The Tablet PC is one of the most versatile and powerful computers available today. They combine a high power, efficient processor with two lightweight, flexible designs—slate and convertible—in addition to handwriting capabilities that works with all software applications that support the Windows XP Operating System.

   When Tablet PC was released first it included ink support only in Windows Journal and not in any other application. There was support for the stylus to navigate around the screen and open applications. But it didn’t justify the cause for which Tablet PC was designed for.

   Microsoft listened to the feedback from the users of the first version of Tablet PC and made several enhancements to the operating system. Thus was born the new version of Tablet PC, rechristened as Microsoft Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, which includes all the security and performance updates and features found in Windows XP Service Pack 2 along with additional benefits. Surprisingly Microsoft thought it fit to release this along with the release of its major product of the year – Windows XP Service Pack 2.

   This means that the upgrade to the new operating system will be available on new Tablet PCs as well as available as a free download for current Tablet PC users—in the second half of 2004. Surprisingly Microsoft included this release along with the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2. This meant that the users of existing Tablet PCs who upgraded their existing Tablet PC operating systems to Service Pack 2 found that their Tablet PC operating system was automatically upgraded to Tablet PC Edition 2005. New benefits in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 include:

   In-Place Tablet Input Panel (In-Place TIP).

   With Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, accessing and using the TIP is easier than ever. With the In-Place TIP, you see an orange “TIP Access” button whenever you tap an input box with your stylus. Simply tap the TIP Access button and the Tablet PC Input Panel opens up directly below the input area. This approach is intuitive and enables more rapid text input by using the stylus pen. Because the In-Place TIP is part of the operating system, it works seamlessly in any Windows-based application.

   Now that Tablet PC Edition 2005 supports ink in all applications this meant that the user had to be given the facility of using ink in any application that he used. And this meant that even the simple application like Notepad or the Run Window had to support handwriting. Since it wasn’t possible to directly write on these applications like Journal there had to be some feasible way to accept the handwriting whenever the focus was on these applications. Hence the In-place TIP was improved to allow the user to directly write on these kind of applications. It appears as a orange block just below the area where the cursor sets focus at the time of launching the application enabling the user to work with the application in a natural way and without any extra efforts of launching the TIP.

   Autogrow with Real-Time Recognition.

   The new In-Place TIP also features Autogrow with Real-Time Recognition technologies. With Autogrow, the input area will automatically add space for an additional line when you approach the end of a text line. The Autogrow feature saves time and makes inputting large amounts of text with the stylus pen easier than before. The Real-Time Recognition feature uses Microsoft ink recognition technology to convert handwritten words to text as you are writing, letting you preview the conversion before it is inserted into the text block.

   As explained earlier in the benefits of the new enhanced In-place TIP, the need for uninterrupted writing as in the case of writing continuously on a sheet of paper was important to the functioning of the In-place TIP. For example if the user was working in word processing applications like Word or Notepad or WordPad, he would have to write several lines continuously without a break and hence the In-place TIP had to be modified to provide facility to enable writing without a break. Hence this feature “Autogrow with Real-time recognition” enables inputting continuous text such as paragraphs with ink. When the user comes to the end of the sentence a new line appears below the current line enabling him to continue writing as if he was writing on a sheet of paper.

   In-Place Correction.

   With In-Place Correction, you can manually correct any handwriting conversion mistakes before the text is inserted into the text block. Choose between alternate recommended words, or correct individual letters or numbers on your own. Either way, In-Place Correction helps ensure that your words are translated accurately.

   As explained in the benefits of Autogrow, there were some situations in which the In-place TIP would not recognize the word that the user had inputted with ink. It would interpret this as something else in the same way as Autocorrect understands words in Microsoft More surprisingly is that TIP converts the handwriting to text and displays them so that they can be corrected with ink before inserting them in the application. If the user sees that a word is misrepresented, then he can hover the stylus over the word and then a small bar with different suggestions appears and then he can select the right word. Or if he doesn’t see the right word then he can click on the word to open the In-place TIP in “character” mode. This ensures that the user can correct the word on a character based style.

   Contextual Awareness.

   When you are inputting information into fields that can only accept specific types of data, such as a postal code field only accepting numbers, Contextual Awareness can be used to further increase handwriting recognition accuracy. With this feature, you can quickly write a postal code, and the operating system will not confuse “Z” with “2” or “S” with “5.” This feature can be applied to nearly any Windows-based application, enabling workers who use forms frequently to have an easier, faster input experience.

   Now when the user is working with the In-place TIP, he will get the panel for various fields say for example the Contacts pane in Microsoft Outlook. There are some fields that are purely numeric for example the pin code or telephone number. Now the user will have to take care not to mix up the alphabets and numbers. Even with the utmost care, if the In-place TIP doesn’t understand the difference, it could mix up the similar characters like “Z” with “2” or “S” with “5.” Hence it was designed to recognize the type of field that it is used to input the characters and then based on the type of field it adjusts itself intelligently to reduce the complexity on the user’s part.