Southpaw Windows?

Chris maybe you can help or put in your advise for this.
As I am a southpaw ("lefty" for people who dont understand) writing on a
tablet makes it so much easier than writing in a binder with rings and oh god
spiral binders... But now I want it easier (we always want things our way
don't we?) I don't like too much reaching accross the screen to get to the
scroll bars, in fact www.tabletpcbuzz.com has affectivly been able to move
the vertical scroll for their pages if you change the setting for your
profile. When or is MS going to impliment the ability to move the vertical
scrolls to the left of the screen? (also other buttons, like minimize,
restore, and close.) Or am i going to have to deal with blocking my veiw when
trying to read long webpages with the scroll bar on the right side???
-James

flibbertigibbet007 wrote:
> Chris maybe you can help or put in your advise for this.
> As I am a southpaw ("lefty" for people who dont understand) writing on a
> tablet makes it so much easier than writing in a binder with rings and oh god
> spiral binders... But now I want it easier (we always want things our way
> don't we?) I don't like too much reaching accross the screen to get to the
> scroll bars, in fact www.tabletpcbuzz.com has affectivly been able to move
> the vertical scroll for their pages if you change the setting for your
> profile. When or is MS going to impliment the ability to move the vertical
> scrolls to the left of the screen? (also other buttons, like minimize,
> restore, and close.) Or am i going to have to deal with blocking my veiw when
> trying to read long webpages with the scroll bar on the right side???

If you search through history of this newsgroup, you'll see this has
been asked & answered many times. It's not going to happen before the
next version of Windows (code-named Longhorn). More details in the
earlier posts, which you can find in the Google newsgroup archives.

As Mike said, James, it isn't going to happen until the operating system
itself changes. There are too many things, including most of the
third-party applications, which cannot be moved or would be broken without
rewriting the OS itself.

The problem isn't that it can't be done on an individual basis with certain
coding - like on the Buzz, within the web page structure itself - but, as
you'll see if you review the history of posts here with this same question,
it would force too many companies to spend lots and lots of money to be
compatible.

We've got a lefty daughter, and she copes with the scrolling by using the
little down arrow (or up, as the case might be) without attempting to drag
the scroll bar itself. That way, her hand is only in a corner and not fully
across the screen itself.

As a righty, I've found I prefer the Taskbar not at the bottom or top of the
screen, but set on the left side using Auto Hide. You can drag the Taskbar
to any of the four sides you'd like. My Start button is in the upper-left
corner. My moving it to the left is so I can see what I want to select, so
I would imagine you could use it on the right. 8-)

Those three items in the upper-right corner of each program screen are fixed
in the current operating system. Not only that, but they'll small and
sometimes difficult to tap. I've heard talk of them automatically "zooming"
when the pen is over them, giving us a larger target.

One of the things to remember is Tablet PCs are less than three years old
now, and the whole environment is really in its infancy. We've come a long
way in less than 36 months, and it takes time to have adjustments to what
"we" want. You have a solid suggestion, though, and I would submit it
through the Product Feedback:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp Select "Other" in the
Product: section and make sure you mention Tablet PC in the description box.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone


"flibbertigibbet007" <> wrote in
message news:4AB521B4-2629-4BA6-8617-...
> Chris maybe you can help or put in your advise for this.
> As I am a southpaw ("lefty" for people who dont understand) writing on a
> tablet makes it so much easier than writing in a binder with rings and oh
> god
> spiral binders... But now I want it easier (we always want things our way
> don't we?) I don't like too much reaching accross the screen to get to the
> scroll bars, in fact www.tabletpcbuzz.com has affectivly been able to move
> the vertical scroll for their pages if you change the setting for your
> profile. When or is MS going to impliment the ability to move the vertical
> scrolls to the left of the screen? (also other buttons, like minimize,
> restore, and close.) Or am i going to have to deal with blocking my veiw
> when
> trying to read long webpages with the scroll bar on the right side???
> -James

