May 25, 2009

Product Review: Anoto penPresenter

by Meryl Evans

If you don’t have a Tablet PC, it can be tough to make full use of BBP to sketch your slides or write directly on your screen during a presentation.

If that’s the case, you may want to try Anoto penPresenter, which comes with a digital pen and special paper to help you get started drawing on your presentations.

After you print your slides on the drawing paper, the system allows the presenter to write on the paper slides while your actions appear on the PowerPoint screen as you highlight items, point to a specific part of the page and move forward and back in the presentation without touching the computer or mouse.

The neat thing about this package is that the paper works with its associated slide in PowerPoint. So if you write on page two, the presentation goes to page two, which prevents you from writing information on the wrong slide.

The Anoto software loads a 10-page blank copyboard to use as a whiteboard and adds a new menu in PowerPoint as the next image shows.

The menu sets up the printer to print your slides so you can write on them as you give the presentation — it can do one slide per page or six slides on one page.

In the next image, I used one of the slides from a BBP presentation and sketched the needle indicating the limitations of short-term memory (I’m not an artist as you can see). Not pretty, but effective.

I can see the potential of this product for those who have the right printer. Though the list of compatible printers is short, the company is working on growing the list.

The pad has a private feature that takes your presentation offline so you can make changes without anyone looking over your shoulder. The pen comes with one plastic stylus, which helps if you make  so many changes that you can’t read what’s on the paper. While you can’t see what you’re writing with the stylus, you can view it on the presentation.

Installing the software doesn’t go as smoothly as it could, especially if the computer doesn’t already have Bluetooth. For me, it’s no problem because I am used to dealing with hardware changes and updates. But some people may need to call for help. The one-page instructions clearly explains what to do whether or not you have Bluetooth — a good thing or else users might not think to crack open the manual to go through the specific steps.

A dongle comes with the package to connect with the pen using Bluetooth. It’s about the size of a quarter, which helps mobile presenters using a laptop. They won’t have to remove it since it doesn’t stick out. But do take care if you remove the dongle from the USB port as it’s easy to lose.

Anoto penPresenter, available on Amazon, retails for $299.99. The package includes a digital pen, USB dongle for use with PCs that don’t have built-in Bluetooth, ten A4 copy boards, three ink refills, one plastic stylus and one AAA battery. Though the cost is higher than other similar products, this one lets you print your own slides instead of having to buy paper refills.

Unless you don’t have a compatible printer, Anoto penPresenter gives businesses the tools to do whiteboard work and create interactive meetings or presentations without the expense of an electronic white board, which has zero portability. Since the package can do more than just work with presentations, businesses might find it a worthy investment.

Good: Plays nice with PowerPoint. Print interactive sheets. Highlighting and private features. Small dongle that won’t stick out of laptops.

Bad: Difficult to install when computer doesn’t have Bluetooth. Limited printer compatibility.