Wacom tablet

[amitairos]

Hi!
I have the Wacom Bamboo fun tablet and it's great- I love using it. I wanted to know if someone could give me some advice on where to put my tablet, how to use it with the keyboard and what I should assign to the buttons on the pen and on the tablet.
Please reply.
Thanks!

[amitairos]

Please reply.

[amoore]

Hi antimairos

You may not be getting any answers – or many – because most people don't have tablets, and because the answers to the questions you're asking are really individual.

I have an old Wacom Intuous (2001) in the office and a newer Graphire (2007) at home. Mostly, I use them for menuing and selection to relieve RSI when I've been doing too much mousing. I don't use them to draw because, well, I don't really draw. To the extent that I do, I learned to do it with a mouse. So far I can't seem to get the hang of drawing with a pen.

As for buttons, the pen for the old Intuous isn't nearly as responsive as the newer pens, so I've never gotten into the habit of using the buttons. It's better with the Graphire, but I'm not on that machine as much.

Re placement, when I'm using it, I keep the Intuous on the desktop in front of my keyboard. so I have keyboard, tablet and mouse in close proximity and easy reach. When it's not in use, it's on the desk extension to the side of the keyboard (still in easy reach).

At home, I have much less desk space. Sometimes the Graphire rests on the edge of the desk above the keyboard drawer. Sometimes I put it on an extension I can pull out of the desk. And sometimes I literally hold it in my hand while I'm using it (obviously not for long periods).

The best advice I can give you is to experiment until you see what works for you.

[Bob Hahn]

I use a Wacom tablet, but it doesn't replace my mouse. It just depends on what I'm doing. Because a lot of my drawings are cartoon type characters, they all start out as a rough sketch. And for sketching, I use the tablet. Sketching with a pen is easier than with a mouse – which is like trying to draw with a bar of soap. It's just more natural to draw with a pen than a mouse.

My tablet is an older one with no added buttons, other than the one on the pen itself. So I just use the tablet to create my rough sketches. Once I have a sketch, I can switch over to using the mouse to place what will end up being the finished lines for my drawing – using my sketch as a guide.

Place the tablet in front of you as if you were going to draw on a piece of paper. Just from regular use, you will find what tools you'll like to assign the buttons to. There is no right or wrong way.

[handrawn]

the buttons on my pen are disabled - I was forever clicking them accidentally

learn the knack of using the keyboard or the mouse [or picking up a pint of beer] with the pen still in your hand - seriously this is a knack that's well worth mastering - it really speeds things up whatever settings you choose to use for buttons

[Jimi King]

I have a Wacom Intuous Tablet and most of the time it's used as a mousepad. But not for the Wacom mouse (which is awful).

If you are an illustrator i would guess that a tablet is a must, but for most of the drawing and tracing I do in Xara I think that a good quality mouse is more than fine. I use the Logitech MX Revolution and I think it's probably the best mouse I've ever used.

[hamishmacd]

I only ever use a tablet. Set your main tablet button; in Xara properties that's the Right Mouse Button, to being the 'push tool.' I've never used the context sensitive menus in Xara. I find the flexable keyboard shortcut keys much faster. With this setting you can move the page around very rapidly and naturally without touching the keyboard and your cursor is always just where you want it. The other setting I'd recommend is using the SPACE bar to toggle between the Selector Tool and the last tool used.

With these two settings, Xara feels very fast, fluid and responsive.