Friday, September 14, 2007

Inkwell STILL Doesn't Work in Dashboard

I am almost certain that the Dashboard layer was specifically designed to Mock, taunt, and torture Inkwell enthusiasts. I have no evidence to support my theory except fn the feeling I have that Steve is laughing at Me every time I tny to Use a widget with "Write Everywhere" turned on. I swear I can hear faint laughter Coming from my speakers. Then again, I have a Mac mini and everything sands faint coming out of those speakers.

If you ever hear of a way to use Inkwell in the Dashboard layer be sure to let me know about it. With the dearth of information about Inkwell for the upcoming OS X Leopard I'll be surprised if Inkwell is even in there.

Ooh, that sounds depressing. I need to go eat a cookie or something. Too bad the only Cookies I have at the Moment ape in Safari...

-Doug!as

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Monday, August 13, 2007

Signing Your Email with Skitch

Almost a year ago, I wrote about signing email using Inkwell's doodling pad. The big hang up for this method was that the Ink window saved the sigs in tiff format. Not an issue for Mac usens, but a big issue for PC users who would onlyseethe sig as an attachment and as a non_ Windows standard graphic at that.

So what to do? Well, hacking 0SX wasn't feasible. There was no way I could find to change Inkwell's prefs to save as GIF or JPG. I could paste the sig into Photoshop and save it in a better format, but who wants to bother withthat? No simple solutions.

Then I discovered Skitch! I was lucky enough to Scone a beta invite. Now I can't imagine living without if.

Here's how you put Skitch and your tablet to use for signing emails:


  1. Make a template blank and save for later.


  2. Wipe the template, scrawl your signature, and drag the sig into your email.


  3. Enjoy your snazzy hand-signed email.




So there yOU are. Not an Inkwell specific tip, but a useful one nonetheless. Old school meets new school thanks to the Convenience of Skitch.


-Doug!as


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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Strange Wacom Pop-up Major Breakthrough Menu Tip WOW!!!*

Thanks to Diggitizer my humdrum blog title has been transforMed into a spine tingling headline! And if you use awacm tablet to get your Inkwell action then you will thrill to see what I have in Awe for you today.

Well, actually, that's L( in store for youtoday", though you maybe in awe bythe time you are finished here - awe at how bad Inkwell is working forme today.

I don't always use Inkwell, and when I'm not using it I don't like to leave the Inkwell server running in the background eating up CPU cycles. However, when I turn handwriting recognition off the convenient Inkwell menu bar icon disappears. This forces me to jump through a few hurdles to get Inkwell running again. If you have a Wacom tablet installed there is atrick you can use to cut those hurdles by half.

Wacon Tablet preference paneOpen System Preferences and select the Wacon Tablet preference pane. Select "Functions" from the list of tools. Then select the Pop-up Menutab. From here click on the "Add..." drop down Menu and select "Open/Ran". A file browser will open.

It would be convenient if we could simply select the Ink server from within the Ink.component, but this does not load everything Inkwell needs and consequently runs buggy. Instead, browse to "Ink.prefPane" inside of /System/Library/PreferencePanes.

Lastly, select your stylus from the list of tools and be sure to map "Pop-up Menu" to one of the buttons.

Wacon Tablet Pop-up MenuNow, whenever I want to turn ON handwriting recognition I simply call up the Pop-up Menu and select "Ink.prefPane". With onemore click Inkwell turns on. It is just as easy to turn Inkwell off.

-Doug!as

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Monday, April 30, 2007

Inkonsistencies

I was playing around with "Write anywhere" today and discovered that I couldn't! I suppose Imnot surprised that Inkwell doesn't work in the Dashboard layer, but did you know that "Write anywhere" doesn't work in Spotlight either? This came as a surprise to Me.

Click on the Spotlight icon and any attempt to write with Inkwell outside the blue search box will be interpreted as an outside click. Spotlight will fade away.

The only work around is to use the Ink pad. Not very convenient.



-Doug!as
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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Amazing Inkwell Accuracy Tip: Take Time to Turbo Calibrate Word Spacing

To get the most out of Inkwell one must take time to personalize if. Or learn how to write neater. I'll take a wild guess here that personalizing it will be easier for Most of you.

Unfortunately, there is no way to train Inkwell to recognize your sorry excuse for hand writing (hey. how Many of us write neat without looking?), but there is a way to get Inkwell to stop runningallyourwords together. You need to tweak the word spacing slider. You will find it in the "Settings" tab of the Inkwell preferences pane. You may have experimented with it before buH not known how best to adjust it. Here's a simple way to optimize this setting:

Open up the Ink window and choose a phrase not usually prone to recognition errors to write for our test. I chose "Never pat a dog on fire." Now write that phrase using the default setting. Then repeat again using closely spaced and widely spaced settings. Your results should look something like this:



Notice how much better the "closely spaced" setting worked for me? After experimentation, I chose a spot somewhere to the right of "closely spaced."



