I am consdiering to purchase a table PC (such as

[YS2003]

I am consdiering to purchase a table PC (such as Fujitsu T4020D, Lenovo X41, or HP T4200). Since this is the first table PC, I want to make sure I don't regret buying it. May posters on this board and others say writing on the screen has a very natural feel. I am curious to know if the current table PC users have some "learning curve" to get used to pen input method instead of using mouse/trackpad.

I am trying to get the "feel" of the table PC by using Wacom's Intuos 3/Ink on my Mac (running OS X Tiger (10.4.3). I detected there is slight lag between my pen input on Wacom and what is registered on the screen. Since using Wacom tablet is not the same as writing on the tablet PC's scrren with an active digitizer pen, I am guessing there is not much noticeable lag with a tablet PC. I appreciate comments from other forum members on this topic.

[Steve S]

...Is there a learning curve associated with "feeling comfortable" when using a stylus to write? In my case, there certainly was; probably about two weeks. But that doesn't mean that I could not use that tablet's functionality from the beginning; it just means that I was a bit awkward at first.

Is there a lag when writing? Sometimes, the first letter or two does not appear on the screen instantaneously, but after that there is no significant lag... at least nothing that bothers me. This lag only occurs occasionally; not often enough to be much of a problem. At all other times, the writing flows very smoothly.

My 2 cents.

[YS2003]

Thank you for posting your feedback on this topic. I think I can live with slight lag (if there is) as I am used to some lags when I use my Palm LifeDrive. With a tablet PC, the activie digitizer pen is used as primarily input method (in addition to the good old fashioned keyboard in the covertable tablet model). When I am using Wacom tablet on my Mac, I feel awkward when I try to resize, move windows, tap buttons on the screen, and other normal "mouse" like moves, because sometimes the computer takes my input as I am trying to write something instead of just pressing buttons. So, I end up moving windows inadvertently or writing dot or short line by error. I think getting used to the input method will fix those awkwardness. Have other table PC users gone throught those frustrations?

[minimage]

I bought ritePen after Microsoft took away Write Anywhere. It can be a little frustrating making my intentions clear. If I'm writing something on a Sticky Note, in GoBinder, Outlook, OrangeGuava Inkable Keys or OrangeGuava Desktop, or if I'm scrolling or dragging something to a tab in Firefox, ritePen gets in the way. With the Inkable Keys and Firefox issues, I can just leave the pen down until ritePen steps aside. However, with the others, I have to turn rP's recognition off (I often have the floating toolbar handy for that). If you do not use ritePen, I do not see many opportunities for the TPC to misunderstand your attempts to use your pen as a mouse.

I do love ritePen, though. It's very handy for those times when I'd otherwise be forced to use the hated docked TIP. It's also quicker for making some corrections. Too many spaces or an extra character in my text? A swipe to the left is backspace. It's as easy to tab down and insert spaces and carriage returns. Seems a bit more work to open the TIP and hit the correct button.

[Bhaltair]

I've been using an Acer Travelable (312 until Fujitsu gets their act together about payment with a credit card. I must say, my learning curve was about two hours, maybe a little more. With me, it was less about the pen and more about how the programs reacted to it or letter recognition. I found that the "free write" (I have no clue as to what the modes are called. the top left one) recognizes my handwriting amazingly good, where the letter-by - letter one does not ( It always wakes my L 's dato ones). I doubt you'll have a problem. The only thing I had to got used to was ignoring the pen "dot" and learning where the pen points is not usually where the pen writes.
Also, the capitalization will always mess up, as you can see from this handwritten post.

[fury]

By default using the pen as a mouse on the Tablet PC is completely seamless - when you only have the pen input software that comes with Windows XP Tablet PC edition (the Tablet Input Panel), it will emulate mouse functions on the pen (tapping with the tip of the stylus being the mouse's left click, and using the switch on the barrel while tapping being the right click). When you enter a window that is designed to explicitly deal with tablet-specific input, it is only a matter of the software you're using, i.e. how well it is designed in regards to telling the difference between a tablet action (drawing, pressure sensitivity, etc) and a mouse action (hovering, clicking, dragging, etc).

Adobe Photoshop is one example of a program that integrates tablet and mouse functions seamlessly. I have been playing around with Photoshop on my Motion M1200 (an older one) and I can say without a doubt it's quite a powerful and natural way of working with Photoshop - the pointing device (mouse) and the drawing device (pen/tablet) input methods coexist beautifully on Tablet PC.

Ultimately, because there are so many different configurations now, you should first determine what you are going to use your tablet for most commonly (e.g. art - high res tablets, gaming - high performance tablets, mobility - light weight/thin/small tablets, or versatility - full featured/desktop replacement convertibles/etc). Once you pinpoint what it is you're going to be doing on it the most, it is easier to narrow down the specific issues you may encounter with the form factors and models appropriate for that activity.

[carrier]

what is interesting about writing on paper vs a tablet is what you look at when you write. with a normal pencil and paper you look at the pencil tip...with a tablet you look at the cursor not the tip (hard explain if you have not tried it). Most people have trouble with the tablet when they navigate because they look at the tip of the physical pen instead of the virtual cursor.