PenBook ‘Em, Dan-o!

Slate announces an electronic book development tool

Two types of applications are natural for pen-based computers—forms-entry apps and information providing programs (electronic books). So far, we’ve seen a plethora of form development tools, Slate’s PenApps and Grid’s PenPal, to mention a couple. With the announcement of a software system called PenBook, however, Slate has entered the electronic book arena.

PenBook is designed for mobile workers who have to lug around copious reference materials. A good example is the photocopier service technician who regularly arrives at our office with a stack of repair manuals — schematics, exploded parts, parts lists, price guides, troubleshooting guides, and so on. PenBook, which runs on PenPoint or PenWindows-based computers (like the NCR 3125), replaces voluminous documentation like that of our copier representative. Furthermore, the software looks to have broader application than just mobile service technicians. There’s no reason it couldn’t be just as useful for any job or environment (mobile or otherwise) where large amounts of stored information need to be accessed quickly and conveniently. In addition to procedure manuals, this includes catalogs, reference manuals, presentations, address lists, maps, charts, and so on.

In a nutshell, the electronic book produced by PenBook provides “pages” that contain both text and graphics. PenBook enables users to navigate their way through documents, set electronic bookmarks, utilize hypertext cross-referencing, and make annotations.

Authors and Readers

The PenBook system consists of two components: “authoring” software that runs on a desktop system (MS-DOS or Macintosh) for creating the document, and “reader” software that runs on a portable pen-based system.

In a typical scenario, the developer uses any software package that produces a Postscript file (PageMaker or Quark Express, for instance) to save the source document as a formatted PostScript file, which can specify both text and graphics. Note that PenBook currently only supports Postscript Level 1. Next, the Postscript source document is “compiled” into the proprietary “Bookfile” file format on the desktop PC using the PenBook authoring software. The compilation process translates and compresses the document. At the same time, the developer can create a table of contents, create tabs, an index, and identify keywords. Slate claims compression rates of up to 60 percent — an original source document that’s 1.2 Mbytes in size is compressed to 480 Kbytes.

Once created, the PenBook document is transferred to a pen-based computer running PenBook reader software that allows the user to read and navigate through the “electronic book.” This includes moving from page to page using gestures, setting bookmarks, performing word searches, cross-referencing, and so forth, in sort of a hypertext environment. The compressed data is decompressed on-the-fly. Any annotations or notes the reader makes are stored as bit-images and the next time the annotated page is displayed, the note is present. One limitation in this first version of PenBook is that it can’t handle hyphenated words or words with unusual typographical elements such as “drop caps” (an oversized font to begin a paragraph is an example of a drop cap).

Annotations

PenBook provides four layers of virtual “acetate” (transparent “overlays” on the screen) that allow users to individually annotate a document. The individual layers can then be printed out or compiled into a master document.

All You Have to Do is Flick

One of the basic PenBook gestures is the “flick” which is used to turn pages. In all, PenBook uses three unique gestures in the first release: a single flick to turn to the next or previous page; a double flick to get to the end or beginning of a section; and a triple-flick to get to the end or beginning of a book. To implement these gestures, Slate is simply mapping them to and replacing standard PenPoint or PenWindows gestures. Additional commands unique to PenBook are an “F” to initiate a “Find” operation, an “N” for a “Find Next”, a “M” to start a “Mark-up” or make an annotation, a “B” to create a “Bookmark,” and a circle to indicate “Find this word.”

What’s Next?

We can visualize all sorts of highly useful applications in a variety of fields as well as enhancements we’d like to see implemented in future versions. For instance, the annotation is great, but it would be nice for the reader program to support recognition and translation so that documents could be edited on the fly. (This is in addition to the current annotation features.) Of course, there are downsides to this. What happens to the “master” source document, for instance? How are these changes passed back to the source, or transferred to other users? Even with these caveats, a feature like this might be useful in some cases.

Secondly, it would be nice to have incremental compilation during the authoring process. For instance, if you make a minor change to, say, chapter 10 of a 20 chapter document, you must recompile the entire document. Incremental compilation would enable you to recompile only chapter 10, thereby saving time and effort.

Thirdly, Slate should seriously examine and consider UNIX-based authoring platforms. Of course, generating a Postscript file on, say, a Sun workstation, then passing it on to a PC or Mac is possible now, although not necessarily convenient.

Early Next Year

Slate says that PenBook will be available in the second quarter of 1992. The author/reader package will sell for $695 with additional individual reader software selling for $99. Slate also told us that discounts would likely be available for volume purchases of reader software.

Contact:
Slate Corp.
15035 N. 73rd St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
602-443-7322