Hi Christopher,
I am glad to hear that WACOM was willing to help you!
Do you have access to an MSDN or TechNet subscription? They still have
RC2.
Windows Vista went Gold today btw. If MSDN/TechNet follow the schedule
they previously announced, you should be able to get Vista RTM from them
the latest by Wednesday next week.
Vista will be available to business license customers on November 30 and
to OEM/retail customers on January 30 (same dates apply to Office 2007).
Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog:
http://pschmid.net/blog/feed
message
Hi Patrick (and whomever else may benefit from this),
I've talked with WACOM and was pleasantly surprised at their willingness to
help me out and get some answers.
The WACOM support professional did some testing there and found that the pen
functions show up in the Review tab for the other Office apps besides OneNote
in Vista RC2, but NOT in Vista RC1.
He even tried WACOM's latest "unrelease" beta drive with Vista RC1, but that
didn't help. I very much appreciate WACOM's support in this.
So, it appears that RC2, as you suggested trying works.
For me that's bad because I missed out on getting RC2. Is there any possible
way to get this release?
Thanks!
ct
:
Hi Patrick,
Unfortunately I don't have RC2 to try out. I missed the window to get it.
I will contact WACOM again this morning, although (NO disrespect to WACOM
because the folks there are really grea) I'm not sure how much help they're
going to be because when I called them yesterday they referred me to
Microsoft for any issues relating to Office 2007.
You've given me qutie a bit more understanding about what's going on,
however, so I'll now be able to rephrase the questions I have for them,
although I probably won't get much direct support on Vista either because
they state that they don't offer technical support for pre-release drivers on
pre-release OS's. I can, however, submit a defect report, which I will do.
Maybe, they'll respond, but I'm not sure.
I'm considering getting a tablet PC (I guess there's nothing like "seeing"
what you're actually writing, so my handwriting will likely be a lot
cleaner), but if I buy one right now, I'll get Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
2005 and I'm wondering if I should wait for Vista to be release on tablet PCs
before I buy. I think it only a matter of a few months or so, I would guess.
What do you think?
Thanks!
ct
:
Hi Christopher,
If you have another computer or a virtual machine that you can play
around with, install Vista RC2 and see if it works better there. Office
2007 B2TR is designed to work with RC1, but I think in your case, you
might be having issues with the WACOM tablet not being recognized as a
full-fledged tablet input device, which is completely handled by Vista.
Office simply won't display the ink tools unless Vista is convinced that
it is working with a Tablet PC. So I'd put the blame squarely on Vista
and the WACOM driver. That lack of TIP-support you are experiencing
makes me even think more that it is the OS and not Office.
If you don't have any luck with RC2, I'd contact WACOM and see if they
can help you. Maybe they have some special beta drivers for Vista that
they can give you. In any case, they can probably better answer the
question whether a WACOM tablet using Vista should be equivalent in
functionality to a Tablet PC.
If you find out anything from them, please post back here as there are
frequently posters here who want to use a WACOM tablet with Office
programs (especially OneNote).
Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog:
http://pschmid.net/blog/feed
message
Patrick,
I opened a IE 7 and tapped in the address bar with the pen on the tablet,
but it simply acted like a regular mouse except for the little circle that
appears when you tap with the pen, which is the pointer option when you
single click with the pen. So, I guess I don't have TIP (and if I do, I don't
know how to make it work), but it sounds like I want digital ink, like your
saying anyway.
I'm using Vista RC1 Build 5600 32-bit version. Interesting that you asked
this because I was using Vista RC1 Build 5600 64-bit version prior to this,
but changed to the 32-bit version because of a message that came up with
OneNote when I was using the 64-bit version that stated a whole bunch of
OneNote features that will not work or work correctly in the 64-bit version.
Using OneNote with all it's capabiltiy is very important to me right now as
I want to learn it, get good with it, and then introduce it into my company
for everyones use. I think it will make a big difference for us.
Also, your help is very much appreicated. It's nice to know that there are
people out there willing to help.
Thanks!
ct
:
Hi Christopher,
I'm not sure what you mean when you say "Do you have Tablet support
installed in Vista?" I looked at the installed features for Windows and
"Tablet PC Optional Componetnts" is checked. Does this mean I've got tablet
support installed?
That should be it...
Also, I'm NOT sure that I have digital ink working. How do I know?
When I write something with the pen on the grapics tablet and then select
the text, right click and select "Convert Handwriting to Text", it converts
just fine. Actually it does quite well because I'm somewhat new at this and
my coordination on the tablet isn't all that great yet.
That conversion feature only works with digital ink (as opposed to ink
just drawn). So it seems that you have digital ink working.
I don't know what TIP is. Can you explain?
Open a webbrowser and tap in the address bar. Do you see an icon coming
up somewhere around the address bar field (it floats)? If yes, click it
and that is TIP (Tablet Input Panel I think is what it stands for). It
works in any application anywhere where you can enter anything.
Which Vista build are you using?
Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog:
http://pschmid.net/blog/feed
Thanks!
ct
:
Do you have the Tablet support installed in Vista?
Are you sure you have digital ink working? When you write ink in
OneNote, can you convert it to handwriting (not using TIP)?
Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007:
http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog:
http://pschmid.net/blog/feed
message
I understand that Office 2007 B2TR has digital inking support in apps like
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Visio besides just OneNote. I got a
WACOM Bluetooth Graphire tablet and have it working with Vista RC1 32-bit on
my desktop system and it appears to work just fine. I can use digital ink
with OneNote and I've got it working in Visio.
What I can't figure out is how to get the Ink Tools / Pen Tab to come up in
the other apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Even if I put some
of the commands from the Ink Tools / Pen Tab list into the Quick Acesss
Toolbar, they don't work.
Can someone please help?
Thanks!
ct
