Adventures in home working

Working Smart has a short discussion on whether to convert your hand written notes in OneNote,  I had not really considered this topic from any other standpoint than speed.  In this article the basic premis is that handwritten notes are much more expressive than typewritten, and the seamless inclusion of diagrams and other visual clues can greatly add to the quality of the notes.

When I demonstrate the computer, as I inevitably do, I usually do so by handwriting some text in Microsoft OneNote. Immediately, people ask, “So, does it automatically convert your handwriting to text?” Well, yes, it can ... if I want. But, 90% of the time I just leave my handwriting “as is.” Here’s why ... to quote Linenberger again:

Taking notes in ink:

• facilitates creativity in your note taking
• communicates more about the meaning of your notes
• integrates better with sketches and expressive marks on the note-taking page
• is a better way to represent information copied from whiteboards and presentations
• is a faster way to record notes, faster than even the most speedy and accurate handwriting recognition.

I can virtually guarantee that after a few days or weeks of taking notes primarily in ink, you too will be convinced that this is a highly effective and preferable method of note taking on the Tablet PC (Linenberger, p. 237)

- Posted by Steve Richards - 10:34:13 AM - comment []

here is a great summary of the main reasons that Tablets work better in Meetings than laptops, maybe its a cultural things but its certanly true that I switch off if a person I am with is using a laptop to tap away.  If I am meeting someone with a Tablet I find we converge around it.  often I project the tablet screen so that everyone in the meeting can see the meeting notes being captured as well.

Using a Tablet PC during a typical management meeting is totally different from using a laptop. It’s the difference between night and day. The difference between success and failure. Here’s why.

• Discretion: Nothing is more distracting than, during a management-style meeting, having a meeting participant typing away on a laptop. In contrast, working with a Tablet PC in your lap appears no different from what you would be doing with a pen and notepad in your lap. This is particularly true if you use, as recommended later in this book, an executive-style portfolio case that makes your Tablet PC resemble an executive notepad portfolio.
  
  
• Communication barriers: Placing a laptop with the screen flipped up in front of you on a conference room table creates a physical barrier between you and others in the room. This is literally a barrier to communication. The Tablet PC is normally on your lap, and out of sight. Or it is flat on the desk like a writing pad.
  
  
• Personal effectiveness: Research shows that if you use both hands to accomplish a task, a much larger percentage of your brain becomes engaged in that operation. Typing with both hands tends to totally engage your brain in the typing activity and makes you visibly less tuned-in to the meeting. In contrast, writing with one hand during a meeting is second nature to most of us. The brain stays mostly engaged in the meeting activities. We all can take notes and participate in a meeting at the same time. Using a Tablet PC in a meeting is little different from this.
  
  
• Eye contact: Related to the above point, and for the same reasons, many users have reported that it is much easier to maintain periodic and consistent eye contact with others in a meeting when using a Tablet PC versus using a laptop. This has a dramatic affect on the perception of others that you are engaged and personable. Lack of eye contact also limits your ability to read body language of others, adding to your distance from the meeting (pp. 15, 16)

- Posted by Steve Richards - 10:29:19 AM - comment []