Yes Dan, the Pen is Mightier that the Mouse ...for a bunch of things

[jeffontwit]

[Typo: Make that "Mightier *than* the Mouse"]

Dan, just to honor the spirit of the forum, I will post in the form of a question (cheeky tone, not critical) - As someone who puts himself out there as an avid Windows user, how can you continue to be so unfamiliar with the Surface Pen (historically the stylus going back many years in tablet PCs)? The pen on PC is incredibly useful and you have to stop saying, "I suppose it's useful if you're an artist or creative type". Now, I don't want to pick on you alone and I would have to agree that the vast majority do not use the pen a lot. But that is not because of a lack of application or utility, but because of unfamiliarity, fear and lack of vision or experience.

A picture is definitely worth a thousand words, and then some.

I am both a creative and a business manager and an accountant - kind of schizo, I know. I have done a little art and music writing with my pen but I use it a ton for business - every day. I use if for:

- Reviewing and marking up documents - especially in an editorial capacity, reviewing others' work. It is so much better using the pen with red ink than trying to type.
- Making meeting notes - writing on a blank page or directly on the agenda or other documents - for me, note taking is so much more than text - I am drawing circles, lines, squares, arrows and highlighting things - and dont' ask me to convert it to text as so many times that would ruin my notes.
- Making presentations using pen on the screen like a white board and on images
- It is extremely powerful for all forms of design - graphics, pics, webpages, reports, code, anything really. I honestly can't understand why the design world has been running on mac when it doesn't have pen input. Just write right on the webpage, or brochure or sign or whatever. When I needed to do store front signage, I just took a pic of the storefront and drew my signage on it.
- Quick emails, notes, whatever, highlighting things on a webpage or anything I can display on my screen
- How about signing things without printing them out - I do a ton of that. People still print things out, sign them, scan and save them and attach them. I just sign it on my Surface.
- Even tech support is facilitated. The screenshot thing has become more popular (finally) but even better, take a snip or a screen shot and write on it.
- It is so much nicer to use a pen on a flat surface in a meeting than to be typing on a laptop looking over top of a screen wall between the two of you like you are playing battleship.
- Then, of course, there are all the creative uses, which I won't go into but are obviously numerous
- In some cases, I can actually get older or tech-averse people converted from paper and pen to Surface with pen easier than I can get them to use pen and mouse-based applications they are uncomfortable with. Productivity and digitized work in spite of fear of computers!

The tablet, now Surface computer has been the key going completely paperless in my business.

I use it a lot in OneNote, Snipping Tool, Drawboard, PowerPoint, Edge, Adobe, (used to use Windows Journal a lot), the Windows Ink Workspace apps, paint, really anything you can use the pen in to draw, write or mark stuff up.

I would love to do an article or video with you demonstrating the usefulness of the pen.

And pass this on to Zac, too. He doesn't appreciate the pen, either.

Jeff

 

[podsnap]

I know a management consultant who got a Surface Pro 3 and says it completely transformed his workflow. He just walks around seeing the people he needs to speak to taking notes with the pen.

He now has a Surface Pro 4. He was at a client site and the client, jokingly, asked him to stop using it because all the client's staff were asking to be given Surface Pros.

 

[jeffontwit]

This happens to me all the time, both with clients, associates and colleagues, and even friends. They think it is awesome but they are intimated to try and also forget quickly. To me, this is microsoft's greatest marketing failure. They make the software, and now the hardware, too, but don't show it to people in a simple, compelling way. Apple comes late to the game but says, watch this pen, watch me take it down to my screen, touch the screen ...look at that, isn't it amazing. And everyone says, Apple made the pen work on the iPad, wow! It would be so easy for Microsoft to do a commercial demonstrating many of the amazing applications of pen, touch, etc, but they keep glossing over those things thinking people will get bored and focusing instead of trying to show youthful people having fun. Why such a huge company with such massive marketing budget can't figure this out is mind-blowing to me. I mean, even the Windows Central guys don't seem to get it, and they are supposed to be Windows specialists. So why do I care? I guess I want others to catch the vision so it will become popular so I can both work with others this way and so these features don't end up on the shelf like Windows Phone and now I will lose stuff I like.

