Windows Journal

From Mobile PC Wiki

Revision as of 01:59, 23 August 2008 by WNewquay (Talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

Windows Journal

Windows Journal is a basic ink-enabled note-taking application included with Windows XP: Tablet PC Edition and some versions of Windows Vista. While it lacks the more powerful features available in OneNote like searching and advanced organization abilities, it does have a much easier learning curve (and it's free). This makes it ideal for quick sketches, Tablet PC demonstrations, people who don't need a powerful program, and people who don't have the time to learn a more complex program.

Contents

Journal Viewer

A viewer for Windows Journal files is available (v1.5) from Microsoft. It is not for installation on a Tablet PC. This may also be necessesary to enable ink in some other programs, such as Windows Live Messenger.

Printer Driver Missing Error

Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Start -> Run -> Type "Journal /RepairNoteWriter" -> Enter.

Vista

  1. Start Journal.
  2. On the Menu choose Tools
  3. Click "Install or Repair Journal Note Writer..."

Tips

(many of the following were contributed by Chris Hassler MvpTiny.gif having appeared in his web site [1]. They appear here with his permission.

Drag and Drop to Create Journal Files

  1. In Journal, tap New Note.
  2. Open Windows Explorer, and then browse to the file you want to drag and drop into Windows Journal.
  3. Drag the file into the Journal window. (If you can't see the Journal window, drag the file to the Windows Journal button on the Windows taskbar. When a list of file names appears, drag the file to new note file name. The note maximizes automatically. )
  4. Journal opens the default originating program to start the import process.
  5. If prompted, tap Next to complete the import process.
  6. When the Journal Note Writer is finished, the new document image appears automatically in Windows Journal.
  7. Journal opens the default originating program to start the import process.
  8. If prompted, tap Next to complete the import process.
  9. When the Journal Note Writer is finished, the new document image appears automatically in Windows Journal.

Limitations: You cannot drag e-mail attachments directly into Windows Journal. You must first save the attachment on your Tablet PC and then import the file.

With the exception of .tif files, graphics files (.jpg, .bmp, .gif, .png) cannot be imported into Windows Journal by selecting Import from the File menu. Instead, you can go to the Insert menu and tap Picture.

Change (Format) Your Ink

Once you have entered some ink strokes into Windows Journal, right-click (or hold down the pen) on selected ink and choose Format Ink to make the ink colored, bold, italic, etc. You can also do this from View, Toolbars, Format toolbar.

Draw Perfect Shapes (Shape recognition)

Hand draw an imperfect square, circle or line and then use the select tool to convert it into a perfect geometric shape. Highlight what you have drawn with the Selection tool, and then choose Change Shape under the actions menu. For the resulting "perfect" shape you can choose circle/ellipse, square or line.

Moving Ink

You can't insert a cursor like you would in a traditional word processor. What you can do is use the Selection tool to select part of a line, move it over, and then insert additional text in the vacant space. Using the Selection tool is also how you would move, copy, cut & paste, and resize your text.

Convert Ink To Text

Use the selection tool to highlight the ink you want to convert. Tap on Actions, Convert Handwriting to Text. The approval window will pop up, allowing you to make any corrections. At this point, you can also choose to maintain your line breaks or have the Tablet convert it all into a single paragraph.

Grouping Pen Strokes Together

To ensure that the text conversion feature recognizes a collection of ink strokes as a single word, use the Group As One Word command. First you highlight the selection with the Selection Tool and then tap Actions, Group As One Word. The Group command also allows you to batch together handwriting, drawings, text boxes, shapes, pictures, and flags so that you can move them around as a single unit.

Email from Windows Journal

You can email information from Windows Journal in two ways. First select the handwritten section and tap on Actions, then Convert Section to Email. The second way is to include the selected portion of Windows Journal as a graphics attachment.

Presentations

Try Windows Journal instead of using PowerPoint in a live presentation.

Print the PowerPoint file to Windows Journal (or dragging the file into a Windows Journal document). Windows Journal will turn on page navigation at the bottom. Add the formatting menu at the top and you will have easy access to your colours, pens, and highlighters without having to jump through multiple layers of menus to get to them. You will lose animations and builds. This hasn't been an issue for me because I use ink annotations instead. --WN 06:02, 11 March 2007 (GMT-8)


Troubleshooting

Handwritten notes appear blank or the whole note does not appear in Windows Journal Viewer

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Windows Journal Viewer (Jntview.exe) to open Microsoft Windows Journal notes on your Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 2000-based computer, handwritten notes may not appear in the note, or the whole note appears blank. When you open the same note on a Windows XP Tablet PC Edition computer, the handwritten note content appears correctly.

Knowledge Base Article 830959

Retrieved from "http://mobilepcwiki.org/mpc/index.php?title=Windows_Journal"