1. Turn off Windows Search Indexing

To disable this service:

To disable this feature:

To disable this:

To set this up:

To disable Hibernation:

To disable this service:

To disable User Access Control:

To see what loads at startup and disable the ones you likely won’t be needing (they can always be started manually later):

You can view and disable these features by:

Q2. How to Use the Windows Vista Tablet PC Input Panel

Introduction

Instructions

Things You'll Need

Steps

Q3. How to Set a Tablet PC for Left-Hand Use

Introduction

Configure Your Tablet PC for Left-Hand Use

Things You'll Need

Steps

Q4. How to Repair a Tablet PC Input Device

Introduction

Instructions

Troubleshoot Problems With the Input Device of Your Tablet PC

Things You'll Need

Steps

Q5. How to Calibrate the Pen on a Tablet PC

Introduction

Instructions

Set Up the Digital Pen of Your Tablet PC

Things You'll Need

Steps

Calibrate Your Tablet PC to Recognize Your Writing

Steps

Q6. How to Write in Word on a Tablet PC

Introduction

Instructions

Configure the Input Panel on Your Tablet PC

Things You'll Need

Steps

Enter Text in Microsoft Word on Your Tablet PC

Steps

Tips & Warnings

Q7. Tablet PCs in the classroom

A TABLET PC merges a multimedia laptop with the added functionality of pen-based markup of documents and digitally handwritten notes.

The current generation of tablet PCs offer today's students tremendous advantages over standard pen and paper note taking. The size of a large spiral notebook, convertible tablet PCs can operate like a standard laptop, but the screen is able to spin around and fold down onto the keyboard, like a writing tablet. In tablet mode, students can use a stylus to write or draw on the display screen.

With a tablet PC, everything a student needs during a school day is available in the most user-friendly laptop available. Its intuitive methods of input allow students a more natural interaction with the computer. Using a program called Windows Journal, which comes free with the tablet PC operating system, tablet users can use the electronic stylus to take notes, write papers, or markup digital documents. Saved onto the hard drive, all of these course notes are contained in one digital source for easy access.

The tablet PC can also record audio files, such as a class lecture, to review later either on the tablet or on a portable media player. The current storage capacity of most Apple iPods would allow a student to carry an entire semester's worth of course lectures in their pocket. On the tablet, the Microsoft OneNote program can synchronize the recorded audio with course notes, allowing users to jump to any point in the recording by clicking the corresponding point in the notes.

The tablet PC takes traditional handwritten course notes to a new level with the ability to erase and add space, add multimedia elements to the notes, including audio and video files, add links to web resources, and the ability to digitally search all the handwritten notes for specific terms. Digital note pages can stretch on forever, and extra space can even be inserted at any place within the notes, making adding updates or extra information easy.

The digital ink technology also allows students to "snip" information from any source on the screen and insert it into their notes. This is a great way to capture a relevant image, chart, graph or diagram from a web page or digital data from the instructor and insert it into the notes to aid in the comprehension of the subject.

With built-in wireless connectivity, students can download class notes, documents or slide shows from the Internet onto the tablet and then mark them up, just as one would on paper. The ability to take a teachers prepared lecture notes or slides and then add their own observations is a tremendous study aid for students.

Research by Kiewra (1985) reports that students who had instructor-provided notes prior to a lecture did better on fact-based tests than students who only reviewed their own notes. Having all their class notes and resources in one easily searchable place also makes reviewing for tests much easier and more organized for students.

Using the tablet PC, classes can be organized into folders, with all digital notes and resources for each class stored in its own folder. Digital notes are flexible, and can be reorganized, highlighted and searched at a later date. By having all their notes with them, students are able to bring up any fact or detail with a simple search in class or while studying. Notes can also be shared easily with classmates or study groups by simply emailing the files or saving them to a network shared folder.

The power and mobility of a multimedia laptop combined with the flexibility and creativity of a paper notebook, the tablet PC is the convergence of traditional and cutting edge technologies. With the ability to engage students in their learning, tablet PCs are a useful product both inside and outside the classroom, providing a multimedia tool to enhance the learning experience.

More Information:

Q8. How to convert English Vista to a Chinese Version and still retain the English Vista?

With Microsoft Windows Vista, you can convert your English OS version for a Chinese version. This will change all your menus to Chinese but not affect the applications. Applications bought in English will remain.