 

[Kaymd]

Originally posted by jeffontwit
[Typo: Make that "Mightier *than* the Mouse"]

Dan, just to honor the spirit of the forum, I will post in the form of a question (cheeky tone, not critical) - As someone who puts himself out there as an avid Windows user, how can you continue to be so unfamiliar with the Surface Pen (historically the stylus going back many years in tablet PCs)? The pen on PC is incredibly useful and you have to stop saying, "I suppose it's useful if you're an artist or creative type". Now, I don't want to pick on you alone and I would have to agree that the vast majority do not use the pen a lot. But that is not because of a lack of application or utility, but because of unfamiliarity, fear and lack of vision or experience.

A picture is definitely worth a thousand words, and then some.

I am both a creative and a business manager and an accountant - kind of schizo, I know. I have done a little art and music writing with my pen but I use it a ton for business - every day. I use if for:

- Reviewing and marking up documents - especially in an editorial capacity, reviewing others' work. It is so much better using the pen with red ink than trying to type.
- Making meeting notes - writing on a blank page or directly on the agenda or other documents - for me, note taking is so much more than text - I am drawing circles, lines, squares, arrows and highlighting things - and dont' ask me to convert it to text as so many times that would ruin my notes.
- Making presentations using pen on the screen like a white board and on images
- It is extremely powerful for all forms of design - graphics, pics, webpages, reports, code, anything really. I honestly can't understand why the design world has been running on mac when it doesn't have pen input. Just write right on the webpage, or brochure or sign or whatever. When I needed to do store front signage, I just took a pic of the storefront and drew my signage on it.
- Quick emails, notes, whatever, highlighting things on a webpage or anything I can display on my screen
- How about signing things without printing them out - I do a ton of that. People still print things out, sign them, scan and save them and attach them. I just sign it on my Surface.
- Even tech support is facilitated. The screenshot thing has become more popular (finally) but even better, take a snip or a screen shot and write on it.
- It is so much nicer to use a pen on a flat surface in a meeting than to be typing on a laptop looking over top of a screen wall between the two of you like you are playing battleship.
- Then, of course, there are all the creative uses, which I won't go into but are obviously numerous
- In some cases, I can actually get older or tech-averse people converted from paper and pen to Surface with pen easier than I can get them to use pen and mouse-based applications they are uncomfortable with. Productivity and digitized work in spite of fear of computers!

The tablet, now Surface computer has been the key going completely paperless in my business.

I use it a lot in OneNote, Snipping Tool, Drawboard, PowerPoint, Edge, Adobe, (used to use Windows Journal a lot), the Windows Ink Workspace apps, paint, really anything you can use the pen in to draw, write or mark stuff up.

I would love to do an article or video with you demonstrating the usefulness of the pen.

And pass this on to Zac, too. He doesn't appreciate the pen, either.

Jeff

I seriously couldn't have said this better. Thanks a lot for posting this.
I usually say that my original Surface Pro is arguably the best tech investment that I have ever made - and this is coming from someone who buys a whole lot of tech - I think I have at least 12 PCs across workstations, desktops, laptops, and some tablets, same with phones, so many sitting unused in my desk, I typically use a phone for only 6-8 months, and all sorts of tech toys (gaming consoles, handhelds etc.)... But the Surface Pro line has changed the way I work forever. I'm not ever, ever going back to pen and paper. It is the age of stylus and screen now. I work in a research lab where we design chips for ultra high speed circuits and my research notes, schematics, journals, and general stuff in OneNote has practically saved my life. I don't know how I would live today with the traditional printed papers full of annotations all over the place like I used pre-2013. I can't be grateful enough to MS and Surface team for bringing this to the masses.
Yes the Pen is infinitely Mightier than the Mouse and Keyboard , you only need to try writing complex integral/differential equations, with tons of circuit schematics and all sorts of annotations, symbols and general sketches with a mouse/keyboard and you'll never leave the Surface Pen again lol!! This does not yet include avoiding countless printouts you'll need to make for regular paper-based work. Productivity has arguably tripled in my case, and I'm not worried about losing any work since I have multiple OneNote backups across several computers and in the cloud as well.
This is the future.