I read your website, and took your advice, and I too have my taskbar on the
left side of the screen. And the start on the left top.
I can't cope with the scroll bars on the (perverbial) 'wrong' side of the
screen.
And in responce to Mike, that was rude. I don't see everyone getting PO'd
because of people posting in the wrong section.
And a disapointment in longhorn, as I've heard (I hear lots of rumors), that
it's designed for media center specifically? In this case also that it's to
make use of the upcomming dual core proc's, which will outdate the tablet PC.
And render the lightness and size of tablets useless. As I understand dual
core would require bigger heat syncs, better cooling systems, and aren't
expected for laptops (or tablets) any time soon.
Plus I don't like the concept of needing to buy a new version of windows in
2007. I'm happy with XP TPC with the few exceptions I note once in a while.
But even if I do get longhorn, I don't want to have to buy a new tablet! (not
at $2K a machine, and who knows what price it'll be in 2007), sure desktop
prices are dropping, but with a dual core, and longhorn, I don't expect
longhorn to do that well, people are going to want the bargain, and not spend
the money for a high end (and this is going to be a highend thing.)

Thats my few $'s worth.
I think that abandoning XP, and TPC edition is a waste. Why not make what
you've made better, instead of making a whole new thing.

-James

"Chris H." wrote:

> As Mike said, James, it isn't going to happen until the operating system
> itself changes. There are too many things, including most of the
> third-party applications, which cannot be moved or would be broken without
> rewriting the OS itself.
>
> The problem isn't that it can't be done on an individual basis with certain
> coding - like on the Buzz, within the web page structure itself - but, as
> you'll see if you review the history of posts here with this same question,
> it would force too many companies to spend lots and lots of money to be
> compatible.
>
> We've got a lefty daughter, and she copes with the scrolling by using the
> little down arrow (or up, as the case might be) without attempting to drag
> the scroll bar itself. That way, her hand is only in a corner and not fully
> across the screen itself.
>
> As a righty, I've found I prefer the Taskbar not at the bottom or top of the
> screen, but set on the left side using Auto Hide. You can drag the Taskbar
> to any of the four sides you'd like. My Start button is in the upper-left
> corner. My moving it to the left is so I can see what I want to select, so
> I would imagine you could use it on the right. 8-)
>
> Those three items in the upper-right corner of each program screen are fixed
> in the current operating system. Not only that, but they'll small and
> sometimes difficult to tap. I've heard talk of them automatically "zooming"
> when the pen is over them, giving us a larger target.
>
> One of the things to remember is Tablet PCs are less than three years old
> now, and the whole environment is really in its infancy. We've come a long
> way in less than 36 months, and it takes time to have adjustments to what
> "we" want. You have a solid suggestion, though, and I would submit it
> through the Product Feedback:
> http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp Select "Other" in the
> Product: section and make sure you mention Tablet PC in the description box.
> --
> Chris H.
> Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
> Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
> Associate Expert
> Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
>
>
> "flibbertigibbet007" <> wrote in
> message news:4AB521B4-2629-4BA6-8617-...
> > Chris maybe you can help or put in your advise for this.
> > As I am a southpaw ("lefty" for people who dont understand) writing on a
> > tablet makes it so much easier than writing in a binder with rings and oh
> > god
> > spiral binders... But now I want it easier (we always want things our way
> > don't we?) I don't like too much reaching accross the screen to get to the
> > scroll bars, in fact www.tabletpcbuzz.com has affectivly been able to move
> > the vertical scroll for their pages if you change the setting for your
> > profile. When or is MS going to impliment the ability to move the vertical
> > scrolls to the left of the screen? (also other buttons, like minimize,
> > restore, and close.) Or am i going to have to deal with blocking my veiw
> > when
> > trying to read long webpages with the scroll bar on the right side???
> > -James
>
>
>

I wouldn't worry about whatever happens to be in Longhorn when it comes out.
There's a very, very long way to go on that operating system yet. It is
still only an Alpha version, and there has been no start of any beta for the
test sites. Anything you may hear, unless it comes directly from Microsoft,
is worth exactly what you pay for it. 8-)
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone


"flibbertigibbet007" <> wrote in
message news:9EC3B45F-D520-410D-881B-...
>I read your website, and took your advice, and I too have my taskbar on the
> left side of the screen. And the start on the left top.
> I can't cope with the scroll bars on the (perverbial) 'wrong' side of the
> screen.
> And in responce to Mike, that was rude. I don't see everyone getting PO'd
> because of people posting in the wrong section.
> And a disapointment in longhorn, as I've heard (I hear lots of rumors),
> that
> it's designed for media center specifically? In this case also that it's
> to
> make use of the upcomming dual core proc's, which will outdate the tablet
> PC.
> And render the lightness and size of tablets useless. As I understand dual
> core would require bigger heat syncs, better cooling systems, and aren't
> expected for laptops (or tablets) any time soon.
> Plus I don't like the concept of needing to buy a new version of windows
> in
> 2007. I'm happy with XP TPC with the few exceptions I note once in a
> while.
> But even if I do get longhorn, I don't want to have to buy a new tablet!
> (not
> at $2K a machine, and who knows what price it'll be in 2007), sure desktop
> prices are dropping, but with a dual core, and longhorn, I don't expect
> longhorn to do that well, people are going to want the bargain, and not
> spend
> the money for a high end (and this is going to be a highend thing.)
>
> Thats my few $'s worth.
> I think that abandoning XP, and TPC edition is a waste. Why not make what
> you've made better, instead of making a whole new thing.
>
> -James

flibbertigibbet007 wrote:
> I read your website, and took your advice, and I too have my taskbar on the
> left side of the screen. And the start on the left top.
> I can't cope with the scroll bars on the (perverbial) 'wrong' side of the
> screen.
> And in responce to Mike, that was rude. I don't see everyone getting PO'd
> because of people posting in the wrong section.

I didn't say that you'd posted in the wrong section. I said that you
could find more information in this newsgroup's archives. It requires
little effort for you to search if you're interested. It's rude to
expect large personalized answers to every post. Left-hand issues are
definitely in the top ten.

> And a disapointment in longhorn, as I've heard (I hear lots of rumors), that
> it's designed for media center specifically?

Media Center, Tablet PC etc are all "editions" of a core Windows XP. So
there are add-ons and tune-ins that differ according to the
hardware/usage profile. That's about as much as can reasonably deduced
so far. How many editions appear in the future is probably more of a
marketing/packaging issue - most folks have trouble assimilating the 4
current editions (Home, Pro, Tablet, MC). My guess is that MS will have
to start offering retail versions of Tablet edition in future to provide
an upgrade path for current Tablets. I would also hope that in future
the differences between Tablet and "regular" versions of Windows will
simply amount to driver-level support for specific peripherals. If you
have Tablet hardware, setup would simply enable you to use the digitized
screen; if not, then you could still view ink and manipulate it in
simple fashion via keyboard/mouse operations.

In this case also that it's to
> make use of the upcomming dual core proc's, which will outdate the tablet PC.
> And render the lightness and size of tablets useless. As I understand dual
> core would require bigger heat syncs, better cooling systems, and aren't
> expected for laptops (or tablets) any time soon.
> Plus I don't like the concept of needing to buy a new version of windows in
> 2007. I'm happy with XP TPC with the few exceptions I note once in a while.

It's not compulsory to upgrade :-). But if you want the features in the
new model of anything, then you have to weigh the pros and cons.

> But even if I do get longhorn, I don't want to have to buy a new tablet! (not
> at $2K a machine, and who knows what price it'll be in 2007), sure desktop
> prices are dropping, but with a dual core, and longhorn, I don't expect
> longhorn to do that well, people are going to want the bargain, and not spend
> the money for a high end (and this is going to be a highend thing.)
>
> Thats my few $'s worth.
> I think that abandoning XP, and TPC edition is a waste. Why not make what
> you've made better, instead of making a whole new thing.

Many of the limitations in Tablet PC edition are limitations of the
current Windows architecture (e.g. the left-hand issue). Many folks were
happy with vinyl records, but unfortunately modifying one to play CDs is
less productive than building one from scratch.

Given the work going into building low-cost editions of Windows for
emerging markets, I'm sure there will be a Longhorn package that will
run on today's hardware. Microsoft's large corporate/government
customers are the ones who take the longest to upgrade their hardware
and they'll want a deployable system on current hardware.