Meanders' Annotator for Microsoft Office v1.6x

Contents

1. INTRODUCTION
2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
3. SETUP AND CONFIGURATION
    3.1 Installation Instructions
    3.2 Uninstallation Instructions
4. USER'S GUIDE
    4.1 Running the Annotator for the First Time
    4.2 Floating Panel
    4.3 Use Floating Panel to Change and Define Ink Properties
    4.4 Writing and Erasing Ink
    4.5 Erasing Ink Revisited
5. GETTING HELP
6. HOW TO REGISTER
 

Welcome! You have chosen a powerful utility that works with Microsoft Office to allow you many new options. It lets you write directly in various Microsoft Office (97/2000/XP/2003/2007) documents with intuitive ink and handwriting support. There are many things you can do, such as:

• Review, comment, markup Office documents, draw and annotate tables, charts, diagrams, etc directly with your handwriting inside Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.
   
• Comment directly on Microsoft Excel worksheets when reviewing data and charts.
   
• Prepare handwritten Microsoft PowerPoint slides for clearer and faster illustration.
   
• Write and sign handwritten messages in Microsoft Outlook when using Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor.
   
• Work with Microsoft Office from Office 97, Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 to the latest Office 2007.
   
• Write anything in any language (Chinese, Japanese, French, German, etc). Sign a document with a personal touch.
   
• Make difficult illustrations easy, such as musical symbols, engineering diagrams like molecular formula or structural formula in chemistry, complex mathematical notations or equations, electrical and electronic circuits and so on.
   
• Fill forms, questionnaires, fax sheets quickly inside Microsoft Word with digital ink.
   
• Take notes intuitively and smoothly for a meeting. Alternate typing and handwriting at your will.
   
• Share the documents with others in native Office file formats without compatibility problems.

• Work on Microsoft Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista.

All documents saved will be in their respective native format, which means you can share them immediately. You can even send annotated documents or handwritten e-mail messages to colleagues and friends for them to open and view, who are not necessarily using the Annotator.

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In order to run the Annotator, your system must meet these specifications:

• An IBM PC or compatible that meets the minimum hardware requirements for
   

  • Your version of Microsoft Windows

  • Your version of Microsoft Office
     

• Microsoft Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista is installed and configured on your system.

• Microsoft Office 97/2000/XP/2003/2007 is installed and configured on your system.

• A mouse or other pointing device. A tablet with pen and eraser function is strongly recommended.

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3.1 Installation Instructions

To install the Annotator, perform the following steps:

1. Important Close any Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook).

2. Unzip the downloaded file to a folder and double click the Annotate.msi file inside.

3. Follow the instructions given by the wizard on the screen.

4. Once installation is completed, you can start Microsoft Office applications as usual and you will notice the addition of the Annotator toolbar.

If you encounter a message similar to this during setup,

     

it means certain Microsoft Office application is still open. Please save your data and exit that application accordingly before proceeding.

3.2 Uninstall Instructions

If after installing the Annotator, you find it necessary to remove the software from your computer, perform the following steps:

1. Important Close any Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook).

2. Click "Uninstall Annotator" from "Start\Programs\Meanders Software\Annotator for Microsoft Office\"

3. Click Yes or OK to confirm that you want to remove the program.

4. Click OK when the removal is completed.

or

1. Important Close any Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Outlook).

2. Go to the Windows Control Panel.

3. Open the Add/Remove Programs applet from the Control Panel.

4. Select "Meanders Annotator for Microsoft Office" from the list.

5. Click on the Remove button and follow instructions.

6. Click Yes or OK to confirm that you want to remove the program.

7. Click OK when the removal is completed.

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4.1 Running the Annotator for the First Time

After successful installation, when opening a supported Microsoft Office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), you will notice a new toolbar Annotator with several buttons. The number of buttons could vary depending on the application you start.

In Microsoft Word and Outlook, you should see:

     

In Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, you should see:

     

Note: If you do not see these toolbars, please go to "Tools\Customize..." inside that particular Office application and make sure the entry with the name of "Annotator" is present and checked.

Note: If you do not find this entry, please try to run "Install Office Toolbar for Current User" from "Start\Programs\Meanders Annotator\Annotator for Microsoft Office\Advanced\". Remember to close all Office applications (including Microsoft Outlook) before doing so.

The following is the detailed explanation for each button on the toolbar.

(1) Ink On

     
The first button is to activate the Annotator which supports both inking and erasing. Clicking on "Ink On" will start an ink session, and a floating panel will popup and become available for you to switch between inking and erasing or adjust ink properties (color and width) at the runtime.

You can stop the ink session anytime by clicking the rightmost "Exit" button on the floating toolbar.

Note: It is recommended to turn off Ink first before performing extensive native Office editing, for performance reasons.


(2,3) Undo Ink (Fast) and Undo Ink

"Undo Ink (Fast)" would simply remove the last ink without asking the user this question, for the sake of speed and convenience.


(4) Redo Ink

     
In Microsoft Word and Outlook, you will also be able to recover any ink you removed with "Undo Ink" using the "Redo Ink" button. In Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, these functions are not available and you will not be able to undo ink deleted using "Undo Ink".

Note: You can redo ink as many levels as you have undone the ink. However, once you create some new ink, the redo buffer will be automatically purged and you will not be able to redo any ink undone previously. "Redo Ink" would only redo (recover) ink deleted with "Undo Ink" and NOT Selection Erasing.


