Oxford Papershow Digital Writing Starter Kit USB with Bluetooth Pen Ring Binder Case and Paper Ref 10000

Previous reviewers have given a good overview of how the product works. I will discuss what it can do for you.

PaperShow is optimized for two tasks: annotating PowerPoint presentations, and participating in digital whiteboard sessions. Why, you may ask, would you want to do these things? And how is PaperShow better than a mouse or tablet for these tasks?

First, PowerPoint presentations. The smaller PaperShow paper is designed for you to print your PowerPoint presentation on, in advance. Do this from within the PaperShow application, because it prints your PowerPoint slides in a special way to allow the pen to work. During your presentation, you write on the paper with your PaperShow pen, which gives you a very accurate way to mark up a slide. I found that this was much more accurate and easier than using a mouse or laptop touchpad for the same task. However, it's similar to using a tablet with a pen stylus. One advantage offered by PaperShow is accuracy: once you print your slides on the special paper, you can underline something very precisely, or write in exactly the place you want the words to appear. This is tough without PaperShow. If you've tried it with a mouse, or even a tablet, you've experienced lines and marks appearing in the wrong place on screen, or at weird angles. The other advantage of PaperShow is you finish with a copy of your markups, both electronic and on the special paper.

OK, what about whiteboard sessions? This is where PaperShow should really shine. I collaborate remotely with people on many different projects. We have started to use shared whiteboard applications on the web. To use these effectively, you really need some sort of pen input device. In whiteboard applications, PaperShow would be clearly superior to pen tablets because of the paper: you can look at what you are drawing on the paper rather than draw on the tablet and watch the output on your screen. Unfortunately, PaperShow does not work with collaborative whiteboard apps, only with the included whiteboard app. The included app works very well for audiences in the room, but PaperShow is missing the boat without an online, collaborative app or an interface to an existing solution that's already out there.

If you don't immediately respond to one of these two applications for PaperShow, the product is not for you. My PowerPoint and local whiteboard sessions are better because of it.

Two suggestions to the manufacturer: spend less money on the packaging, which is very deluxe and expensive. Use the savings to upgrade the included binder with a place to store the pen, instead of the separate pen box. As much quality design effort that went into this product, I'm surprised you didn't do this already. We are already juggling our car keys, cell phone, laptop, briefcase, etc. when we arrive at a meeting. We don't need a plastic pen case to keep track of as well.

Second suggestion: include an online, collaborative whiteboard app as described above.

In my role as staff educator, I really appreciate tools that are effective and easy to use. PaperShow has hit the nail on the head with this product. The kit has three main components: a USB key that is both a Bluetooth transceiver and a memory stick, a Bluetooth pen that communicates with the transceiver, and special paper to write on. The pen has a little infrared camera that is able to determine where it is on the paper. The paper, which comes in different sizes (I am using A4 currently), has a grid printed on it to help in writing straight and a "toolbar" printed down the right side. To change the attributes of your pen, such as line thickness, color of what you are writing/drawing, circle and arrow tools, eraser etc., you just touch the pen to the appropriate color or emblem on the tool bar and presto.

Setup is simple but does require an internet connection. I really appreciated the fact that I didn't have to register or enter any information to get under way. The connection is only needed for downloads and updates to the USB key. This brings up another really good attribute, only drivers are installed on your computer for the Bluetooth and mass storage aspects of the hardware. The program resides on the USB key, making it completely portable to use on any other OS compatible PC. Installation is simply a matter of plugging in the key, pulling the cap off of the pen to turn it on (after you put the battery in of course), and letting the key update and install drivers.

When the program launches, what you have is akin to a white board on your PC. It is capable of being run full screen. Whatever you write on the paper shows up on your PC's whiteboard. Whatever you write on the paper is in the color of the pen's ink. But what shows on the white board is whatever color, line thickness or shape you touch on the paper's toolbar with the pen. Making a colorful and easy to read presentation couldn't be easier. In the same vein, you can print out PowerPoint slides or imported pictures on PaperShow paper and mark those up too (I have not tried this particular feature yet). I project my virtual white board using my Infocus projector. The result is an impressive new tool in my teaching arsenal.

I first used PaperShow on my Lenovo laptop running Vista. I then took it to work and tried it on my XP system. It worked perfectly on both systems.

The pros:
* Easy to install
* Intuitive to use
* Portable (comes with a nifty little case to carry all of the components and an extra AAA battery)
* Paper replacement is inexpensive
* No programs to install on your PC
* You can save your white boards in PDF, PowerPoint or to the key. You can also email them.
* You can import pictures, print them on PaperShow, and then draw on them on the whiteboard.

The cons:
* It will not work at all on regular paper. You need to keep a stock of PaperShow paper on hand
* To erase things from the white board, you have to make erasing movements with the pen touching the paper where you want to erase, which leaves scribble marks on a spot of the paper you may need to write over.
* You can't write on the white board with your mouse
* If you want to access online support, you have to register

Overview:

Papershow is an interactive digital writing program you can use at meetings to make presentations stand out and takes the place of flip charts. You can use it on its own or in conjunction with PowerPoint. Included is everything you need to get started: Bluetooth Papershow digital pen; Papershow 256 mb USB key; Note pad for digital flipchart (48 sheets - 9.4" x 12.6"); 30 sheets for printing on 8.5" x 11" sheets in inkjet or laser printers; 3 ink refills; 4 colored rings to personalize the pen; a penholder to carry the pen and USB key; and a binder to file and carry the Papershow sheets.

What I liked:

Papershow is very easy to set up and use. Since there is no software installed on the PC, you can use the program on any computer that has Windows XP or Windows Vista. Papershow starts up almost immediately. You have a choice of a variety of colors to use to write on the screen: white, green, blue, red, yellow, and black. You can also choose how thick a line you want to draw on the screen and can select different colored backgrounds on the computer screen. If you make a mistake it is easy to erase the mistake from the screen. You can use sound effects to enhance your presentation. It is easy to save files and you can email documents immediately. It is also very easy to import PowerPoint documents and write directly on those documents.

What I didn't like:

In order to use Papershow you have to use special paper for both the presentation and printing the document - this can get expensive fast. You also have to make sure you put the paper in the printer correctly - if you put it in incorrectly, your subsequent writing will appear upside down (somewhat amusing when practicing, but not when making a presentation). The program seems to distort handwriting and often when I wrote next to a PowerPoint presentation, the writing onscreen did not match where I put it on the paper (this can be fixed by recalibrating the pen but again is frustrating during a meeting). When you print a document on the special paper it prints in shades of blue only, which is annoying when you are using charts and trying to differentiate between colors. Although you are supposed to be able to modify the background color of your whiteboard to something besides white, that option did not work for me at all.

Bottom-line:

Papershow has some good points but ultimately the minuses outweigh the plusses.