NoteLab and Microsoft Windows®


The Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Windows Vista™ operating systems have a feature called "press and hold" specifically designed to be used with a stylus.  

With this feature enabled, if the user presses the stylus down for a brief period, a menu will appear to allow the user to select certain actions (such as cut, copy, or paste) that Windows should perform.  

Basically the feature lets the user access "right-click" menus with a stylus without having to use the special button located on the side of the stylus.

This feature is useful it some situations but destroys the use of the stylus in note taking applications such as NoteLab.  All note taking applications designed to be used on the Microsoft Windows® operating system need to address this problem.  

As such it is necessary that this feature is disabled for NoteLab while it is running.  It does not need to be disabled while NoteLab is not running.

The goal of future versions of NoteLab is to disable this feature only for NoteLab.  That is, "press and hold" will not be available in NoteLab (which is fine since it does not require the "press and hold" feature) but will be available in any other application.

The current version, though, cannot do this.  Instead while using NoteLab, the "press and hold" feature will need to be manually disabled so that NoteLab can run at its maximum performance.  

The steps below describe how to disable the "press and hold" feature.  As mentioned above, the "press and hold" feature can be re-enabled when NoteLab is not being used.

Step 1:

Start the "Control Panel" through the "Start" menu.

Select "Control Panel" from the Start Menu.

Step 2:

Open "Tablet and Pen Settings".

Select "Tablet and Pen Settings" from the Control Panel.

Step 3:

Select the "Pen Options" tab, select "Press and hold" from the "Pen Actions" list, and press the "Settings..." button.

Select the "Pen Options" tab, select the "Press and Hold" pen action from the action list, and press the "Settings" button.

Step 4:

Verify that the "Enable press and hold for right-click" checkbox is not selected and press the "OK" button.

Make sure the "Enable press and hold for right-click" checkbox is not checked.

Now the "press and hold" feature has been disabled.  It can be re-enabled at any time by using steps 1, 2, and 3 above and by verifying that the "Enable press and hold for right-click" checkbox is selected in step 4.

You will need to restart NoteLab for the changes to take affect.

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