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[ Go to June 1997 Table of Contents ]
WinLab Reviews
-- by Marc Spiwak
Remember how your teacher got his point across with nothing but chalk and a blackboard? MicroTouch's Ibid is a blackboard-or, more accurately, a whiteboard-for the '90s. Its resistive-touch technology transfers notes and diagrams to an image file on your computer. The Ibid's specially coated writing surface measures 24.3 by 33.3 inches. The total unit measures 31 by 38 by 3 inches, weighs 18 pounds and hangs easily from a wall or partition. The product's AC adapter connects to a computer via a supplied serial cable. The software detects the COM port it's attached to under Windows 95; Windows 3.x users must supply that information. We tested Ibid under Win95 and didn't have any trouble. Ibid is the perfect presentation tool for conference room and lecture hall settings. Charts and notes can be transferred to a PC for safekeeping, while presenters know that all attendees are working from the same data. Conveniently, 10 buttons on the whiteboard control all functions. For example, you can open the Ibid window on your PC using the whiteboard's Show Board button. As you draw on the whiteboard, corresponding lines and images appear on the computer screen. A Snapshot button captures an image and records the date and time. Snapshots can be saved in WMF or BMP formats or copied to the Clipboard. Other features include print and erase commands. Settings such as pen and eraser widths and screen layout can be changed according to personal preference. We're adding the useful Ibid to our WinList as the first whiteboard we've recommended.
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