If you are running Windows Vista on your touch screen UMPC or Tablet PC then don’t make the same mistake that I made. Vista includes a useful feature called "pen flicks" that offers some good functionality for such devices and I have to admit that I have turned it off on every Tablet PC I have used because I haven’t gotten the benefits from it that I thought I should get. That changes drastically on the Fujitsu P1620 with the touch screen however and yesterday I finally decided to turn pen flicks on and give it a try. I am very glad I did so because it has augmented my common uses of the P1620 due to the touch screen.
Pen flicks by default will provide very basic navigation functions that are enabled by "flicking" with the pen on the screen. One of the most common uses by way of an example is invoking the Back and Forward in the web browser letting you move through sites you have visited with simple flicks. On the Fujitsu I am finding this incredibly useful as I can do it with my fingertip and not have to reach for the stylus. I am in a web page and when I decide I want to go back to the previous site I have visited I simply flick my finger to the left anywhere on the screen and near instantaneously I am back at that site. The Forward flick works the same way. When I saw how easy this is to do and how useful I started trying different things with pen flicks and it is pretty darn useful.
The page up and down flicks, a simple flick up or down, works incredibly well in the browser or in long documents. A simple flick and up or down I go and it is so fast on the P1620 it couldn’t be easier. I am getting a ton of use out of these flicks and I haven’t even reached the stage where I have defined my own flicks yet, something easy to do with this method. I am also getting a lot of mileage out of the editing flicks that let me copy and paste stuff in any active window just by flicking to the upper right and lower right respectively. All of these flicks are user customizable and you can even set the sensitivity of the pen and touch. It’s incredibly useful so don’t miss out like I was and try turning pen flicks on with your touch screen.
You can reach the pen flicks via the icon in the system tray as in the image above or you can find it in the Control Panel under Pen and Input Devices. Happy flicking!
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