For years, touching a PC screen did nothing except
leave a greasy smudge on the glass. That's still the case if you have a
desktop or notebook PC with a conventional display—Windows 7 cannot
magically turn your old LCD into a touch screen. But if your hardware
includes a display that can recognize the touch of a pen or a finger, you
can input text and manage windows, icons, and other on-screen objects
directly.
For basic program
management and web browsing, you can use a finger or the Tablet PC pen
as a mouse, opening programs, selecting menu options, moving scroll
bars, and clicking hyperlinks by pointing, dragging, and tapping. If
your PC includes a pen, you can use it to enter handwritten notes
directly on the screen, using pen-aware applications such as Windows
Journal (included with Windows 7) or Microsoft Office OneNote. You can add
handwritten annotations to Microsoft Office Word documents and Microsoft
Office Excel spreadsheets and share the marked-up files—even if your
coworker is using a conventional PC. You can send handwritten notes to
other people via e-mail or Windows Live Messenger, or you can convert
those scribbled notes to text and then insert the converted text into
other documents.
The full range
of features available to you depends on your hardware. Widely available options included two basic
categories of PC designs:
Touch-enabled
PCs These
are typically all-in-one devices that integrate the motherboard,
memory, and storage in the same housing as the display. You can use a
keyboard or mouse for conventional computing tasks or hide those input
devices and control media playback and other functions using touch.
Tablet PCs These are
notebook computers that include the capability to enter and edit data
using a pen and a specially digitized screen. Tablet PC hardware
typically uses one of two configurations. Slate designs do not include a built-in keyboard
(although they can accept an external keyboard or mouse) and are
intended for use primarily with a pen. Convertible designs resemble a conventional notebook, with a
keyboard and pointing device; by rotating the screen on a hinge and
folding it over the keyboard, you can switch the PC into a position that
allows you to work with the pen in a more natural fashion. From a
software point of view, there is no difference between the two designs.
The history of PC design
suggests that these form factors will be joined in the future by new
designs that take advantage of touch features for special-purpose
applications. For example, it's easy to imagine a small touch-enabled
device, powered by Windows 7, that is designed to sit on a living room
table and control Media Center functions on a big-screen TV.
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The difference between a
standard LCD display and one that is able to accept direct input from a
pen or finger is an extra layer of technology
called a digitizer.
The specific implementations of this technology vary, depending on the
intended application, and can typically be divided into two broad
classes. An active digitizer responds only to a specific type of input
device, such as a pen or stylus, which contains electronic components
that transmit electromagnetic information to the sensor behind the LCD.
This arrangement allows the digitizer to respond to input even if the
point of the stylus is merely hovering over the screen; it also allows
Windows to record different degrees of pressure with very high precision
(to make thick and thin ink strokes, for example). A passive digitizer,
which is typically used in dedicated devices such as ATMs and check-in
kiosks at airports, is less precise and responds to any kind of
pressure, including the press of a finger. Hybrid designs combine both
types of digitizer technologies to allow handwriting input and
simplified touch navigation.
If you have an older computer that supports pen or
single-touch input only, you will not be able to enable the multitouch
features in Windows 7. In fact, even some PC designs that bill
themselves as multitouch might not provide you access to the new touch
features in Windows 7. If in doubt, look for the logo indicating that
the computer has passed Microsoft's stringent compatibility tests for
touch support. Finally, if your computer has a touchpad that is capable
of accepting multitouch input, prepare to be at least a little
disappointed. These features are supplied by device manufacturers only
and are not supported by the Windows Touch subsystem in Windows 7.
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If you purchase a new
PC with Windows 7, any drivers and utilities required to enable touch and pen input
will already be installed by the PC maker. If you upgrade to Windows 7
or perform a clean install, you might need to visit the hardware
manufacturer's website to download and install required drivers. To
check the status of pen and touch support, open Control Panel, click
System (under the System And Security heading), and look at the last
line under the System heading. The system whose properties are shown
here includes support for the full range of pen and multitouch features.
To see the full range of
hardware settings, you'll need to familiarize yourself with the options
under the Pen And Touch heading in Control Panel options.
For a touch-enabled
PC, the most important options are available on the Touch tab of the Pen And Touch dialog
box, which is shown in Figure 1.
The check boxes at the top
of this dialog box allow you to enable or disable touch and multitouch
input. The Touch Actions section in the center includes options for
customizing the touch
behaviors that correspond to common mouse actions. Select either entry
from the list and then click or tap Settings to change the way it works.
These options are especially useful if you need to increase or decrease
the sensitivity of the response to a double-tap action.
The check box in the
Touch Pointer
section at the bottom is normally not selected. When this option is
enabled, touching the screen displays a large, transparent pointer in
the shape of a mouse. Click either of the virtual buttons on this
virtual mouse to simulate a click or right-click.
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On a PC with limited touch
support, you can simulate a right-click by pressing the screen and
holding your finger until you see a large circle. When you remove your
finger from the screen, the shortcut menu appears just as if you had
clicked the right mouse button. On a PC that supports multitouch
features, you have an additional choice to simulate a right-click: touch
the screen with your index finger, and then tap with the middle finger.
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The Pen Options tab of the Pen And Touch dialog box, shown in Figure 2, offers a similar set of options for
Tablet PCs.
Table 1
lists the four pen
actions and the possible adjustments you can make by selecting the pen
action and then clicking Settings.
