Pen cursor and joining/grouping items

[Kevin Buchs]

I'm giving OneNote 2007 a spin. I was really stumped when I tried to use the
pen to mark some items and the cursor pointer disappeared as I entered the
document window. I guess what was happening is I had yellow as the color, so
it was next to impossible to see that little tiny yellow dot on a white
background. Are there any workarounds to such behavior so I am not caught
again?

When I have marked some text, is there a way to join the text box and the
markings so I can keep them in the same relationship but move them around on
the page? It seems I can only select one item at a time (unless I've missed
some secret) so it is not possible to even select the two items at once to
move as a unit.

 

[Alex]

To your first question, your diagnosis is correct and there's no way to
control this. We've played with bigger/different cursors for the pen when in
ink mode, but they all "got in the way" when you try to start writing. The
model we use now has become the standard across the Tablet platform (not
necessarily because that's how we do it ).

To your second question, there is not a way to group ink with text they way
you'd like. This is a very common request, and hopefully something we'll do
in a future version.

-alex <MS>

 

[Alex]

This is something we've experimented with in the past. The problem with this
approach is that you can't use the size of the cursor to verify what size of
pen you have. People who switch between pens a lot use this as a quick way
to "preview" the type of ink they are about to write. We'd lose this ability
if we made the cursor different from what the pen will actually write. This
is a trade off where there is no super clear winner.

-Alex <MS>

 

[Alex]

We try not to add things like this to tools/options because if we did, there
would be so many that it would be impossible to use. And, the vast majority
of people don't use tools/options at all. So it is up to us to make the best
decision we can about what the default behavior should do.

 

[xTenn]

And, the vast majority
of people don't use tools/options at all. So it is up to us to make the best
decision we can about what the default behavior should do.

Interesting. So, in essence people would judge the product a lot on
initial configuration instead of looking for options to make it more
personable/comfortable to their way of doing things. Hate to say it, but
I can certainly believe that. With something as flexible as OneNote I
would imagine that to be a real effort, from deciding what notebooks,
sections and pages to initially show to what pen colors to have
available from the start.

 

[Borys]

Dear Alex,
I have spent hours to solve that "hard to see pointer" problem. I use
hand-notes daily, using extra LCD connected to my notebook. This little dot
in OneNote is just not visible enough. I have installed trial version of
OneNote and after few days of pain had to get back to EverNote, where the
problem you've written about is perfectly solved - actual size of pointer IS
in the size of pen, plus the little icon is added to it, what makes is
clearly visible. The icon disappears when tablet is touched. I have discussed
the problem with my co-workers and it does seem to be everybody’s opinion. I
guess it is just the little number of people using tablets that it didn't
become bigger issue yet. I do hope for a change, because the program itself
appears to be great.

Borys.