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About

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 a 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.

Windows 8 to Windows 11

Version 12   Now works in all Windows apps!

This new version should work in all apps now, regardless of whether it is 64 or 32 bit! This includes OneNote, Chrome, Edge, and other browsers!

The main limitation is that the pen coordinates are read in raw format from the digitizer. This means that the program now requires a calibration stage to map the raw pen coordinates to screen coordinates.

In addition, the format varies by manufacturer, so new code will need to be added to support each digitizer. As of 8/4/24, the program is known to work on the digitizer in:


• Surface Pro 4
• Surface Pro 7
• Surface Pro 7+
• Wacom external digitizer

If your digitizer is not detected in the calibration stage then a log file of raw data packets from the digitizer will be saved. If you send the log file to me then I can inspect it to determine how to extract the pen coordinates from the raw data in a future update. Instructions are provided in the software.

Future Work: Calibration is required if you change monitor displays. Possibly the monitor configuration can be detected and remembered so prior calibrations can be stored and retrieved.

Windows 7 and Lower

If you are still using a Windows 7 or lower machine you should consider upgrading :-) However, if that is not an option, then version 1.4 was designed for Windows 7 machines or older.

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).

Requirements

Version 12

• .NET Framework 4.8
• Windows 8.1 to Windows 11
• Pen or Touch enabled screen optional but preferred

Version 10 and 11

• .NET Framework 4.6
• Windows 8.1 or higher
• Pen or Touch enabled screen optional but preferred

Version 1.4

• .NET Framework 3.5
• Active digitizer and pen with Windows XP Tablet PC edition, Vista, or Windows 7 for PenAttention
• Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 for CursorAttention

Change Log

v12: 8/4/2024
  - Uses RawInput API to read the pen in addition to windows hook
  - Supports use in all apps with calibration

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