Getting started with Tablet PC Application development using the Tablet PC Platform SDK 1.7

If you are interested in developing applications that make use of Tablet PC features (Ink collection, handwriting recognition, etc) here's how to get started.

Decide what language you will be developing in:
The Tablet PC Platform SDK (Currently on rev 1.7) has the following options for language support:
- C#
- VB.NET
- C++ (COM)

Prepare your development environment:
You can develop software that utilizes the Tablet PC Platform SDK on a variety of hardware, and on many different operating systems.

If you are developing on a Tablet PC, make sure you are running the Tablet PC 2005 operating system (Service Pack 2) - this will alow you to use the latest Tablet PC Platform SDK (1.7).

If you are developing on non-Tablet PC hardware, you will want to consider an external digitizer, such as a Wacom unit. If you do not have an external digitizer, you can use the mouse to input ink (lower sampling rate).

Supported Operating Systems:
Windows XP Professional Edition
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
Windows Server 2003

The following development environments/tools are reccomended for use with the Tablet PC Platform SDK 1.7:
Visual Studio .NET 2003
Visual Studio .NET 2005
Visual Studio Express Products

Download and install the Tablet PC Platform SDK 1.7:
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=69640b5c-0ee9-421e-8d5c-d40debee36c2&displaylang=en 

Once you have your development environment setup and the Tablet PC SDK installed, you are ready to get started!

The SDK documentation is installed to the following location:
Start-->Programs-->Microsoft Tablet PC Platform SDK-->Microsoft Tablet PC Platform SDK Documentation

Next we'll take a look at how to compile and run a basic Windows Forms based Ink application.

To read more about MobilePC development, please visit www.msdn.microsoft.com/mobilepc

See ya- Gavin

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2006
  In this posting I'm going to show you how easy it is to get started building "Ink Enabled" applications...
• Anonymous
  September 15, 2006
  Recently, I’ve been blogging about the new InkAnalysis API which integrates layout analysis with handwriting...