Go to Control Panel, select Security - Download the required language pack from the widows update site when prompted.

Q9. Installing East Asian Language Support Under Windows Vista

This page outlines the steps for installing East Asian languages on a computer running Windows Vista so that the user can both read and write in them. For Windows XP, please see the page on how to enable East Asian languages on Windows XP, since the steps are somewhat different. Windows 95/98/Me/NT4 users have to download Asian language support and input editor files from Microsoft's Web site.

1.First open the Control Panel dialog box by clicking on the Start button, and then clicking on Control Panel. By default the Control Panel is in the Category View. If that is the case, click on Clock, Language, and Region. If, instead you are in the Classic View, click on Control Panel Home on the left side to bring up the Category View. Under Clock, Language, and Region, click on Change keyboards or other input methods.

2.In the Regional and Language Options dialogue box that opens, click on Change keyboards ...

3.In the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box that opens, click on the Add ... button.

4.The Add Input Language dialogue box opens.

5.Scroll down the list until you find the language you want to add. Skip to section 6 if you only want to add traditional Chinese. Skip to section 7 if you only want to add Japanese. If you want to add simplified Chinese, scroll down to Chinese (PRC), and click on the + button to expand the list of keyboards available. Select the keyboard(s) you want to use by checking the corresponding box. In this example, the Microsoft Pinyin IME and US keyboards are selected. Click on the OK button if you are done with adding languages. Otherwise continue to select additional languages and keyboards.

6.If you want to add traditional Chinese, scroll down to Chinese (Taiwan), and click on the + button to expand the list of keyboards available. Select the keyboard(s) you want to use by checking the corresponding box. In this example, the New Quick and Phonetic keyboards are selected. Click on the OK button if you are done with adding languages. Otherwise continue to select additional languages and keyboards.

7.If you want to add Japanese, scroll down to Japanese (Japan), and click on the + button to expand the list of keyboards available. Select the keyboard(s) you want to use by checking the corresponding box. In this example, the Microsoft IME is selected. Click on the OK button if you are done with adding languages. Otherwise continue to select additional languages and keyboards.

8.After you have finished selecting the languages and the keyboards you want to add, click on the OK button in the Add Input Language dialogue box. Then, in the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box that opens, click on the OK button to finish the installation.

9.The Regional and Language Options dialogue box opens. Click on OK to exit.

10.You should now see a language button in the taskbar on the bottom of the screen. If you left click on the language button, the list expands into all the languages you have installed. You can switch to another language for inputting by left clicking and selecting the corresponding item on the language list. Note that within the same document you can change the input language by using the Language button. You can produce a document with a mixture of different languages.

11.For example, if you click on Chinese (PRC), then the Chinese language buttons show up on the task bar at the bottom of the screen.

12.Clicking on the Chinese language button expands the language list, with Chinese (PRC) now checked as the selected inputting language.

13.If Show the Language bar is clicked, then the language button changes to a language bar floating near the top of the screen. On the Chinese language bar are various toggle buttons for switching the input mode, input style and other options.


Skip to section 15 to see the Japanese language bar.

14. To the far right of the language bar are two buttons . Clicking the top button (a small rectangle) minimizes the language bar to a language button on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Clicking the bottom button (an inverted triangle) brings up some additional options. Checking Charset from the list of options adds a toggle button on the language bar for switching between simplified and traditional characters, as shown in the figure below after the button for Character Set has been clicked.

15. Selecting Japanese as the inputting language from the language bar (or from the language button and then selecting Show the Language bar) brings up the Japanese language bar, with various option buttons specific to the Japanese IME. For normal input of Japanese text, select Hiragana as the Input Mode.



To the far right of the language bar are two buttons . Clicking the top button (a small rectangle) minimizes the language bar to a language button on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Clicking the bottom button (an inverted triangle) brings up some additional options.

16. New users may want to take a look at the pages for writing Chinese and Japanese to get started quickly with working with Chinese and/or Japanese in their documents. Please see also the overview on reading and writing e-mail in Chinese and Japanese.

Q10. Writing Chinese on the Windows Platform

This is not intended to be a comprehensive manual to writing Chinese on the Windows platform, but rather a quick and dirty guide to get someone new to Chinese computing going with Microsoft's Pinyin Input Method Editor. For more detailed information on the Pinyin and other Input Method Editors, see Russ Rolfe's "What is an IME (Input Method Editor) and how do I use it?". Wikipedia has a comprehensive survey of "Chinese input methods for computers."

