Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Strange Wacom Pop-up Major Breakthrough Menu Tip WOW!!!*

Thanks to Diggitizer my humdrum blog title has been transforMed into a spine tingling headline! And if you use awacm tablet to get your Inkwell action then you will thrill to see what I have in Awe for you today.

Well, actually, that's L( in store for youtoday", though you maybe in awe bythe time you are finished here - awe at how bad Inkwell is working forme today.

I don't always use Inkwell, and when I'm not using it I don't like to leave the Inkwell server running in the background eating up CPU cycles. However, when I turn handwriting recognition off the convenient Inkwell menu bar icon disappears. This forces me to jump through a few hurdles to get Inkwell running again. If you have a Wacom tablet installed there is atrick you can use to cut those hurdles by half.

Wacon Tablet preference paneOpen System Preferences and select the Wacon Tablet preference pane. Select "Functions" from the list of tools. Then select the Pop-up Menutab. From here click on the "Add..." drop down Menu and select "Open/Ran". A file browser will open.

It would be convenient if we could simply select the Ink server from within the Ink.component, but this does not load everything Inkwell needs and consequently runs buggy. Instead, browse to "Ink.prefPane" inside of /System/Library/PreferencePanes.

Lastly, select your stylus from the list of tools and be sure to map "Pop-up Menu" to one of the buttons.

Wacon Tablet Pop-up MenuNow, whenever I want to turn ON handwriting recognition I simply call up the Pop-up Menu and select "Ink.prefPane". With onemore click Inkwell turns on. It is just as easy to turn Inkwell off.

-Doug!as

tags technorati:

  Respond  using  Inkwell  if  you Can... 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you know. None of these tips Make Inkwell actually useful. It's still pretty much a toy.

Will said...

(This post written with write anywhere)

Quite to the contrary, I just got a tablet (two days ago), And I'm having very few problems with it. My biggest issue |s punctuation, which must be Written quickly lest it be placed with a space |n front of it. Another Minor annoyance is random Capitalization which happens with regularity.

One tip which I think bears mention, | ng on your bbg is a well hidden feature of the Ink Pad. Right-clicking On any converted chunk of text brings up a contextual menu of alternate possibilities. This can be used to quickly fix capitaliontion problems.

It helps to have a stylus button mapped to right_ click, but I did anyway to bring up photoshop brush options. My other button toggles wr, `fe anywhere.

In case anyone reading this is in the market for x new tablet, I recommend the Graphire3 8luetooth. Wireless is great. Academic Superstore has them (refurbished) for $99 with no tax (depending on state) And free shipping. It's 6'' x 8" and new ones retail for $ 200- 25 0. Not i nking a long URL, So I'll assume that copy/paste ge@ures are fair game.

Get it here. No academic status (student, staff, etc) is required to purchase this. Grot deal!

I shouH a lso mention that you can get x wired 4xS for even less ($50) and qualify for $300 off on Photoshop CS3 using the Graphive priuelages on Wacom's site. Or as I see it, save $ 250 and get a free tablet.

Well, I suppose that went pretty well for an inked Comment after 2 days of experience. Now all l hxve to do is nail this captCha.

G night,
Will

PS: Aww damn, I can't ink my blogger password. Oh well.