Using laptop mousepad for text input
 

This should be a fairly easy one, and I'm pretty sure it's impossible, but I thought I'd get a second opion. I'm studying Japanese and got my hands on a nice piece of software that will help me practice my handwriting. Only problem is that drawing with a mouse is really different than by hand. Now I'm running this on an Aopen laptop with it's own mousepad. Thought that maybe if I got a PDA stylus and set the sensitivity to highest it might just work for text input. No such luck. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas how I might get this to work. (incidentally Windows XP Pro SP1, all updates, 1024MB)

Well, I dont know about your laptop but with mine, nothing but skin works on the touch pad. Dont know why (not big on laptop tech) but that might be a problem?

You might cut a little piece of skin off the back of your hand and put it on your stylus. Sure, there's the smell when it rots, but who minds a little bit of death aroma?

maybe something like a wacom is what you are looking for.

Thanks Peach. Looks like exactly what I need...

It doesn't go by pressure, like a PDA screen does. It goes by the conductivity of your skin.

I don't know if this helps or not, but I know there's handwriting (thorugh the mouse)support for Office 2003....I have a "writing pad" I can use, and it has text translation. I haven't fully investigated what it can/can't do, but it might be a possibility.

Might be interesting Johnny. Can you get a bit more specific with the details?

Not only that, but the mousepad also isn't concerned with position on the touch. It watches direction of movement and controls the mouse pointer direction as a relative variable. So, ya can't cross your T's simply by running your finger across the top of the mousepad. You'd need to have the cursor up there first...

You already know this though. Just stating this plainly so non-computer geeks don't get confused. You need a WACOM tablet or the cheaper versions from Aiptek (or is it Aiptech?)

that WOULD be pretty sweet

Here's the Alternative Input for Office XP:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

It makes the mouse work like a PDA pen, kinda. has text recognition & stuff.