Chinese language support and input method editor(s) need to be installed before one can write Chinese in a Windows application. If necessary, please first install Chinese language support and input method editor(s) (IME) for Windows 95/98/Me/NT 4.0, Windows XP, or Windows Vista.

Screenshots below are taken from a computer running Windows 2000 Professional with the input editor Chinese (Simplified) - MS-Pinyin98 installed. The icons, language buttons, language bars and IME menus on the other Windows platforms may look a little different from those on Windows 2000 Professional. But the steps for inputting Chinese text are quite similar for the various Windows platforms. Microsoft's Pinyin Input Method Editor functions much the same in its different versions.

• 1.      Once Chinese language support and IME have been installed on a Windows computer, there should be a Language button on the taskbar at the bottom of the Windows desktop. If you left click on it, then the language input options you have installed should appear. Scroll to the language option you want (in this case Chinese), and left click to select it as an input option.
  
  
• 2.     As an example, we will write the sentence "I am Chinese" in Chinese (我是中国人) in Microsoft Word. First open Word, then choose Chinese by clicking on the language button on the taskbar at the bottom of the Windows desktop, and then click on Chinese (PRC), as specified in section (1). Note that on the right hand side of the taskbar, instead of , you have .
• 3.     You also get near the lower right corner of the desktop a menu for the options in Chinese (Simplified) - MS-Pinyin98.
  
  The default input mode is Chinese, as indicated by the button, the first on the menu. If you click on it, you change the input mode to English, as changes to on the menu. Change the input mode back to Chinese by clicking on the toggle button . The fifth button on the left, , allows toggling between simplified and traditional Chinese characters (it is greyed out if the input mode is changed to English). If you click on , you switch from simplified to traditional characters, as indicated by the button .
• 4.     If you are using Windows XP or Windows Vista, follow the instructions for enabling toggling between simplified and traditional Chinese for Windows XP or Windows Vista, and then return to this page.
• 5.     Be sure that the default mode is Chinese and the character mode is simplified. Type wo, and you get a prompt line interface popping up and offering a number of choices for wo.
  
  
  
  More choices are available by clicking on the button to the far right. In this case we want the first choice. So hit 1 to select it, and you have:
  
  
• 6.     Type shi, and the prompt line interface pops up again:
  
  
  
  Type 1 to select the first choice.
• 7.     Then type zhong, and you have:
  
  
  
  Type 2 to select the 2nd choice offered. Note that some of the choices are compounds anticipating the user's possible future input.
• 8.    Note the dotted underline below 中国, indicating that this is a provisional selection.
  
  
  
  Hit the return key to accept it, since that is what you want. Then type ren:
  
  
• 9.     Type 1 to select the first option. Hit the return key to accept the choice. Then type a period, and you are done.
  
  
• 10.Anyone who is reasonably proficient in Chinese language input will take far fewer steps than the example given here. In fact, typing in woshizhongguoren and then a period, and hitting the return key will produce the same outcome. What we are demonstrating here is not the most efficient way to achieve the result, but rather some general principles:
• o    With each syllable typed in in pinyin format, a prompt line interface pops up to offer choices that the user can accept by typing in the number corresponding to the desired option.
• o    The editor will anticipate possible word combinations on the basis of what has been typed so far to save time for the user.
• o    For a provisional choice indicated by a dotted underline, the user needs to hit the return key to save it.

Q11. Writing Japanese on the Windows Platform

This is not intended to be a comprehensive manual to writing Japanese on the Windows platform, but rather a quick and dirty guide to get someone new to Japanese computing going with Microsoft's Input Method Editor, which converts Japanese text entered as romaji into kana and kanji. For more detailed information on this and other Input Method Editors, see Russ Rolfe's "What is an IME (Input Method Editor) and how do I use it?". Wikipedia has a comprehensive survey of "Japanese input methods" on computers.

Japanese language support and input method editor(s) need to be installed before one can write Japanese in a Windows application. If necessary, please first install Japanese language support and input method editor(s) (IME) for Windows XP, or Windows Vista.

Screenshots below are taken from a computer running Windows 2000 Professional with the Japanese input editor MS-IME 2000 installed. The icons, language buttons, language bars and IME menus on the other Windows platforms may look a little different from those on Windows 2000 Professional. But the steps for inputting Japanese text are quite similar for the various Windows platforms. Microsoft's Pinyin Input Method Editor functions much the same in its different versions.

