Slates – Hints and Tips

The following are hints and tips for using the SL8 (and other Windows Slates too in most cases)

Please add you own comments and thoughts. Also see the FAQ page, our Slate blog and the main Windows Slate page.

Data Entry

 Dock the Onscreen keyboard (Touch Input Panel, or TIP) to the bottom of the screen. It stops your palm resting on the touch screen when typing and creating unexpected touch actions. Or dock it to the top if you are comfortable with it being there (Linux users will be very happy), that’s even better once you are used to it.

 For faster text input use the slate in landscape mode – the keys are easier to hit, even though you lose a lot of screen real estate. Switch to portrait for reading.

 Pin the keyboard (TIP) to the taskbar to make it easier to open

Close the keyboard when you aren’t using it to save space and stop accidental typing.

 Download and install TipPopper which automatically opens the Touch Input Panel (TIP – hence the name) when you enter an editable field, instead of having to touch the icon to make it open – it saves a little bit of time all the time.

 Get a capacitive pen and use it for drawings, text input, handwriting input and interacting with small Windows features such as check boxes – it’s more accurate than a finger.

 Pre-Windows (i.e. during boot etc.) when there is no onscreen keyboard available the softkey on the top right (next to the power light) can be tapped to step through options and held to activate the current selection.

Day to day

 When powering the slate up hold the power button for 6 – 8 seconds. Yes it’s too long and we have told the manufacturer.

 Get a nice, padded A4 document folder – the type they give away at conferences – to carry your SL8. It keeps it clean, protects it and surprises people who think you just have a pad of paper in there.

 Get some screen wipes or at least have a clean cloth to hand – touch screens get a lot of finger prints on them, oddly enough.

 Set the device to use standby (but not hibernate) after a few minutes of inactivity; it resumes very quickly.

 Don’t be afraid to rotate the SL8 between portrait and landscape mode according to what you are doing – orientation makes a huge impact on how easy it is to read content etc. Documents are great in portrait mode and websites and most applications work best in landscape.

 Do consider turning  off auto-rotate – Windows is a little slow to switch screen orientation, whereas the accelerometer is pretty sensitive and you often get into playing catch up. Add the Millennium tool to your taskbar for quick access instead.

 For an extra turn of speed, turn off the Windows Aeroglass effect – Windows will look unexciting (more like XP than Win7) but performance will be better as teh processor spends less time drawing pretty pictures and more time opening and running applications. Everything feels crisper and we think battery life is improved too.

Applications

 Don’t use the softkey – the little sensor near the power lights. In theory it’s great for quick launching an application, but it’s also very sensitive and you tend to have the app opening when ever you handle the slate just because you brush that corner of the device!

 Add your most commonly used applications to the taskbar (right click, Pin to Taskbar) and other commonly used ones to teh desktop – much easier to launch with a finger than having them in the start button

 Turn off or reduce the priority of anything that decreases the battery life. We tend to leave Bluetooth off by default (use the Millennium applet), have the brightness wound down, consider reducing virus checker and indexing activity.