Writing and which Laptop to consider

[Dankman]

Wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts on the following questions below. I know this may not be in the correct discussion group, but I am trying to gather more thought on the topic below.

Multitouch and writing

Might be interested in the Macbook Air for general purpose use but mainly for writing. Do any of you have an idea of what kind of functionality will be added with the use of multitouch? Such as editing a script, highlighting certain text and moving snippets of text around in Pages, Word, or Textedit.

Would consider a Macbook, but for whatever reasons the all knowing designers thought the Macbook needed a hard lined edge. Macbook Pro doesn't have the edge problem, but it is too big of a computer and the keyboard is set further back. Other alternatives would be the Sony TZ or maybe the Asus EEE for its size but not sure about how big the keyboard is.

Anyway your thoughts on the Multitouch would be appreciated.

Have you heard of any touch screen tablets that are worth their salt? What about the Axiontron Modbook? Has anyone actually received one yet?

Thanks.

 

[janitorC7]

Wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts on the following questions below. I know this may not be in the correct discussion group, but I am trying to gather more thought on the topic below.

Multitouch and writing

Might be interested in the Macbook Air for general purpose use but mainly for writing. Do any of you have an idea of what kind of functionality will be added with the use of multitouch? Such as editing a script, highlighting certain text and moving snippets of text around in Pages, Word, or Textedit.

Would consider a Macbook, but for whatever reasons the all knowing designers thought the Macbook needed a hard lined edge. Macbook Pro doesn't have the edge problem, but it is too big of a computer and the keyboard is set further back. Other alternatives would be the Sony TZ or maybe the Asus EEE for its size but not sure about how big the keyboard is.

Anyway your thoughts on the Multitouch would be appreciated.

Have you heard of any touch screen tablets that are worth their salt? What about the Axiontron Modbook? Has anyone actually received one yet?

Thanks.

I think that the MacBook would be your friend here.
I dont think that Multi-touch will be all that helpful for a writer.

I'm sure that you are familiar with Final Draft, there is a mac version, which works well.

I dont find any proablem with the lines of the MacBook, and its keyboard -is great, so for long writting sessions, i think that you will like the MacBook or MacBook Air over the MacBookPro.

I dont have much of an opinion on the other brands that you mentioned, other than to say, the deference (outside of the design), Mac OS X, it is worth it.

JC7

 

[Catch]

The MBA sounds like an ideal computer for your needs. Interesting use of multitouch. I would imagine that its possible to add functionality in the future to the multitouch pad. Might be possible for software developers to create functionality already. That would be fantastic in things like Excel as well...

OSX is a fantastic environment to work in my opinion.

Regards,

C

 

[janitorC7]

The MBA sounds like an ideal computer for your needs. Interesting use of multitouch. I would imagine that its possible to add functionality in the future to the multitouch pad. Might be possible for software developers to create functionality already. That would be fantastic in things like Excel as well...

OSX is a fantastic environment to work in my opinion.

Regards,

C

I cant imagine adding gestures to the multi-touch trackpad, truth be told i cant really think of any new ones, what were you specifically thinking?

 

[Dankman]

Thanks for your replies. I would definitely want to stay with OS X, but got to find a new laptop to replace the clamshell. It is old, already replaced the screen, but that hasn't help too much in the long run. I liked the idea of the multi touch, but I have no idea of what added functionality would be added for text documents. I am also interested in the ModBook. Again, not sure if it is touch based also or just with a stylus. I noticed in the Maclife video a Modbook was on its side (portrait view maybe) with what looked like a document or something open. Where you could possibly view the documents length and would be better for editing.

Sine you can have more than one finger on the pad at a time, maybe combining selected cells/rows together in Excel.

Just know for text I had a word after another and I wanted to switch the order. You would still have to highlight the last word but could do a two finger swipe or something to change arrangement of words instead of Control X and then Pasting. Anyways, thanks for your input.

 

[janitorC7]

Thanks for your replies. I would definitely want to stay with OS X, but got to find a new laptop to replace the clamshell. It is old, already replaced the screen, but that hasn't help too much in the long run. I liked the idea of the multi touch, but I have no idea of what added functionality would be added for text documents. I am also interested in the ModBook. Again, not sure if it is touch based also or just with a stylus. I noticed in the Maclife video a Modbook was on its side (portrait view maybe) with what looked like a document or something open. Where you could possibly view the documents length and would be better for editing.

Sine you can have more than one finger on the pad at a time, maybe combining selected cells/rows together in Excel.

Just know for text I had a word after another and I wanted to switch the order. You would still have to highlight the last word but could do a two finger swipe or something to change arrangement of words instead of Control X and then Pasting. Anyways, thanks for your input.

I dont think that the modBook has multi-touch, something would have needed to have been built into OSX, and I dont think that they had anything multi-touch in inkwell

 

[iRabbit]

The ModBook does NOT have a screen you can touch with a finger, only with the supplied Wacom pen. The reason for this is that it's aimed at artists and designers... imagine the impact your hand would have on the screen while drawing -- your hand would rest slightly on the screen (just like when you write) and would screw up the accuracy of the pen if your own conductivity produced any kind of response.

As for anyone actually receiving one... yes, I've discovered one actual human being who has received his after ordering it last year! The wait has been slow and torturous, and no one knows exactly how backlogged the company is in fulfilling orders. They indicate on their own website that they hope to be caught up by mid-February.

Other than that, there really isn't much real-world hands-on with the ModBook yet... but hopefully soon!