• 1.      Once Japanese language support and IME have been installed on a computer running Windows 2000 Professional, there should be a language button on the right hand side of the taskbar at the bottom of the Windows desktop. If you left click on it, then the language input options you have installed should appear. Scroll to the language option you want (in this case Japanese), and left click to select it as an input option.
  
  
• 2.     As an example, we will write the sentence "I am Chinese" in Japanese (私わ中国人です）　in Microsoft Word. First open Word, then choose the Japanese MS-IME 2000 as in section (1). Note that on the right hand side of the taskbar, instead of , you have .
• 3.     You also get on the taskbar a menu for the options in Japanese MS-IME 2000. Note that even though the default input mode is supposed to be Hiragana, what shows on the menu is Direct Input as indicated by on the menu. Click on , and the submenu for different options for text input displays. Click on Hiragana to choose it as the input mode.
  
  
• 4.     Now the options menu for Japanese MS-IME 2000 indicates that Hiragana is the input mode, as represented by .
  
  
• 5.     Type in watakushi, and you get:
  
  
• 6.     Note that there is a dotted underline below わたくし, indicating that it is provisional. If you hit the space bar, you get the kanji:
  
  
  
  Note that there is a solid line under 私. Since that is what you want, hit the return key to accept.
• 7.     IME is not smart enough to know that wa should be written by the kana for ha. So type ha. Again, note the dotted underline. Hit the return key to accept the hiragana for ha.
  
  
• 8.    Then type chugoku.
  
  
• 9.     If you hit the space bar,　ちゅごく is converted into its kanji form.
  
  
• 10.You can hit return to accept it. But suppose those kanji are not the ones you want, and you want to see what other alternative forms may be possible. Hit the space bar again, and you get a drop-down list of choices for ちゅごく.
  
  
• 11.  You can hit the space key repeatedly to cycle through the options. When the one you want is highlighted, hit the return key to select and finalize it. Alternatively, you can select the choice you want by entering its corresponding number. In this case, you actually want the first option. So enter 1 to select it and then the return key to finalize it. Then enter jindesu.
  
  
• 12. Hit the space bar, and じん is converted to kanji:
  
  
• 13. Hit the return key to accept the underlined phrase, enter a period, and then hit return again. The sentence is now complete.
  
  
• 14. This example of inputting Japanese text applies to Windows XP and Windows Vista as well, although the appearance of the menus and icons will be different.
  
  English Windows XP shares a common bug with English Windows 2000 Professional: even though the default input mode is set to Hiragana mode, it actually starts in Direct Input mode. To switch to Hiragana mode, click on the Input Style button on the Japanese language bar.
  
  
  
  This brings up a drop-down list of input modes. Move the mouse to highlight Hiragana and click to select.
  
  
  
  The input mode is now in Hiragana mode.
  
  
  
  You can now follows the steps in the example, starting with section (5).
• 15. Anyone who is reasonably proficient in Japanese language input will take far fewer steps than the example given here. What we are demonstrating here is not the most efficient way to achieve the result, but rather some general principles:
• o    In Hiragana mode, entering the romaji and then hitting the return key means accepting the hiragana displayed.
• o    Entering the romaji and then hitting the space bar means converting the hiragana to kanji.
• o    If the displayed option for conversion is the desired one, then hitting the return key means accepting that choice.
• o    If, on the other hand, the displayed option is not the desired one, hitting the space bar produces a drop-down list of choices in kanji, katakana, and/or hiragana.

Q12. Changing the Default Character Set in POP3 E-Mail Clients for Writing E-Mail Messages in Chinese and Japanese

To minimize the possibility that someone cannot read your messages in Chinese or Japanese, you can change the default character set for English-language POP3 e-mail programs, which is usually ISO-8859-1, to Unicode (UTF-8), which accommodates most if not all of the world's languages. Detailed instructions are available for Outlook 2003, and Outlook Express 6.0 You can also elect to change the default encoding to one of the East Asian character sets (GB2312 for simplified Chinese, Big5 for traditional Chinese, or ISO-2022J for Japanese), depending on your personal correspondence pattern. But Unicode is the most flexible and compatible choice.

Outlook 2003

Outlook Express 6.0

• 1.      Open the Tools/Options menu. Then click on the Send tab.
  
  
• 2.     In the Sending section, click on the button for International Settings ...
  