(5) Undo Selection Erase

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

4.2 Floating Panel

After pressing "Ink On" on the Office toolbar, a floating panel will appear as

4.3 Use Floating Panel to Change and Define Ink Properties

Clicking on those buttons with dropdown arrows on the floating panel will expand more choices, as illustrated below. You can select them to change ink properties at runtime during writing, or define ink properties and customize your own dropdown lists. All customizations will be conveniently saved.

Pen	Click on "Customize..." to edit pre-defined pens and their respective ink properties.       Important: By double clicking inside the list box, you can edit the friendly name of the tool that you would see from the dropdown menu of the floating toolbar. Similarly, you can select a new color for the selected tool by double clicking inside the colored rectangle.
Highlighter	Click on "Customize..." to edit pre-defined highlighters and their respective ink properties.       Important: By double clicking inside the list box, you can edit the friendly name of the tool that you would see from the dropdown menu of the floating toolbar. Similarly, you can select a new color for the selected tool by double clicking inside the colored rectangle.
Eraser
Width	Click on "More Widths..." and you will be able to perform a runtime selection of width, just dragging the slider on the popped up dialog box.       A runtime selection is for quick access to arbitrary widths or any width which is not pre-defined.   Click on "Customize..." to edit pre-defined width items.       Important: By double clicking inside the list box, you can edit the friendly name of the width that you would see from the dropdown menu of the floating toolbar.
Color	Click on "More Colors..." and you will be able to perform a runtime selection of color, just picking up the desired color from the popped up color selection dialog box.       A runtime selection is for quick access to arbitrary color or any color which is not pre-defined. Click on "Customize..." to edit pre-defined colors.       Important: By double clicking inside the list box, you can edit the friendly name of the color that you would see from the dropdown menu of the floating toolbar. Similarly, you can select a new color for the selected entry by double clicking inside the colored rectangle.

4.4 Writing and Erasing Ink

The active tool and the active ink properties (color and width) would be reflected from your cursor inside Microsoft Office documents.

      Pen     
      Highlighter     
      Eraser      
 

How to Write:  Select Pen or Highlighter from the floating toolbar to enter writing mode, move the cursor to the desired position and you can start writing.

Here's a close-up of pen and highlighter annotations.

     



How to Erase:  Select Eraser from the floating toolbar to switch to erasing mode. Alternatively, if your hardware supports eraser tip, you can stay in writing mode and simply flip over your pen.

     

Selection Erasing is achieved by selecting an area with a tracking rectangle which covers those unwanted ink. Every ink stroke that overlaps with the final rectangle will be removed.

Here is an example of erasing by rectangle selection.

      

If you find it necessary to recover deleted ink right after the erasing, you can make use of "Undo Selection Erase" to do so.

Warning: You can only undo one level backwards with "Undo Selection Erase". In addition, once you create some new ink, this undo buffer will be automatically purged and you will not be able to recover those ink erased previously.

Note: For precise erasing of a single stroke or in an area where there might be some other strokes being nearby, draw a small or tiny rectangle to cover any part of the unwanted stroke.

4.5 Erasing Ink Revisited

In summary, there are three ways to delete ink and annotation that has been saved into an Office document.

(1) You can use the eraser tool with Selection Erasing to perform arbitrary (non-linear) removal of ink. Ink deleted this way can be recovered using "Undo Selection Erase" available from the Office toolbar, however with one level undo buffer only.

(2) You can complement (1) with "Undo Ink" available from the Office toolbar, which is sequence-based. Ink deleted this way can be recovered (supported in Microsoft Word and Outlook only) using "Redo Ink" available from the Office toolbar.

(3) You can select an ink session directly in Microsoft Office and hit "Delete" on the keyboard.

Here are some important rules to remember.

(1) You may undo and redo ink many levels from the toolbar.

(2) Once you create some new ink, the redo buffer will be automatically purged.

(3) "Redo Ink" would only redo ink deleted with "Undo Ink" and NOT Selection Erasing. For the latter, use "Undo Selection Erase" instead, but you could only undo it one level.

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Please visit http://www.themeanders.com for additional help and technical support, such as

• Reporting bugs

• Submitting questions

• Software updates

You could also reach us via e-mail.

• Technical Support - support@themeanders.com

• General - info@themeanders.com

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This software and its associated files are part of an evaluation package copyrighted by Meanders Software. The Annotator is not in the public domain. If you find it useful, please register. This software must be registered if it is used beyond its 30-day evaluation period.

Registering will remove the reminder screens and 30-day expiry limitation, give you support for queries and problems, update notices about enhancement and the ability for us to keep the enhancement coming.

• Single-User License        US$19.95
• Multi-User License          Open for negotiation

The multi-user license entitles the licensed organization to install multiple copies of the Annotator.

Please visit http://www.themeanders.com/purchase.htm for the latest information on pricing and payment methods.

During payment, you need provide us information required by the registration, i.e. Your Name or Your Organization Name. You will receive Unlock Code subsequently. The Unlock Code immediately remove all the reminder screens and the 30-day expiry limitation.

After making the payment and receiving your Unlock Code,

(1) Start the Annotator from inside Microsoft Office by pressing "Ink On".

(2) If the registration reminder screen is displayed, choose "validate my license".

     

(3) If you do not see the registration page, click the About/Help button on the floating toolbar, an About information dialog would be shown.

Click on "Register..." and follow the same instructions as given in (2).

(4) When you reach the "Validate License" page, enter the Name and the Unlock Code in the fields exactly as they are given to you.

     

(5) Press Finish.

Your software is now registered!

Should you have any additional questions or comments, contact us by e-mail at support@themeanders.com

©2004-2007 Meanders Software. All rights reserved.