Rix Bits

Well, it’s been a whole week with my HP Slate 500 table pc, and I feel like I’m starting to get my tablet swag back. :)  Initially the pen writing felt awkward because it’s been a while since I’ve used a tablet on a daily basis, but I feel my rhythm returning.

So, as any respectable geek would do, I started looking at ways to customize and personalize my Slate – in other words, what can I do to trick out my tablet pc?  In addition to picking a nice subtle wallpaper for my desktop, I decided to customize the native Flick Gestures that come with Windows 7.  These gestures allow me to ‘flick’ my finger quickly in 1 of 8 different directions, and perform a task as a result.

In my case, I’m often performing the following tasks, so they made good candidates to be added to the list of Flicks:

• Bring up the Task Manager
  • This isn’t a need for me on my desktop, because my Taskbar is always available and gets the job done.  I still have a Taskbar on the Slate (remember, it’s a full-blown Windows 7 PC), but because of less real-estate, I choose to auto-hide to maximize my viewing area.  Now, if I want to switch to another program, I have to tap the edge of the screen to show my Taskbar, and if my icons are too small, figure out which tasks I need to choose.  But now, with a Flick, I can bring up the Win7 Flip 3D Task manager, which not only gives me full-preview views of my windows, but is just generally pretty kool looking.
• Take a screenshot
  • On my desktop, I would easily due this with the Print Screen button, or with Windows+S for OneNote screenshots.  Since bringing up the keyboard itself now involves a click, it’s great to instead start my screenshot with a Flick.
• Switch to a new virtual desktop
  • I have 3 virtual desktops running on the Slate – in a nutshell, think of them as 3 ‘sessions’, or 3 desktops with their own set of running windows and tasks.  So, for instance, I could dedicate one desktop to email, one to my internet browsers, and another to an ebook I’m reading.  Can you see now why starting this with a Flick would be useful?

I’ve done the best I can with a text explanation – it’s probably best to cue the video at this point.  Hopefully this helps you see what I mean.  Now, the question is, can you think of some other uses of Flicks that might be helpful or productive for me?  I would love to hear what you think.

Stay tuned for more adventures of me and the Slate! :)

Here’s my attempt at demonstrating the flick features of Windows 7 on my HP Slate 500 tablet pc.