tablet functionality

mwittie
I often use my tablet and OneNote to annotate documents by hand and create handwritten brainstorming notes. It would be great if Zotero supported these two functionalities. Any plans on adding tablet functionality to Zotero? It seems we could do without handwriting recognition functionality, which is already built into Windows and OSX.
  • jesterjester
    I second it. If it is not possible, is it due to FireFox?
  • mark
    Perhaps a dumb question, but can you run FF on your tablet? If not, you cannot run Zotero.
  • ahoward
    edited December 19, 2008
    We're not talking about some specialized piece of hardware running a proprietary OS, if I understand this correctly. Tablet PCs are essentially just laptops with a touchscreen and some extra software. They can run Firefox.

    Of cours, you can already add annotations to PDFs in Zotero. The handwriting recognition software built into the Tablet Edition OS should work with that, if I'm not too much mistaken. Did you have something else in mind? Arrows? Circles? I'm not entirely clear.
  • mark
    Screen size is a major factor, though. I guess Zotero won't be in good shape on anything less than 1024 pixels wide.
  • Haads
    Well annotating a document using your own handwriting is a little different than typing in text - it's more versatile and natural, and yes - arrows and circling and any sort of other system of markings you already have definitely make the annotating process easier.

    Sure, a small reso will impair the process, but most tablets are 12.1 inches-15 inches, and the reso's are at least 1024, or least I have seen in my experience.

    So my vote - Zotero, try to work in Tablet function!!
  • adamsmith
    Not sure exactly what you are looking for -
    if you configure one-note or your respective tablet program to open pdf file etc. from Firefox/Zotero it will do so and you can annotate them.

    What features specifically are you looking for?
  • Haads
    Well, native Zotero support is different from printing a page out into a pdf, importing it into OneNote, annotating it, then exporting it into Zotero....It's not just pdfs that we come across in research that I'd like to annotate by inking - it is any screenshots of webpages that I take that I'd wish to have functionality to ink onto - without having to import/export and bring OneNote into the loop.
  • adamsmith
    I don't think Zotero will or should actually program that - tagging on more and more functionality is quite a risk for a program such as this - because that also means more possible sources of bugs, more stuff to update etc.

    What are the open source options for tablets right now? Is there a program that can read webpages/html and annotate it? If so, that is probably the way to go - either by using that to integrate into the Zotero workflow, or, if that doesn't work properly, maybe through a plugin?
    If that doesn't exist, we're a very long way off from what you request anyway.
  • mark
    I agree with adamsmith about the dangers of feature bloat. If someone wrote a plugin that interfaced with Zotero to offer this functionality it would be cool, but it sounds like a feature that would only be useful to a small proportion of Zotero's userbase, and hence it would be low on the priority list.
  • Matthew HudgensHaney
    It would be nice for the few tablet users (myself included) to have more functionality in Zotero. I understand, however, the usability advantages limiting functions & features. I mean, look at the iPhone.

    I like the idea of tablet functionality being available through a plugin. That way, bugs caused by the feature would be limited to users who wanted that particular feature. More generally, in the forums I often see requested features (often very important to just a few users) denied because of the bugs, or decline in usability, which would be caused by adding such a feature to the general installation of Zotero. In this sort of response, is there an implied invitation for a DYI plugin? Just curious.

    Devs, thanks for all you do. I've been using Zotero for years & use it every day!
  • ajlyon
    edited August 11, 2010
    Yes, there is always an implied invitation for a DIY plugin. Many, many things would do well to be hashed out and developed as plugins. If they turn out to work well, then perhaps they might be merged into the main codebase.
  • Matthew HudgensHaney
    ajlyon,
    Thanks. Many conversations in the forum make much more sense with that in mind.
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