I have slowly been moving my life over to the LS800 that i-Toyz provided to me. I was a bit apprehensive about using a device with such a small screen but it has not been as limiting as I had feared. There are of course some limitations, particularly around the screen resolution. However with a little tweaking you can squeeze a little bit more out of a small screen tablet.
About the LS800
I first reviewed the LS800 last August and it is a sweet machine. It tips the scales at just 1 KG (2.2 lbs) and is so portable but some of the side effects of the portability of the LS800 present some challenges. Specifically:
· 8.4 inch screen
· Screen Resolution
o 800x600 in landscape
o 600x800 in Portrait
Of course, the LS800 is no longer the only tiny tablet. Many of these tweaks will also be applicable to Origami devices and other UMPCs. Some of these may even be of use on larger tablets. You could also reverse some of these if you are running a hi-res tablet. I encourage you to experiment.
Tablet OS tweaks
Small icons on start menu
In order to fit more icons on the Start Menu it pays to configure the menu to use small icons.
Before:
After:
To do this:
1) Right click the Start button and select properties on the context menu.
2) In the Task Bar and Start Menu Properties dialog select the Start Menu tab.
3) Click the Customize button next to Start Menu
4) Select Small icons
Tablet Input Panel
Ink strokes are measured in pixels, so a relatively low resolution like 800x600 makes the pen strokes seem quite fat. This causes you to write bigger than you need to, limiting how much you can fit on a line. You can tweak the TIP to give you a bit more writing space.
Set Pen to "extra fine"
One really easy win on a small form factor tablet is to change the pen used in the TIP from the default setting of fine to extra fine. You will need to do this for both the character pad and the writing pad. To do this:
1) On the TIP click the drop down next to the little gear wheel on the right hand side of the TIP and select Options…
2) On the Character Pad tab select Extra fine in the Ink Thickness dropdown.
3) Repeat this on the Writing Pad tab.
Reduce Size of Writing Areas
While you are messing with the TIP you can tweak it further. By reducing the spacing in the Character Pad and Writing Pad you force yourself to write a bit smaller. While this is obvious in the case of the former I find it works for the latter too. You will need to experiment to find as size that works for you. To adjust the Character Pad:
1) On the TIP click the drop down next to the little gear wheel on the right hand side of the TIP and select Options…
2) On the Character Pad tab adjust the slider and click OK.
After a bit of trail and error you will find something that works for you. I’ve got mine configured as below.
The difference this makes is quite noticeable.
As mentioned above you can also repeat this on the Writing Pad tab. You may need to experiment a bit to find a setting that works for you. The change is less noticeable on the Writing Pad, though by reducing the height of the space above the base line you are forced to write smaller, which allows you to fit more on the line.
Consider removing TIP icon
Space on the Taskbar can be a scarce resource, especially when you work in Portrait mode. I like to turn off the TIP icon, though not everyone will like this.
To disable the TIP click Start >Run… and enter the text below exactly as it appears.
regsvr32 /u "c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\ink\tipband.dll"
The next time you restart the TIP icon will be gone. If that is too scary the command to put it back is almost the same:
regsvr32 "c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\ink\tipband.dll"
Again the changes will not take effect until you restart.
If you do turn this off you need some other way of launching the TIP. You can assign a hardware button to launch the TIP in the Tablet and Pen Settings control panel applet if you like. My preferred option though – also configured in the Tablet and Pen Settings applet – is to use a gesture to launch the tip. This is enabled by default so if you wave the tip of the pen left to right just above the surface of the screen the TIP will appear. You can fine tune the gesture by:
1. Launch the Tablet and Pen Settings applet in the Control Panel.
2. Select the Pen Options tab
3. In the list of Pen Actions select Start Input Panel Gesture and click settings.
4. Adjust the slider to configure the size of the gesture.