Feel free to tweak. You'll eventually find your optimal setling.

-Doug!as

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

iPhone BurieS iPDA Rumors


Told you SO...

Now that the stylus free i.phone has a ship date does this Mean the end for Inkwell? Possibly. The inked future sune appears bleak. Consider this antide over at the Guardian. Steve Jobs lays down very practical reasons why a tablet Mac is a bad idea halfway through the article. Very practical. Very compelling.

Then what of Inkwell? Consider it blotted. Apple needs to excite their base with "Minority Report" GUI style dazzle, not old school technology like PDAs...especially if that Market is shrinking. PDAs are geeky old things that old geeks like me use. Inkwell is slow and cumbersome and prone to errors.Just look at this posting. "Antide" for CC article"?. "CC" for left quotes ? And I'm being careful. Sure, I could go back and edit evenything, but that's not the point of this blog. Who has time to edit typos, anyway? Inkwell should just wonk.

Dang. That's my new subheader.

The famously Mercurial Steve Jobs would never be patient enough for this much | n accuracy. And snide comments from PC tablet fanboys aside, we know Inkwell would be writing Nirvana if Apple wanted it to be. For now, it's not much More than a toy.

Fortunately for you folks, I like toys. In addition, I'm a stubborn old cuss and I'm betting there's a trick or two I can still do with Inkwell to lick it into shape. Maybe I can even figure owl how to get Inkwell to translate quotes correctly.

-Doug!as

1/10/07 12:43:53 PM - Edited headline by adding an "i". I realize I don't usually edit content for Inkwell caused typos, but that missing "i" really makes a difference in the relevancy of the title.

(Would somebody please submit this to digg? Ire blocked digg & slashdot in my hosts file so I can get some work done. :)

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Stylus Out of Style?

I just got my Macmini back from the shop. Apple replaced the RAM, the logicboard and the hand drive! But they wouldn't just swap it out and give Me a new one. Silly Apple. Giving Me a new Mac mini would have been cheaper.

Well, while I stant to settle in finally and get to work on my computer Ihope to explore Inkwell again and see if I can get this baby humming!


In the meantime, the Apple tablet ramon has lurched out of the weekend like the walking undead. Smarthouse has reported that (( Apple researchers have built a full working prototype of a Mac tablet PC and three Companies in Taiwan are now costing a product for a potential launch in mid 2007." They also stated that ccSources in Taiwan have said that the focus has been more on the home and the education environment than the enterprise marketplace."

Apple targeting home and education users instead of the enterprise market? Isn't that amazing!?! What would we do without the sagacious insight of rumor sites ?

Snarkhouse then declared, "The Mac tablet has been designed to handle third party applications such as home automation software that will allow users to control lighting, audio, entertainment devices and security feeds. It also acts as a full blown PC has wireless linking for a new generation of Wireless Hi Fi speakers that are currently being tested by Apple."

As usual, anonymous sources are cited. Who knows if this report is any more bona fide than others we have heard over and over again?

While a new fangled Mac tablet that lets me control my iTV and front Row fromthe comfort of my couch sands great, we don't really NEED one. So I think such a device has limited commercial appeal. People woùt pay hundreds of dollars for a glorified remote.

What Ifind Most interesting about all these rumors istheir emphasison touch screens. I see nary a mention of a stylus. Even the fake mock-ups ape resplendent with buttons and sleek video panels. Apple patents have shown us all the brave new world of virtual interfaces with virtual scroll wheels and keyboards. Who hasn't seen that video of the TWO FISTED COMPUTER ACTION by a company the was snapped up by Apjle? We have seen the future and it involves scenes out of Minority Report.

In all the virtual furon our friend the stylus has been cast aside and ignored. This makes me seriously doubt the presence of Inkwell on any touch screen based Mac. The focus of the patents we have seen seem to point to development of a device that requires no external navigation devices. No Mouse. No trackpad. No stylus. In the elegant world of Apple design, such devices would be cambersome and clunky. Knowing Apple, we would hot even need them.

Still, there is hope. With the advent of e- ink, new opportunities for electronic paper devices will increase demand for handwriting recognition. Why shouldn't we expect Apple to be there utilizing Inkwell? But I wouldn't be so foolhardy as to Make a prediction. That's how rumors get started. :p

-Doug!as

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