pen is greyed out

[tjones]

Hi, i installed onenote as part of my offece 2003 setup on a desktop PC. I
also installed SP1. The Pen appears greyed out. I tried:

1. view > toolbars > Pens
2. view > toolbars > drawing and writing tools

.... but its all greyed out.

Can anyone help me. I have it installe don XP Pro.

Many thanks,
cheers,
tjones

 

[Chris H.]

The pen is only supported on a Tablet PC, using the digital Ink recognizers.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[tjones]

thanks, so onenote seems somewhat useless if you dont have a pctablet?

Im trying to find an effective solution where I can type text, draw simple
graphics with my mouse, circle text i have written with my mouse. I thought
onenote was the solution, but i guess it isnt. anything else out there?

Many thanks
tjones

 

[Chris H.]

OneNote is great on a laptop or desktop, too, using a regular keyboard, but
really shows its worth using the Tablet PC Ink capabilities API and the
sampling rate which is three to four times that of a normal mouse.
Unfortunately, it doesn't share the Office family drawing tools. Perhaps in
the next edition, hopefully.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[tjones]

have my fingers crossed :O)

OneNote is great on a laptop or desktop, too, using a regular keyboard,
but really shows its worth using the Tablet PC Ink capabilities API and
the sampling rate which is three to four times that of a normal mouse.
Unfortunately, it doesn't share the Office family drawing tools. Perhaps
in the next edition, hopefully.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Chris,

On my PC, I have the pens and can use my mouse to draw in all the colours
and pens that are available. I don't have a TabletPC. Why can't tjones do
the same?

Mike Glen

 

[Chris H.]

I don't know, Mike. Perhaps he doesn't have the hardware or software
installed that you do.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[max headroom]

That the problem I was running into.
The pen worked on my laptop and then it stopped.
I have another laptop where it is stipp working.
In my opinion the pen is the ket to onenote because you can use it as a
whiteboard while taking notes with someone.

I think the problem might have been in the service pack updates. The updates
disabled the pen feature.
It really sucks now. I feel like uninstalling onenote all together. Who
needs a software that is useless and takes up disk space.

 

[Lon Diffenderfer]

Hi All,

Personally, I think there is a lot of BS being spread on this board. First,
we are told that only Tablet PCs have the Pen feature enabled. Obviously,
that is not true. I have OneNote installed on an HP desktop with no pen/pad
hardware, just a regular mouse. I have the Pen feature enabled in OneNote and
can use it with no problems. I also have SP1 for Office installed, so that is
not the problem either. This software has issues that need to be dealt with
at the manufacturer level.

Regards,
Lon

 

[Chris H.]

That may be my wording, Lon, and if so I apologize. When I speak of Ink,
I'm generally talking about Tablet PCs. There are ways to emulate
handwriting (which is not digital Ink like on a Tablet) on most any machine.
However, there is no recognition or conversion of the emulation as you have
on a Tablet PC without using a third-party program.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[Lon Diffenderfer]

Chris,

I don't believe recognition and conversion of handwriting were the question
of the original post.

Regards,
Lon

 

[Chris H.]

Do you have Office 2003 installed? On a non-Tablet PC OneNote uses the
Office handwriting engine. If you do, and that still isn't working, I
suggest you do a Repair install of Office, specifically checking to make
sure the handwriting option is installed.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[Andrew Watt [MVP - InfoPath]]

Hi, i installed onenote as part of my offece 2003 setup on a desktop PC. I
also installed SP1. The Pen appears greyed out. I tried:

1. view > toolbars > Pens
2. view > toolbars > drawing and writing tools

... but its all greyed out.

Can anyone help me. I have it installe don XP Pro.

Many thanks,
cheers,
tjones

TJ,

Can we review this problem?

I am able to use the Pen to draw in OneNote on a desktop machine. And
the toolbars which are greyed out for you are usable for me.

You say that the toolbars Pens and Drawing and Writing Tools are
greyed out.

Is the Standard toolbar visible? If so, the Pen button ought to be
present on it too. Is that also greyed out? If the Pen button is
present and functioning that at least would allow you to do some basic
drawing.

Also which Service Pack of Windows XP Pro are you running?

It would also be worth running Detect and Repair from the Help menu to
see if that will fix your problem.

Thanks

Andrew Watt
MVP - InfoPath