Benefit From The New Pen and Paper Paradigm.

A Look at My Day:

Well, I've had a pretty productive day today - more productive than my days used to be. In addition to all of my normal tasks, I marked up and returned to the CEO the draft of the 15-page business plan, annotated the growing corporate PowerPoint presentation to refine it for next week's major trade show, sketched out and delivered to the graphics department my ideas for the layout of our upcoming ad campaign, and noted my suggestions on the new product's box mockup. Finally, just for fun, I wrote some notes during lunch on the pictures we took over last weekend's visit to the mountains and sent the photos to the family.

What's even more impressive (amazing, in fact) is that I performed every one of these traditional "pen and paper" tasks without ever picking up a pen or touching a piece of paper. Everything was done electronically using my PC, my Palm Illx, email, and enotate, an innovative software product from Informal Software Corp.

Enotate is the first product within a new category of software that promises to change not only the way we work with our PCs, but the way in which we represent and communicate our concepts, ideas and information with family, friends and colleagues. A Look Back Prior to the advent of the computer, we were all quite used to being able to sketch, draw and doodle in our everyday work. We used pen and paper to create freehand drawings and sketches, as well as mark up (or annotate) the works of others. In fact, it could be said that we had perfected the art of drawing and writing with pen and paper. It seems odd, then, that these natural writing and drawing functions became all but impossible in the new "computer age." While the display, keyboard and mouse are the three basic input/output peripherals of today's PC, they don't offer the flexibility and convenience of good ol' "pen and paper." What's missing is a 4th peripheral - a real-time tool that offers the electronic analog of pen and paper to the PC computing experience. With enotate software and a stylus-based handheld device, such as the PalmPilot, this 4th peripheral will allow business professionals to save time and money by completing traditional pen and paper tasks in a digital manner.

Reshaping the Way We Work and Communicate

For the first time, with enotate software, you can use a stylus-based handheld device, such as the PalmPilot, as a real-time input/output device to the PC that works directly within PC applications such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Take, for example, annotating a Microsoft Word document. With the PalmPilot display providing a movable and resizable "window" onto the Word document, you can use the PalmPilot's stylus to write comments, underline or circle text, or add editing marks to indicate deletions or text rearrangements. And you can do it all with the same flexibility and ease as is done with pen and paper. You have multiple color "pens" and variable pen widths that add even more capability.

The entire collaborative process can now be done electronically with the information being exchanged via email. You'll save time (which translates to saving money), have fewer hassles, and can even communicate your ideas and comments to multiple people at one time from virtually anywhere (take note all you mobile professionals) - you no longer have to rely on convenient access to printers, fax machines or "snail mail." And as e-mail becomes the most widely used form of communication, business professionals will embrace this more natural and time-efficient way of expressing their ideas.

Consider the variety of things that you do with pen and paper every day, whether working alone or with others. In addition to annotating documents and presentations, pen and paper tasks might include drafting concept sketches, diagrams and charts, or marking up graphics and photos. An efficient electronic analog of the traditional "pen and paper" model would allow you to continue to work the way you are most comfortable, but now to do so using your PC and handheld device. Whether you're in your office, on a plane, in a hotel, or at home, you'll be able to work more naturally, communicate your creative ideas more easily, and collaborate with others in a more timely fashion.

It's not hard, then, to imagine that the introduction of this 4th peripheral will have a significant impact on how you work and communicate information similar to the advent of the mouse. The mouse was a key factor behind the development of the graphical user interface that we all take so much for granted today. Although developed in the days of DOS, it offered such a profound improvement in the user interface that the entire PC environment changed and adapted to it. Consequently, today it is almost impossible to find a PC, be it desktop or mobile, without a mouse or functional equivalent.

So much of what we do today is still centered around pen and paper. The increased need to share and communicate our ideas with others makes the advent of enotate and the concept of the 4th peripheral is the next logical step in PC computing.

If you follow the history of the mouse, as this 4th peripheral becomes broadly adopted, expect to see computer interfaces and applications adapt to accommodate it in much the same way they did to accommodate the mouse. It simplifies and enhances digital communication (saving both time and money), makes the job of the mobile professional more convenient, and it has the potential to greatly impact corporations that are already standardizing on the PalmPilot.

This new category of software is poised to profoundly reshape the way we work and communicate by offering new ways for business professionals to utilize handheld devices to increase work productivity and make their personal lives easier.

Ian Cullimore is President & CEO of Informal Software.