it is better than Journal for one main reason: you can import and write on pdf files and export to pdf files.

Gjiten is a very nice Japanese dictionary interface (mainly for use with the Edict and KanjiDict dictionaries). While not necessarily a tablet-app, you can get the KanjiPad app to run with it and it will recognize handwritten Kanji, which can be very useful.

Oh, and one more thing: If you want to save your Journal files to pdf, you can do so with a pdf printer like CutePDF (http://www.cutepdf.com/). I found that it worked great when I was studying Chinese and needed to transfer my Journal files to PDF so I could read them on Linux

Windows: Ink Desktop from the experience pack and paint.net are nice tools.

Linux: Inkscape(awesome shape-making tool for presentation), blender(3D/SVG drawing tool), Gimp(pressure sensitive pen), xvkbd(virtual keyboard)

I am looking into mindmapper and project management software on linux now. There are tons of choices according to
http://linuxappfinder.com/alternatives

I like Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/), a lightweight journalling app with some useful tablet features, and the same people make Ritepen (http://www.ritescript.com/Products/ritePen.aspx), an enhanced handwriting engine.

Inkscape (Open Source drawing program) exists for Windows too.

Pencil (http://www.les-stooges.org/pascal/pencil/) is a very nice animation app, still in early stages. It is transformed by using it on a Tablet.

You'll find that a lot of non-tablet specific apps are transformed on a tablet, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketchup, Max/MSP.

And make sure to check out some of the plugins for Firefox, I have found that have come in handy with my tablet

Trekk69 wrote:And make sure to check out some of the plugins for Firefox, I have found that have come in handy with my tablet

Hi

Could you mention some? I like firefox. Thanks.

Grab and Drag
Super DragandGo are not bad, check out the firefox site, there are always new ones being posted

The GeckoTip extension for Firefox is particularly good.

It enables the floating TIP in Firefox, and also sends "hints" to the TIP about the type of input that is required, ie. URLs vs. freeform text.

The GeckoTip webpage also points to a whole bunch of alternative tablet input method software.

Shouldnt this be a STICKY? Especially when there are not many apps that TRUELY leverage the potentials of the Tablet.

crashnburn wrote:Shouldnt this be a STICKY? Especially when there are not many apps that TRUELY leverage the potentials of the Tablet.

You have a good point.
Almost if someone could summarize.
A la

Note Taking Applications:
Onenote
etc
etc

Firefox Extensions:
Etc
etc

Planning Software:
etc
etc

Well, I think the point is gotten, I am pretty busy, but will look into getting a list together when I have some free time.[/i]

Journal for notes... I prefer to make notes in individual files, and save them in folders with other files. I prefer Journal to OneNote.

Many of the PowerToys by Microsoft are cool..
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/down ... letpc.mspx

and..

The Experience Pack has the snipping tool that I use all the time to capture screen snippets and copy into Journal...
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/down ... rview.mspx

The Education Pack has flash cards to use for studying..
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/down ... rview.mspx

Office 2007 is much more ink-enabled, I use powerpoint with the X61 to create graphics, use snipping tool to cut an image, and then paste into Journal..

I like Journal much better than OneNote, I can store my Journal files in the same directory as other files, and logically keep everything organized by file folder, rather than using the OneNote paradigm..

pabica wrote:Journal for notes... I prefer to make notes in individual files, and save them in folders with other files. I prefer Journal to OneNote.

Many of the PowerToys by Microsoft are cool..
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/down ... letpc.mspx

and..

The Experience Pack has the snipping tool that I use all the time to capture screen snippets and copy into Journal...
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/down ... rview.mspx

The Education Pack has flash cards to use for studying..
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/down ... rview.mspx

Office 2007 is much more ink-enabled, I use powerpoint with the X61 to create graphics, use snipping tool to cut an image, and then paste into Journal..

I like Journal much better than OneNote, I can store my Journal files in the same directory as other files, and logically keep everything organized by file folder, rather than using the OneNote paradigm..

The OneNote paradigm includes folders, too. You can create "Section Groups" (folders) in your "Notebook" (root folder). They just renamed folders into fancy names but its based on the folder paradigm as well.

Each Tab you make (which includes as many pages and subpages as you want) would be a seperate file.

OneNote - duh

Inkseine: http://research.microsoft.com/inkseine/

ttt
I need to review this thread again when I have more time.

C'mon mods.. Sticky this thread.

There is no TABLET specific section here given that they have this special ability.

C'mon mods.. Sticky this thread.

There is no TABLET specific section here given that they have this special ability.

Second that.

Surely tablets do have special abilities, as well as problems and solutions.

noetus wrote:For marking up pdfs (handwritten notes on them, etc) Pdf Annotator and Bluebeam Revu are both very good (probably the best in the business).
<<SNIP>>
Beware, however, that neither of these programs have an Autosave feature! <<SNIP>>

A rather annoying 'feature' of Bluebeam Revu is that the software install routine installs all sorts of stuff without you asking, and without it being obviously connected to marking up pdf files - such as an ftp client, for some reason. There is no option to selectively uninstall this extra stuff, either. Pretty rude and inconsiderate, in my opinion.

I believe PDF Annotator is good if you're making a quick annotation or signing a document. Bluebeam, IMHO, is better if you're making a lot of annotations (including signing documents). I believe both offer the means of flattening your annotations so they become a permanent part of the document. Comes in handy when you actually apply your signature to a PDF. You don't want anyone opening the PDF to be able to select your signature annotation and copy it elsewhere.

As far as autosave is concerned, Bluebeam added the functionality in version 6. I seem to recall one of Bluebeam's tech support guys telling me Bluebeam journals all your annotations as you make them. Therefore, you shouldn't lose any annotations in the event of a crash. I've had Bluebeam crash on me on several occassions and it looked like all my annotations were still there when I attempted to recover them.

I know Bluebeam added a webbrowser in version 6. Where's the ftp client?