Using Tablet PCs and Ultra-Mobile PCs : Using a Tablet PC (part 4) - Flicks and Gestures

3. Flicks and Gestures

Flicks, called "gestures" in other pen-based systems, are special quick movements you can make with a Tablet PC stylus over the digitizer to navigate quickly or launch shortcuts for commonly needed functionality such as copy and paste. With a flick, you literally flick the pen in a certain way to cause an action.

There are two types of flicks: navigational and editing. Navigational flicks include such things as scroll up, scroll down, back, and forward. Editing flicks include cut, copy, paste, delete, and undo. Flicks occur when you flick the pen in any of eight directions: up, down, left, right, and the diagonal positions between each.

You configure flicks via the Flicks tab of the Pen and Touch window—which can be accessed by typing pen in Start Menu Search—as shown in Figure 21.

Figure 21. Flicks are customized via a lonely tab in an obscure dialog.

Additionally, you can enable the Pen flicks notification icon on any Tablet PC system, as shown in Figure 22. This handy icon provides quick access to current Flicks settings when clicked and offers a handy pop-up menu when right-clicked.

Figure 22. The Pen Flicks notification area icon.

Returning to the Flicks tab of the Pen and Touch window, from here you configure whether flicks are available, what types of flicks are available, and how sensitive the digitizer will be to recognizing flicks.

This particular feature varies according to each system, based on the sensitivity of the digitizer and pen combination.

By default, only navigational flicks are available where flicking left and right triggers back and forward actions, respectively, while flicking up and down enables you to scroll within documents. To enable both navigational and editing flicks and then customize the settings, select Navigational flicks and editing flicks and then click the Customize button. This launches the somewhat intimidating Customize Flicks window, shown in Figure 23.

Figure 23. Customize Flicks enables you to specify what each of the eight possible Flicks can do.

The sheer number of options available to each flick can be somewhat daunting, though Microsoft does supply some commonsense defaults. To see which options are available, just click the drop-down box next to any flick, as shown in Figure 24.

Figure 24. If you do find yourself using flicks, you'll have plenty of options to pick from.

Figure 25. Flicks Training helps you practice and learn how to use flicks.