Finding Free eBooks for Your Tablet PC
By Bill Mann

One of the neat things about the Tablet PC form factor is that you can hold it like a book, with the screen in portrait (taller than wide) mode. This makes reading on a Tablet much more like reading a book. A pretty darn heavy "book," but a book none the less.

The easiest way to take advantage of this is with Microsoft Reader for Tablet PC, a program that comes pre-installed on many Tablets. (Microsoft Reader for Tablet PC is also available as a free download here: http://www.microsoft.com/reader/info/tablet.asp )

Microsoft Reader for Tablet PC allows you to read electronic books (eBooks) on your Tablet. The regular version of Reader works on Tablets too, but the Tablet PC version has two key advantages: it allows you to read eBooks in portrait mode, and you can annotate your eBooks by writing on them with the pen.

I'm not going to cover Reader itself here. Instead, I'm going to talk about where to get things to read with Reader. A number of people who've posted on TabletPCBuzz.com say they like to use their Tablets to read. While I was writing "How to Do Everything with Your Tablet PC," I came across a great source of free eBooks anyone can download.

The Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia could be the best source of free eBooks on Earth. In addition to a collection of tens of thousands of texts and images available in SGML and XML formats that Microsoft Reader cannot read, they make available over 1800 free eBooks in Microsoft Reader format.

The eBook library at the University of Virginia contains classics like Aesop's Fables, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and Shakespeare's Midsummer Nights Dream. They also have more contemporary works, as well as special sections for African American, Native American, and Early American Fiction. In all, the 1800+ works are divided among 11 broad subject areas. To explore the Electronic Text Center free eBook library, go to: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/

Set automatic save timing in Windows Journal:
Worried that you might lose that Journal note you are writing on? Well Windows Journal includes an auto save feature, and you can even adjust how often it saves your note. To do this goto Tools|Options, then choose the Other tab in the window that pops up. The first setting on this tab will be the automatic save timing.

This week's poll question:
User assistance polls (Continued) & What factor is most important to you when choosing a Tablet PC?
Vote now at http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com!

This from the ElectricNews news roundup for May 26th -

"Analyst firm IDC has warned that the take-up of Tablet PCs in the EMEA region is being held back in the horizontal sector due to high prices and a lack of mainstream applications, reports Vnu.net. For the first quarter of 2003, IDC estimates that Tablet PC sales grew 33 percent compared with the previous quarter, but less than 30,000 units were shipped. IDC analyst Andy Brown said that vertical markets are showing the strongest demand, with the broad market reluctant to meet the high prices of an immature platform. However, Brown said IDC expects the product to gain popularity as "product prices reduce, new designs appear, the number of apps with handwriting support increase and the platform becomes more stable." (Link)