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• • November 5, 2010 at 4:21 am #57584
    Webby77

    Member

    I've just invested in a Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen and Touch as using a mouse all day was starting to hurt my wrist. Though I'm enjoying the experience and have gotten used to it surprisingly quickly, I do find that selecting text with three taps, four taps, and five taps of the pen to select a line, paragraph and story respectively quite difficult unless I tap the same point exactly.

    When researching as to whether to get a tablet as opposed a track ball mouse (something else I haven't used) I couldn't find a lot of information on the pros and cons of either for Indesign work. What are other people's thoughts and experiences. What tablet or trackball are you using and are you happy with it?

  • November 5, 2010 at 5:26 am #57586
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    I agree that I find it tricky to use a tablet with InDesign. It's wonderful in Photoshop, but I never really got the hang of it in InDesign. Maybe that would change with enough practice.

    I use the Logitech Trackball Marble daily and love it. I used to have a much larger trackball that I like more, but wore it out and it had been discontinued. But I certainly can't stand using a mouse (especially with the tiny amount of clear space on my desk).

  • November 5, 2010 at 6:57 am #57590
    rydesign

    Member

    Awesome… I have wondered this for awhile. I have certianly gotten used to the Wacom Intuos Tablet that I have been using for about 2 years now. I find the 1 to 1 relationship to objects on the screen helps me navigate panels faster. Not to mention being able to map scripts or favorite shortcuts to the express Keys. I on the most part love using it but here are my main gripes.

    If you are doing any text editing it is annoying to have to pick up and put down the pen all the time.

    I miss quick multi Axis Scrolling that my old mouse had.

    It is far to easy to accidentally move objects you didn't intend to move.

    That being said I was thinking that for Indesign something like the bamboo with touch would be way better. Since it would Solve at least 2 of these problems. Scrolling can be handled with multi touch right? Thought about the Magic Trackpad since I love how multi-touch works on Apple's laptops. Have you tried doing full layouts without using the pen at all. The benifit of the pen is really its pressure sensitivity.

    Is anyone out there using the Majic Track pad? How does it compare? I fell like a wireless multitouch option would be great becasue you could sit back and navigate everything holding the trackpad in your left hand and selecting things with your right. Perhaps you could put blobs of paint on it and then you could have a real painters pallate

  • November 9, 2010 at 10:40 am #57633
    caledon

    Participant

    I have been using Kensington Trackballs for years and could never contemplate going back to any other kind of mouse. It is so much faster, you don't end up drawing your mouse right off the desk. I love it. I like the kensington because of the larger ball, I use it for all my design applications. Highly recommend it!

  • November 10, 2010 at 4:50 pm #57675
    Webby77

    Member

    I've just ordered a Logitech Trackman Wheel. I'll let you all know how I go with that when I've used it a week or so. The one thing I like about my mouse is the wheel and the ability to zoom in and out holding Alt and scrolling the wheel up or down.

    I don't regret buying the tablet, but it's certainly not for Indesign work as a rule. Invaluable for Photoshop functions.

    I recently purchased a compact keyboard with no numpad (thought it exists with the use of the Num Lock function key on) to try and reduce the amount I stretch. It's not bad at all. The Back Space key is smaller and some of the keys like Ins and Del are at the bottom so this all needs getting used to, but like moving from a manual car to an automatic or vice versa, it's all possible.

    It's only 30cm wide, so the new trackball and tablet should fit quite comfortably at a combined width of around 65cm, and not having to move the mouse to bring in the tablet.

    I've also got a wrist rest on order.

    Any other thoughts of improving one's comfort and well-being certainly welcomed.

  • November 11, 2010 at 12:47 am #57683
    Roland

    Member

    My mouse/keyboard combo (a first generation Logitech DiNovo set) is getting so old it needs to be replaced. At least the mouse, as it won't charge in its cradle anymore. So I've just ordered a Kensington Orbit trackball with scroll ring (€26.50 from Amazon.co.uk incl. taxes and shipping to the Netherlands, €50 from Kensington Netherlands). If that thing doesn't work for me at work, I'll take it home (I use the computer far less there) and bring my Logitech MX Revolution* mouse to work as that's the most perfect mouse for my hand I've ever found. Unfortunately the newer model costs around €90 and that's a tad more than I'm willing to spend at the moment.

    Next month Logitech's releasing a new keyboard that's solar-powered, and I'll be getting one of those as well. Goodbye batteries!

    More on-topic: I've had a Wacom Cintiq for years now and while I absolutely love it for Photoshop and certain Illustrator tasks, I hate it for everything else. It's just not a mouse replacement with its often finicky double-clicks and dragging/aligning of objects can be a huge pain in the rear end (although smart guides do help).
    I'd say you're doing the right thing: use your Wacom tablet for what it's made/intended for and use a mouse/trackball for regular tasks.

    * link to Amazon.com as I can't find any good images of it on Logitech's own site since it's an older model mouse that's been updated without the thumb-scroll wheel.

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