PenAttention is a free Windows program that displays a highlight, pencil, or pointer at the location of the pen. It's intended for use in presentations on a pen-enabled laptop or PC so your audience can see what you're pointing at on the screen, since most programs show the pen's location with an eensy-weenie-teenie-tiny dot that is almost impossible to see on a projector screen. For a demo, see the overview video.
This program is distributed under the MIT License.
Version 11
Version 11 is almost identical to version 10 except:
Version 10
PenAttention version 10 has been updated to run on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Version 10 will also run on Windows 7 or lower, but if you have problems on older operating systems you may consider running PenAttention 1.4 or CursorAttention 1.4 instead (see below). Version 10 has the same features as version 1.4 but it will detect the pen for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 and has support for monitor scaling (not available in Windows 7) which is common on high-resolution laptops like the Surface Pro.
Unlike version 1.4, PenAttention 10 will run on a machine with or without a pen and it should work with several different types of pens, not just active digitizers. You do not need a separate version (e.g., CursorAttention) if using it with a mouse and no pen. However, by default, highlighting is turned off for the mouse. You must enable it in the settings. There is only a single 32 bit version of PenAttention 10.
Version 1.4 is designed for Windows 7 machines or older. Use PenAttention for pen-enabled Tablet PC's and will automatically detect if the pen is hovering near the screen to enable the highlight.
The sister program, CursorAttention, is designed to run on Windows machines that are not Tablet PC's. This may be useful if you wish to highlight the mouse location or use a non-active digitizer (e.g. an external tablet).
The latest version is 1.4. A video is available demonstrating the new features in version 1.4. There is also video demonstrating the new features in version 1.3.
v11: 7/5/2021 - Fixed division by zero error that could happen on startup - Removed extended screen mirroring feature - Replaced screen scaling with accurate built-in scaling and multiple monitor support v10: 7/3/2016 - Updates to support pen in Windows 8.1 or Windows 10; - Support for display scaling factor - Automatically distinguish pen vs. mouse for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 - Gma DLL for global mouse hook - Fixed bug to revert settings if "no" is selected from save v1.4: 12/24/2010 - Hotkey support to toggle on/off using CTRL-F9 or CTRL-ALT-F9 - Allows custom image to be used in place of the default pencil. The custom image should be named CustomPen.png and placed in the installation folder. v1.3: 1/03/2010 - Support for mapping to extended displays (displays a highlight on extended displays like Microsoft PowerPoint in Presenter View mode or Classroom Presenter in Dual-Monitor Output Mode) - Support for rectangular highlight (useful for highlighting text passages or lines) - Right-click to toggle highlight color - Fixed bug failing to display the icon if starting up in pen or pointer mode v1.2: 1/05/2009 - 64 bit versions released v1.2: 6/26/2008 - CursorAttention released v1.2: 5/10/2008 - Fixed issue that caused flickering in some programs (e.g. PowerPoint full screen) and problems drawing in Sticky Notes. - Added dialog box to allow the user to modify the color, size, and opacity if highlighting is selected - Ability to highlight the mouse in addition to the pen v1.01: 5/8/2008 - Fixed bug that prevented the program from working on XP Tablet - Fixed bug requiring UAC or Protected Mode to be disabled to operate from Internet Explorer on Vista v1.0: 4/18/2008 - Initial release
Email any questions or comments to Kenrick Mock: kenrick@acm.org