Microsoft Surface 2 Pro, Windows 8.1, and Xara P&GD9

[WildRice]

Thanks for the input GMR. Do you have any examples of work you have done on the Surface Pro using Xara? There is a Microsoft accessory that is a wireless adapter for the keyboard/cover. That way you can keep the Surface Pro stand alone yet still have keyboard controls. It's expensive at $59 on top of the cost of the keyboard cover itself. For artists it would be good if it were a couple of inches bigger which would mean scrolling less and slightly larger on-screen buttons. But the go-anywhere compactness is one of its best features.

[qmr]

The Bluetooth keyboard I have is quite compact, and I try to avoid wireless adapters if a bluetooth accessory is available as it leaves the single usb socket free for adding/offloading files, so I'm waiting for a bluetooth mouse at a cheaper price but I don't need a mouse except when using dreamweaver and blender which I haven't really used on it yet. However the Wacom carbon 'feel' pen is more accurate than the one that comes with the tablet and to address your comment above, it doesn't skate so smoothly across the surface, it has more resistance, so this is a must have for me now.

The keyboard I presently have on loan is the Type one with the individual keys. When the surface keyboard is plugged in the whole thing reverts to a laptop, which is what is needed for Dreamweaver and other programs like that. But it inhibits the grab-and-draw artistic benefits of the surface pro tablet and I don't like having to reach across it and not touch the keys while I draw. The finger/hand rejection when using the pen I find very effective on the surface pro. So, having a cheap small usb MS keyboard within reach is enough to punch in various key shortcuts and esc or other emergency commands. Perhaps if I could learn to hit keys with my toes.... For typing text the online keyboard is good.

I hate being an early adopter as these pro tablets will take over, for artists and photographers, but at the moment the traditional software has to catch up and allow fluid finger navigation, which adobe fails miserably on, although Xara is not so bad and could be brilliant, the class leader. If I wasn't working at a university and using adobe software every day I would use the much cheaper alternatives, except of course for Flash which is unique. So, using one of these tablets I have found is a hassle first, until I unlearn my old habits tethered to the desktop. If I'm using a laptop now I invariably poke the screen to interact with the software which can annoy the laptop owners.

Note to Xara - it is interesting to observe how many artists are switching to using this tablet, and the new Wacom cyntiq win8, so it would be a good move to optimise the UI to reflect how it is used on the surface pro etc.

Here's an example, the image I use for my ID pic above, this is a screen capture from Flash on the surface pro of a bull animation in the making. You can maybe see the smallness of the buttons/text of the software. For drawing in Xara and drawing and arranging symbols, tweens etc on the stage and in the timeline with the pen in Flash it works fine and in using the tablet for this I can lounge in a sofa, or out under a walnut tree, or lying on the carpet in front of the fire, my three favoured positions for drawing or reading. Not sitting at a computer desk. For Flash I draw everything in Xara first and export the vector elements as swfs reworking them in flash as necessary. Flash and Xara have been my two favourite programs for a while now.

Q