Pegasus Accessories with OneNote

[AspiringGeek]

For those of you without a Tablet, I read this this week in Woody's Office
Watch. I'm awaiting word from their sales folks before I buy one or more
products. I'll let you know how they work out. In the meantime, here's the
relevant text:

PEGASUS WITH ONENOTE
The makers of 'digital pen' devices, Pegasus, are happy with the integration
of their products with Microsoft OneNote.

Their mobile device is especially interesting. It's a small box with a
combination ink/digital pen. You write or draw on normal paper with the
device at the top of the page. As you write the device records your writing
with a small display to confirm that it's working.

When you connect the unit to your computer the handwriting / drawings can be
copied to your main computer, and that can now include appearing
automatically in OneNote. Though it's not stated, we're assuming that
OneNote will do its nifty background OCR trick to make the written notes
searchable. The process is one-way from the device to OneNote, which makes
sense since there's no ability to edit on the Mobile NoteTaker.

Savvy readers will notice that this is similar to the Pocket PC notes
integration with OneNote SP1, except that with Mobile NoteTaker you have a
larger writing space and get an ink on paper copy as well.

Still, Mobile NoteTaker and its desktop version PC Notes Taker are a welcome
move and for many a better option than the still developing Tablet PC.

Details at www.pegatech.com

 

[Erik Sojka (MVP)]

Without reading the article, one thing jumps out at me:

OneNote cannot do its nifty background OCR trick unless it is running on
a Tablet PC. It relies on the Ink API for handwriting recognition.

There must be more to the story...

 

[flibbertigibbet007]

Unless Erik, One Note is running on a XP with the Tablet Extensions
installed.. I forget what it was called. .NET something or other?
In design mode yes it would be considered to be on a tablet pc.
-James

 

[Erik Sojka (MVP)]

Are you referring to the ".NET framework"? .NET is a new programming
something-or-other from MS. I'm not a programmer, but from what I
gather, it's a replacement for the WIN32 API.

..NET does not have anything inherent that supports the Tablet or the Ink
API. The .NET Framework is required for some components of the PowerToys
and third party utilities to talk to OneNote, hence it being a
requirement for installation.

You my be thinking of the MSDN version of the Tablet PC OS. It is
intended for developers to test their Ink applications without needing to
have Tablet PC hardware. Running the MSDN version of the Tablet PC OS in
a production environment is against the EULA. MSDN is not something the
average user would have or even know about, and I highly doubt that
Pegasus would encourage their users to run in this configuration.

There still must be more to the story...

I checked Pegasus' site, and there isn't much to the product info
(probably since the product is new/beta?) but what is there doesn't say
that it - by itself - performs the HW recognition. Elsewhere on the site
(the product datasheet for the PC Notes Taker) indicates that the related
Pegasus software uses the Office HW recognition engine and not its own.

I think this product seems to be merely the normal Pegasus Pen and
software which uses the OneNote import APIs to insert the data into a
OneNote page. It's a neat concept to be sure. I prefer my Tablet

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