Mouse vs. tablet

[Badger]

no i haven't got it to work yet... tried last night, found the language bar.. but, nothing so far.. and i was too tired to try and figure it out...

I have XP and MS office 07 .... my laptop has vista tho... but I prefer to use the pc, but i still couldn't find anything in the knowledgebase about word and tablets... just One Note.. which does work... I tried it out... so if that works .. then MSword should work too.. but I've had problems with word since I installed it.. I called MS when I had trouble with it... oh man.. that was a nightmare.. the guy gets on my computer from where he was at... starts editing the registry ... next thing I know he's not on the phone.. he's not hooked to my pc... and I whole lot of my files are missing... so I call back with my ref #... they can't find it... they don't even have a record of this guy having helped me... man I was so ****ed about that... they couldn't do nothing about it... but I got it working again ... so I might have some MS/XP issues... everytime I shut down Word, it gives me a error.. shuts down and sends a report to MS ... other than that it works fine.

Sorry to ramble... lol it was a long story and I was trying to make it short. anything you can help me out with would be great tho

[RPMiller]

You're running Office 2007? That has better handwriting support than the previous versions. It sounds to me like you definitely need to remove Office and reinstall.

The way it works for me is I launch Word and then in the language bar I click the handwriting input and select Write Anywhere. With that selected I can then write directly inside Word and it converts as I go. Note that the cursor does not change unfortunately so you'll be writing with the I Beam cursor, but you'll see how it works. That is all there is to it. I actually prefer using it on XP in Office than in Vista because Vista insists on "helping" you by forcing you to use the Tablet PC Input Panel which is a bit more clunky than just writing inside Word, however Vista's translation algorithms are better.

[Badger]

ya... maybe I will reinstall it... I just loathe to run into anymore problems with it... i was happy to get it working in the first place... or... second place actually

[Steel General]

Sounds like ya might need to do a "brain wipe" on your PC... if that guy messed around with the registry and hosed any part of it up, uninstalling and reinstalling will most likely not fix the problem (but its at least worth a try). Had something similar happen to one of my PC's at work.

[MadLetter]

Hey Folks!

The Question I want to direct towards you is about Graphic Tablets. I have recently celebrated my 24th birthday (6th Sept.) and now would like to buy myself a Graphics Tablet.

I never worked with one, but think it would greatly enhance my abilities in mapping. I'd like to ask you now, if you can recommend a specific tablet (I like Wacom!) which is good for a beginner with mostly mapping ambitions.

I have already one recommendation: The Wacom Bamboo.

So now... you guys have the expirience. Help me out please!

[ravells]

Hi Mad Letter, I've merged your post with this one which should give you more than enough information on tablets!

Cheers

Ravs

[RPMiller]

MadLetter, it sounds like you are all set. A Wacom Bamboo is indeed the way to go, unless you want to jump into something higher end. Honestly there is no better company than Wacom as far as tablets are concerned. You can check Wikipedia, Consumer Reports, and Amazon to see some of the technologies and reviews of their products to get another opinion, but I couldn't imagine buying from anyone else.

[MadLetter]

I know about Wacom having practically the monopoly. I just wanted to ask for further input and if/how good i can work with the bamboo. Do I need any added equipment? What would you recommend, if so?

[RPMiller]

No added equipment. Just install the driver, plug in the tablet and go. It will take some getting used to as mentioned above, but it is a natural action you've been doing your whole life. You just have to get used to looking elsewhere to see "the ink". You might consider getting the felt tip nibs if you need more of a "feel of pen on paper". The felt tip nibs provided a better friction and prevents some of the sliding that others have trouble with.

[Midgardsormr]

With regards to the Bamboo, be aware that it does not have the ability to sense the angle of the stylus or its rotation, but those settings may still appear in dialogues within Photoshop or other software. I don't have any direct experience with any models of that line--I splurged and bought an Intuos3 for my wife (ostensibly)--so I can't evaluate how good it is, but I am so happy with the Intuos that it makes me glad I got married so I could have an excuse to buy one!