Table 1. Settings for Pen Actions
| Pen Action | Settings |
|---|
| Single-tap (click) | Settings
cannot be adjusted. |
| Double-tap
(double-click) | Use
the Speed control to define the maximum pause that can occur between the
two taps that make up a double-tap; use the Spatial Tolerance slider to
define the distance that can separate the two taps that make up a
double-tap. |
| Press and hold
(right-click) | Use
the Speed and Duration sliders to define the amount of time you need to
press and hold the pen against the screen to emulate a right-click. |
| Start Input Panel gesture | By default, this setting is
disabled; select the check box to enable and then define the extent of
the side-to-side movement you need to make with the pen to open the
Input Panel. |
Some pens with
buttons have a combination button that acts as a right-click if pushed
one way and as an eraser if pressed differently. The Pen Options tab
includes a setting for whether to use the top of the pen as an eraser.
You can select this setting independently of the setting to use the pen
button as a right-click equivalent.
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Are you left-handed?
If so, you're probably accustomed to a world where everything seems to
have been designed backwards. In the case of a PC with pen or touch
support, the operating system assumes you'll tap the screen or
manipulate the pen with your right hand, and thus it displays shortcut
menus and ScreenTips to the left of wherever you're tapping, sliding, or
writing. On the Other tab of the Tablet PC Settings dialog box, adjust
the Handedness
option, as shown here, so that Windows can more accurately recognize
your "backwards" handwriting. This option adjusts the default position
of menus and ScreenTips so that they fly out to the right, where they
aren't covered by your hand. This option affects the touch pointer as
well.
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1.
Calibrating the Screen
Many PCs that support pen
and touch input require you to go through a calibration step on first
use; you can repeat the calibration process any time if you notice that
your taps aren't working as expected.
When you use an active
digitizer, accurately mapping the relationship between pen and screen is
essential. The precision with which you can control the pointer's
location with the pen depends in part on how you hold the pen and your
posture in relation to your tablet. If the digitizer is off by even a
few pixels, tapping the screen to click a button or select a menu option
might not produce the expected result. Calibrating a touch screen is
less crucial, because most touch operations don't involve precision
activities, but it's still a good practice.
You'll find the
calibration options in the Tablet PC Settings dialog box. On the Display
tab, tap Calibrate. If your PC supports both pen and touch input,
you'll need to calibrate each input mode separately.
The calibration process
displays a series of between 4 and 16 on-screen targets in the form of
crosshairs; tap the center of each target in turn, and then save the
calibration data when prompted. Calibration has to be performed
separately for both Landscape and Portrait orientations, and if you use
the screen upside-down in either orientation (denoted as Secondary
Portrait and Secondary Landscape), you have to run through the
calibration procedure for those orientations as well.
2. Changing
Orientation
Tablet PCs are designed so
that you can change the screen orientation from landscape to portrait (and back
to landscape) without rebooting. This versatility is especially
important in convertible Tablet PCs, where you might work in landscape
orientation for part of your day, using the keyboard and built-in
pointing device to create and edit a spreadsheet, and then switch into
portrait mode to take handwritten notes at a meeting. Most convertible
PCs change screen orientation automatically when you pivot the screen on
its hinge; to change orientation manually, right-click the desktop and
select Screen Resolution from the shortcut menu, make a selection from
the drop-down Orientation list, and then click or tap Apply or OK.
This change in orientation happens almost
instantaneously.
If opening this dialog box
seems like a cumbersome way to change orientation, you're right. It's
much easier to use the Screen Orientation options in Windows Mobility Center
(Windows logo key+X). To change the predetermined sequence of
orientations, click the Display tab of the Tablet PC Settings dialog
box, and then tap or click Go To Orientation. This option allows you to
enter up to four orientations in the numbered boxes, as shown in Figure 3. (If you want to cycle between two
orientations, set options 3 and 4 to None). Windows switches to the next
item in this sequence each time you tap the Rotate Screen button in
Windows Mobility Center. If you have a hardware button that is dedicated
to this function, it respects your settings here as well.
3. Redefining
Tablet PC Buttons
Tablet buttons allow
access to some common functions when a keyboard is unavailable.
Typically, these buttons are built into the computer's case, in the
bezel alongside the display, within easy reach of your hands when using
the computer as a tablet. It's common to find a Security button, for
example, which has the same effect when pressed as does the
Ctrl+Alt+Delete combination on a conventional keyboard.
Each Tablet PC design is
different, but many hardware designers include buttons that you can
customize to perform any of a long list of actions, including standard
keyboard commands (Down Arrow, Up Arrow, and Enter, for example) or
running an application. To customize them, open the Tablet PC Settings
dialog box from Control Panel and tap the Buttons tab. Figure 4 shows the available settings for a Dell
Latitude XT Tablet PC with six customizable buttons.
By default, the tablet buttons perform the same actions
for all screen orientations; however, you can assign different actions
to the buttons for different orientations. Using the buttons for actions
associated with the keyboard is most helpful when you're using the
tablet with pen input only. When browsing the web, for instance, you
might find it helpful to redefine the Up Arrow and Down Arrow buttons so
that they emulate the Mouse Wheel Up and Mouse Wheel Down actions
instead. Having quick access to these actions is not nearly as helpful
on a convertible Tablet PC when the full keyboard is available, nor is
it necessary if touch input is available. For that configuration,
consider defining the tablet buttons to launch applications you use
frequently.
