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With the recent thread about computer mice, I wondered if anyone who has a Wacom tablet also uses the mouse that goes with it. I like the idea of a cordless, batteryless optical mouse so I was hoping someone may have had experience with it.
DJ
I have the Wacom tablet with the cordless mouse - BUT I never use the mouse! I just don't like the way it feels and I've never been able to adjust it to move around the screen to my liking. You can adjust the speed and "warp speed" of the mouse/cursor, but I've never been able to make it feel like a regular mouse. Plus, I've gotten so adept at using the pen, that I just use it all of the time.
Don't know how much that info helps, but if it were me, I would not buy the tablet for the cordless mouse. (Besides, you still have to deal with the cord to the tablet - though granted, it's stationary.)
I also have a Wacom with mouse but never use the rodent as it is simply a pain. I have a Microsoft optical rat with the tail and it works great, but then I'm no artist, so a couple of feet of cord isnt a problem. The "wireless" ones I've seen leave me just a little cold...perhaps something better is in the planning though. Tom
Now I feel better. I, too, have the Wacom tablet. I use the pen, but I couldn't get used to the mouse.
I still don't use the pen all of the time but I love it for the more detailed work. I'm left-handed but trained myself to use the mouse right-handed. I now go back and forth, using the pen with my left hand for the finer work and the mouse with my right hand for easier work.
Thanks guys for the very helpful info. At $70 to add a mouse to my tablet, I thought I would see what others thought of it before I laid out that much money. Since we need a mouse and I knew there was a cordless one with no batteries that goes with my Intous tablet, I thought it was worth checking into. Doug had mentioned in another thread on mice that the battery ones were a pain and expensive because the batteries that don't last so I thought the Intous mouse would be a good alternative and I already had the tablet. But now I think I will just get a regular optical mouse that fits our needs but has a cord. I knew you guys were valuable sources of info. Thanks again.
DJ
Can you chaps and chapesses tell me which model/version tablets you use. I've seen the Graphire one but that seemed to be the poverty model. Is the A4 size the best ?
Chris, I have the "poverty level" Graphire. Having never used anything else, I can't tell you how it compares to the larger ones. But I really love it. It's small, but given that I'm not an artist and never have very good luck with large sweeping motions, the small size is just perfect for me. Plus, it fits right next to my keyboard. Not sure where I'd put a larger one. If I need to do real intricate selections, I enlarge my photo up to 4-500% anyway, so detailed work is not a problem with the smaller tablet. I haven't really done much work where various pen pressures are concerned, so wouldn't know how the limited "steps" of the Graphire limits me.
Chris
Check out this forum thread. We talk about the tablets and in it I posted a list of the difference between the Graphire verses the Intous tablets. I have the Intous 6x8 and that seems to be plenty big enough. I think any bigger is actually over kill. I love the Wacom product but I can't compare it to any other graphic tablets from other companies.
DJ
I also have the "entry level" Wacom tablet and it works pretty well. I dont do a whole lot of work with it, as Art is not my strong point, but for masking and certain other tasks, it seems to do OK and the price was right...left more money to spend on plug-ins. Tom
Never having used a tablet, I find all this info interesting. Since so many people use it, what makes a tablet so much better than a mouse? Tom, you said that you don't do an awful lot of work with it. When you're not using it, are you simply using the ordinary rodent?
Ed, I use the tablet mostly for masking, otherwise I use a Mircosoft optical Rodent with cord. I guess if one did a lot of work with painting tools and art type work a tablet would be a necessity but otherwise I would have to call it a "nice to have but not vital" item. The optical rat, on the other hand, is, to me anyway, a necessity. Trouble free and reliable. Tom
Ed,
I used to think I could control the mouse pretty well until I got the tablet. Now when I try to use the mouse for those fine details I wonder how I ever thought that. Masking is a big reason to use the pen tool and you do a lot of that in Photoshop. Think about it, you grew up using a pen and pencil to write, draw etc. A mouse is like drawing a picture with soap on a rope. It's ok for clicking and scrolling and I still use the mouse for most everything else but when I go into Photoshop, I use the pen. I like the pressure sensitivity that you get with it also. The graphire isn't too bad price wise but only you can decide whether or not it's a necessity. Maybe a new toy for the holidays?
DJ
Ed, I find I have a lot more control with the tablet than with the mouse - especially useful for selections/masking in PS. But, like I said above, I use it for everything. Part of the reason for that is because I ended up getting pretty bad tendinitis in my index finger from clicking the mouse to rubberstamp out dust specs that inevitably appeared in scans from my old scanner. Got the tablet before a new scanner, so learned to use it for everything and have gotten quite adept at it. At this point, I could go back to using the mouse for navigating (my tenidinitis is healed), but I don't really have a place for it that works ergonomically, so I just keep using the tablet.
-Jeanie
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