Must Have Software For Tablet Pc's - Your Thoughts

I'm getting my tablet pc in a few weeks and can't wait so i'm going to go software shopping first. What are some "must haves" for a new tablet pc?

 

OneNote
MSN Messenger 7.5 (lets you write messages)
the packs from Microsoft (I like the equation writer)

All of these are free. OneNote came with my toshiba and everything else I got from Microsoft.

 

Agreed. OneNote is great and may be the reason to have a tablet. Though these programs aren't tablet-oriented, MS Office and FrontPage, they are very useful. PDF Annotator also.

 

what's the difference between the free online download of adobe acrobat and the pdf annotator thing? and how much is it/

 

good question. It is developed by a german company and I am skeptical about those (Europe for some reason makes me think hackers for some reason. don't know why). Anyway it costs $50 usd and can be found at http://www.ograhl.com/ld/indexgd.php

 

The program available for download from Adobe is just the reader. It allows you to open and view PDFs as well as complete PDF forms. You cannot annotate directly on the pages of the PDF as you can with Annotator, which allows you to open PDFs and write/draw directly on the pages. If you're interested in Annotator they offer a free trial of the software. Find it at the site provided by Dante.

 

Let me just say that overseas software <> spyware / hackerware. In fact I am impressed often by how efficient the code is. At any rate there are several people using this software (PDF Annotator) here locally and love it. I myself don't have as much need to annotate PDF files so spending the $50 didn't seem like a great idea (I think they are still running a 20% off special).

As far as how does it differ from the free Acrobat reader, there are three main ways.

1. Acrobat tablet/pen support is awful. Quick changing between tools is VERY labor intensive and would be impractical in a classroom or meeting setting.

2. Acrobat will only allow you to annotate PDF files with commenting turned on. Most PDF files created prior to Acrobat 7 have this turned off by default. This means that unless you own Acrobat 7 Professional or have access to it, you can't annotate many of the files available. This alone may justify the cost.

3. Acrobat Reader is bloatware. While it only takes 20M of space and by todays standards that is pretty small, it is noteworthy that PDF Annotator takes 3M and accomplishes more.

That being said, if all you do is read PDF files the free reader works great (do however download Reader 7.0 as full screen mode is vastly improved).

 

They are still offering the discount. Chris

 

I did not say that european software = spyware/hacker. I myself have the tiral of pdf annotator, it's about to run out. I would get it but I have no money.

 

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