One of the most needed things for the Tablet PC platform to succeed is that we need more software with "ink ability". Even some programs that support ink in some ways, don't fully take advantage of it. One such program is used by a huge number of people, Microsoft Outlook. When the Tablet PC was launched, Microsoft added the ability to ink e-mail using Outlook, but that is the extent of Outlook's ink support. Tablet Enhancements for Outlook (TEO) from Einstein Technologies seeks to fill some of the gaps Microsoft has left in Outlook's ink support.

TEO is really a pretty simple program, and easy to use. At the same time though, it can be quite powerful. The basic idea behind it is to provide a method for using ink to input contacts, appointments, and tasks into Outlook. It adds an extra toolbar (figure 1) to the Outlook window, from which you can open up the input windows. The version of TEO I'm reviewing is version 1.2, although Einstein already has version 2.0 in the works.


Figure 1 - The TEO Toolbar
 
Once you open the input window, you are presented with a form to fill out using ink. Once you have written your item in, TEO will convert the ink to text and save that item into Outlook. You can convert the fields to text one at a time, or all at once. TEO also includes special features, depending on what type of Outlook item you are entering. An example of this is shown below (figure 2), while entering an appointment.


Figure 2 - Adding an Outlook appointment, with pop-up calendar.
 
As you can see, TEO includes a pop-up calendar so that you can easily choose the dates for your appointment. You can also see that almost all of the basic text input fields that Outlook has in its window for creating appointment. TEO however, does not have the ability to choose attendees and to look up scheduling conflicts like Outlook does.


Figure 3 - Adding an Outlook appointment
 
Entering a contact is pretty well identical to entering an appointment, except that it has different fields of course. :-) You have the option to enter all of the standard contact fields, including home address and business address (done through tabs at the bottom of the window). The contact window (in version 1.2) also includes a zip code lookup feature. I've only used this once, to get an idea of how it worked. Basically you enter a zip code into the zip (postal) code field, and TEO will automatically look up the city and state that the zip code is located in.


Figure 4 - Adding an Outlook contact
 
Finally, the last Outlook item you can enter with TEO is a task. Entering a task of course, works the same way as entering an appointment or contact. Not really any fancy features here, just simple task entering ability. Throughout TEO, I have found that handwriting recognition works pretty well. Obviously, it uses the Microsoft recognition engine that ships with the Tablet PC OS, but it seems to me that Einstein has taken advantage of context and factoids to increase recognition. I'm not certain on this, but in my tests it certainly seems like it.

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Figure 5 - Adding an Outlook task
 
Overall TEO is a nice piece of version 1 software. There are things that could make it better (such as storing entries as ink instead of text, and a recognition correction interface), but overall it works very well. It has an easy to use interface that is very self explanatory, so if you use Outlook, you should have no problem using TEO. Personally, I now use it whenever I'm away from my dock and need to enter new items into Outlook. It is a very useful piece of software.

Pros:
Nice interface
Easy to use
Adds extra ink ability to Outlook

Cons:
Ink has to be recognized, no ability for saving in ink format.
No editing interface


 Buzz Meter: 3 out of 5

Tablet Enhancements for Outlook costs $19.99 and is available from
 http://www.einsteinware.com

Also, check out the official Einstein Technologies support forum, right here on Tablet PC Buzz.
 http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=51

(Note: TEO 2.0 is expected to come out sometime next month, boasting lots of new features. Once it is released, I plan to do another review checking out all the updates. Watch for that!)