Windows 7

As computers become more powerful, it would only be a matter of time before touch screens became more common and standard. While the mouse and the keyboard are not going away soon, other methods for manipulating information will be possible. Touch screens have been around, but the hardware technology had to be there to make is feasible. With the latest generation of hardware available, that touch technology now does exist, and Windows 7 has software technology to make that screen manipulation possible.

The Windows 7 Touch Interface

Here are touch screen features available with Windows 7.

Flicks: Their use is very common.Navigation and edit are two categories of flicks. An upward flick moves a page down, and a downward flick moves a page up. Use left or right flicks to navigate back and forward.

Tap and Double-tap: Touch and release to click. This is the most basic touch action. Can also double-tap to open files and folders. Tolerances are tuned to be larger than with a mouse. This works everywhere.

Pan: Touch and slide your finger on screen. This is similar to dragging with a mouse; icons around the desktop, it also moves windows, and selects text by dragging left or right, and so on.

Scroll: Drag up or down scrollable window content. This is the most used feature to use, as opposed to using the scrollbar.

Zoom: Touch two fingers together or apart to zoom in or out on a document. Use this when looking at photos or reading documents on a small laptop.

Two-Finger Tap: By tapping the screen with two fingers simultaneously it zooms in about the center of the tap or restores to the default zoom.

Rotate Touch: Two spots on a digital photo and twist to rotate it just like a real photo.

Press-and-hold: This is similar to the right click. Hold your finger on screen for a moment and release after the circle appears.

Press-and-tap: With a second finger just like you would click the right button on a mouse.

Paint: You can use Paint to draw with your fingers.

For a demonstration of Touch watch the video below:

All of this assumes that you have a touch screen monitor. Many are available. You can locate some at Nextag.

We’re not is Star-Trek territory yet, but the convergence of powerful hardware and powerful software makes this inevitable.

Many have wondered what was going to be the next big step in computing, since the last big one was the Internet. Going back to basics may be the next big thing but there has to be a reason to go back. If improving the user interface via touch does that, then this is a good first step