Getting Used to a Wacom Intuos Pro

[JimMcClain]

I ordered an Intuos Pro Small from B&H and it arrived today. I've been using it most of the day trying to get used to it. I haven't used it in any photo processing, just my normal workflow for managing websites/forums, email, watching videos... oh, and editing the settings over and over and over.

Some of the videos I watched about the Intuos said it would be difficult to get used to. One even suggested I do what I have been doing (and more) for about a week before deciding to give up on it. This isn't my first Intuos. I bought one about 9 years ago, used it for maybe 4 hours and put it back in the box. I don't want to give up that easily this time.

I've been using a huge 4-button trackball, the Kensington Expert Mouse, for nearly 20 years. It has been remodeled a few times and this one has a scroll wheel around the ball that I really like. The Intuos, on the other hand, has a few different ways to scroll and I can configure the express keys, the pen buttons and the touch pad to do a lot of different things - and configure all of those differently for a lot of different programs.

Perhaps there are too many options. Or at least way more than I can keep track of right now. Any of you use a tablet for photo editing and other stuff? Has it completely replaced your mouse? Please share your experience.

Jim

 

[Scatterbrained]

I'm a lefty, so I use both. I only use the express keys on the tablet for Ps and Lr. I use the pen in my left hand and the scroll wheel of the mouse in the right hand.

 

[EIngerson]

You can set it up for left handed use. I just got one a few weeks ago. I love it now that I'm used to it.

 

[JimMcClain]

Did it take you a while to get used to it? Seems most of my problems are with the touch sensitivity and I don't see where that is adjustable. Most links click by tapping pretty easy, but buttons tend not to. Then there's the dragging the pen small amounts. When you lift the pen tip, the amount of movement changes.

Jim

 

[Buckster]

I use a Wacom Intuos 4 Medium for Photo editing in Photoshop on just one screen, and still use my Logitech Performance MX mouse for everything else, for the most part. If I'm already using the Wacom pen and need to do something else on that screen for some reason, I use it for that as well, but it's not very common for me. I seem to recall that it took me about 2 weeks to really get used to mine, and now I'd never go back to editing without it.

I'm right handed, and I use the tablet to the right of my keyboard with my right hand, and work the keyboard for shortcut keys to switch tools on the fly and sample colors while painting and all that sort of thing with my left (again, I only use my tablet for editing in Photoshop). The only button on the tablet that I actually use is one I programmed to represent the combined keys of Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E, which gives me a stamp visible layer in Photoshop. It beats mashing all those keys down whenever I want it, which is often enough.

Edit: I also reprogrammed the button on the pen itself with Ctrl+Alt+Z on the Up side, which does multiple undo commands, one for each press of the button, which is handier for me when editing and needing to correct little painting mistakes than working the keyboard for it, which is often enough.

Because I use both Wacom pen and my preferred mouse, I do something that might be a bit unusual, in that I have a nice large flexible soft fiber mousepad that I like for mousing sitting right on top of the tablet surface, with just the tablet's buttons and scroll wheel exposed, and the Wacom pen works just fine through it for me, so both are always at the ready, on the fly, and easy to switch between.

For settings, I have my Tip Feel (pressure sensitivity) set one notch to the right of the middle, toward Firm. I keep my Double Click Distance to Off. I have the Tablet surface Mapping set to only use about a quarter of the surface, in the upper left quadrant, so that I don't have to move my hand all over the surface of the tablet to work; My hand stays pretty much resting in one place while I work. Had I known when I was shopping for one that I'd end up mapping it that way, I probably would have saved some money and just bought the small version.

Just stick with it, and all the little idiosyncrasies that are tripping you up now will straighten out as you two get familiar with one another.

 

[EIngerson]

Did it take you a while to get used to it? Seems most of my problems are with the touch sensitivity and I don't see where that is adjustable. Most links click by tapping pretty easy, but buttons tend not to. Then there's the dragging the pen small amounts. When you lift the pen tip, the amount of movement changes.

Jim

I got used to it really quick. It was awkward for me too at first. There's one thing that will justify this tool to me. FLY AWAY HAIR……..If that was the only thing I used it for it would still be a worthwhile purchase. lol. I use it extensively for editing, I put it to the side the rest of the time.

 

[Rick50]

Did it take you a while to get used to it? Seems most of my problems are with the touch sensitivity and I don't see where that is adjustable. Most links click by tapping pretty easy, but buttons tend not to. Then there's the dragging the pen small amounts. When you lift the pen tip, the amount of movement changes.

Jim

This was my problem too. After a couple of days I sent it back. I couldn't get it to settle down but it's probably mostly me as I shake more than before.