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Pen Attention v1.2 now available

05/10/2008 - 23:12
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Update 1/03/2010:Download the latest version from here

I've updated my PenAttention program to v1.2. See PenAttention for a description of the original program. The changes are:

1) Dialog box that allows the user to set the opacity, radius of the highlight, and color of the highlight.

2) An option to highlight the mouse in addition to the pen.

3) Fixed issues causing flickering and strange refresh behavior in some applications (e.g. PowerPoint presentation mode, Sticky Notes, PDF Annotator).

Thanks everyone for your feedback, interest, and support for this program!

To download the installer for this program click the link below:
PenAttention-v1.2-setup.exe

IMPORTANT: If the program installs but the highlight doesn't follow your pen, try installing this Microsoft redistributable update for C++:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200B2FD9-AE1A-4...

UPDATE #2: If the program crashes when running, you might need the following Ink update from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=84bbefa4-7047-4...

UPDATE #3: If the program doesn't install or there is flickering, check this post: http://www.math.uaa.alaska.edu/~afkjm/techteach/?q=node/63

UPDATE #4: Here is a version that runs on a 64 bit OS.
http://www.math.uaa.alaska.edu/~afkjm/techteach/?q=node/67

If you are interested in the C++ and C# source code, see below:
PenAttention-v1.2-src.zip

Hi from Germany! Many thanks

Hi from Germany!

Many thanks from me as well. A real blunder for Microsoft to not have this function built-in.

Yet another very grateful

Yet another very grateful person here.

I bought OneNote and a Wacom tablet to digitize some derivations I was doing for my research. But the unusably small dot made it impossible to find where I was on the screen and kept me from getting any value out of the setup. Your program turned a worthless expenditure to an amazing investment.

Thanks!

PS: I CAN'T BELIEVE that nobody in Microsoft's vast (un-)usability team thought the microdot cursor was a problem! Moot point now, though.

This is fantastic! I just

This is fantastic! I just bought a new Wacom Bamboo pen+touch specifically to whiteboard with clients and capture handwritten notes. Tracking the tiny blue pen dot is maddening! This program fixed it immediately and installed perfectly.

Thanks!

Thanks for taking the time

Thanks for taking the time to figure out how to do this.
I've been looking for exactly this kind of thing since I started teaching with a tablet right after they appeared.
Unfortunately for me, V1.2 doesn't cure the flashing problems when inking (and only when inking) in full screen mode with powerpoint.
I'd like to offer to help in any way that I can to sort out what the issue is. This is too close to exactly what I (and many others) need to simply say "oh well I guess it doesn't work". How can I help debug this?

thanks
ed
--

What about changing the

What about changing the hardware acceleration settings? I was able to reproduce this on a Toshiba M400 running Windows XP. I lowered the hardware acceleration and the problem seemed to go away. The setting is in the control panel if you right-click on the desktop, then Properties, Settings, Advanced, and Troubleshoot. The setting I used is the third from the left on the slider and it gives the text:

"Disable all DirectDraw and Direct3D accelerations, as well as all cursor and advanced drawing accelerations. Use this setting to correct severe problems with DirectX accelerated applications."

I wish I could get this to

I wish I could get this to work but I can't. I've installed the distributable, but as soon as I launch the program it crashes >(. I really need a program like this!!

Thanks for writing this

Thanks for writing this program! It's great: it is a quick download, effortless install, and works as advertised. I'm using v1.01 write now, but will upgrade shortly. I was always very dissapointed with how small the dot was while lecturing to my HS Math classes using OneNote on my Motion Computing LE1600. With your program, this will not be an issue any longer.

Before I used the Tablet PC, I used a document camera, and the pencil was a great way to draw students attention to particular spots in equations, graphs, or diagrams. Now I can use a pencil again! Horray! When I first switched to the Tablet PC, the kids said it was kind of freaky just seeing the writing appear out of nowhere. Then when I had students come up to the PC to do problems, I had to admit, it was really weird to not see a pencil or pen doing the writing.

As an aside, it would be real cool, to have a way to make the pencil larger too. This is just a pipe-dream: Ideally, there would be a transluscent pencil I could vary the size of with sliders, just like the highlighter ball. Hey, and wouldn't it be cool if the tip would change color to match the color of ink being used? There is really no practical need for any of this as you've solved the problem of how to make the pointer more visible.

Once again, thanks.

Matt Davis
HS Math
Haines, AK

Thanks Matt, nice to get

Thanks Matt, nice to get kudos from another Alaskan :) I didn't quite get to your changes in this latest version but I should be able to make the pencil bigger... the translucent pencil with color changing tip might not get done though :)

kenrick

I would like to say thank

I would like to say thank you for the great work on PenAttention.

Hi, thanks for sharing this

Hi, thanks for sharing this great application. I'd like to make a request for the next version. It would be very useful if the highlight color would change when performing a right click. I am often teaching others at work how to perform tasks on their tablets and this would be very valuable so the can see when I am using the right click function.

This should be pretty easy

This should be pretty easy to add. Do you mean when someone right-clicks with the pen (perhaps by clicking one of the pen buttons or tap and hold) the highlight would change (maybe invert it)?

Thx for this great program.

Thx for this great program. I can use it on my notebook wich is running on vista. But for some reason the cursor "lags" as hell. If you write something the real cursor is faster then pen attention it's not simultaneous wich is really annoying.

Has anyone figured out a

Has anyone figured out a solution to the cursor lag when you start moving it? It drives me nuts, anytime I move the cursor the cursor attention pencil animation lags behind.

Using version 1.2? Any other

Using version 1.2?
Any other details on your setup?