  
• 3.     In the line Default Encoding, click on the button to the right of Western European (ISO). In the dropdown list of encodings that opens, move the cursor to Unicode (UTF-8) to highlight and select it by clicking on it.
  
  
• 4.     Click OK to change the default encoding to Unicode (UTF-8).
  
  
  
  Finally, in the Options window, click on the OK button to finish the process.
  
  Your outgoing messages will now automatically be sent in Unicode. You can even mix languages in your messages.

Q13. Sending and Receiving Chinese & Japanese E-Mail under Microsoft Windows

This is a guide to writing and reading Chinese and/or Japanese messages for users of English versions of Windows whose correspondence is primarily in English but who sometimes need to send or receive Chinese and/or Japanese e-mail.

Once Microsoft’s East Asian language support and Input Method Editors (IME) have been installed for Windows XP, or Windows Vista , the user can compose and read e-mail in Chinese and Japanese. Once you have opened the message composition window of your email client, simply click on the floating language bar or language button on the task bar. Then select the appropriate language: CN (PRC) for simplified Chinese, CN (Taiwan) for traditional Chinese, and JP for Japanese.

It used to be the case that not all English-language e-mail programs for Windows can read and write messages in Chinese and Japanese. Compatibility of English-language e-mail programs with East Asian languages has been vastly improved since.

As mentioned before, most programs can write and send messages in Chinese and Japanese, and each can also automatically decode Chinese and Japanese message sent by itself and by other programs. If you compose and send a Chinese or Japanese message in either Outlook Express and with the original settings [Western European (ISO-8859-1) as the default character set for outgoing messages], you will get a prompt asking whether you want to send the message in Unicode. Answer yes to send the message properly encoded.

You should encounter few difficulties sending and receiving Chinese and Japanese e-mail if you use any newer  e-mail clients. Nonetheless, occasionally someone may inform you that she cannot read your message, or you may receive an indecipherable message. This can be due to a number of potential sources of problems, such as the message header indicating the wrong encoding scheme for the message text, messages sent from older versions of Windows or e-mail programs, mixing traditional Chinese (Big5) and simplified Chinese (Guobiao) encodings in forwarded messages or replies, etc.

To minimize the possibility that someone cannot read your messages, you can change the default character set for English-language POP3 e-mail programs, which is usually Latin Alphabet (ISO-8859-1), to Unicode (UTF-8). Unicode accommodates most if not all of the world's languages. This step is not needed by Webmail programs.

If you get a message that contains a lot of ????, it is corrupted beyond repair. If instead the message displays a bunch of code that looks like gibberish, then it may still be possible to read it.

Q14. Installing the Chinese IME in Windows Vista

How do I install? the Chinese IME in Windows Vista?

To install the Chinese IME in Windows Vista, start by opening the Control Panel.

Click the Start Button:

and chose Control Panel:

Then click the "Clock, Language and Regional" option.

You should then see the Regional and Language Options option as shown below. Under the Regional and Language Options item select Change keyboards or other input methods.

That will bring up the Keyboard and Languages tab in the Regional and Language Options dialogue. Click the Change keyboards... button:

In "Text Services and Input Languages" dialog box we need to add the Chinese IME and the Chinese Keyboard components.

Click the "Add..." button.

You should now see the "Add Input Language" dialog box.

Scroll down to the Chinese (PRC) entry, expand it and select the Chinese keyboard that you would like to use (I would recommend the Microsoft Pinyin IME is you are using Simplified Chinese) as shown below:

Finally click the "OK" button.

You should end up with a "Chinese" entry under "Installed Services".

Finally click the "OK" button.

You may be asked to put your Windows Vista CD-ROM in the CD drive so that the relevant files can be copied across to your hard drive. NOTE: You can not install the IME without the CD (please do not email me to ask..!).

That's it. You should now see the IME icon in your task bar that has a Japanese option when it is clicked... like this:

How do I use the Chinese IME in Windows Vista?

After you have select CH (Chinese) from the IME task bar menu the task bar look like this.....

If you have the Chinese IME selected as above and you right click on the CH you will bring up the Options Menu:

Choosing the Restore Language bar option will convert the IME into a floating toolbar with all the IME options visible:

Click on the Input Mode button (set to Chinese by default) will allow you to toggle the Input Mode between Pinyin and English. The keyboard shortcut for this is the left shift key.