HT_TEEPEE

Bamboozled - or not.

Posted April 8th, 2008 by admin

Wacom bamboo notes for Leopard.

1.  Preferences->Ink->Show Ink in Menu bar.

2.  Start Ink.

3.  Tap the pad looking icon in the top bar to view a writing pad, then the star looking icon at the bottom to switch from writing to drawing, then the arrow at the top to change from pointer to pen mode.

4.  Start textedit.app.

5.  Verify textedit is set to rich text formatting.

6.  Grab the stylus and draw something on the Ink.app screen.

7.  Tap “Send” button at lower right of Ink.app screen to send the drawing to textedit.  That is if textedit was the last program used before switching to Ink.app.  If Preview.app was the last used before switching to Ink.app, the graphic gets pasted into whatever is on the preview screen, at least if you are working on a jpeg image file.  Not sure about other image formats or pdf files.  The point is that the last app used before switching to Ink.app is likely to be the target of the “Send”.

8.  Try working with a graphics file.  Open a jpg file in Preview.app.

9.  Be sure the “Write anywhere” function is turned off, use the menu item.

10.  In Preview, make an annotation selection, like Line for instance.

11.  Use the pen to draw lines.  Nothing you cannot already do with the existing mouse.

12.  Seems like “Write anywhere” function in Ink.app decides for itself when to activate-deactivate.

13.  Not sure what the floating yellow write anywhere pad is all about.  I think it wants me to write something, then tries to do handwriting recognition and save it somewhere.  But would not swear to that.  Overall, Wacom Bamboo can make a hand drawing that I can save and annotate in textedit, or “Send” into graphic images.  That is all I expected and needed.

A guess is that it is up to each application developer to decide how they will incorporate pen/ink inputs into their apps, and that unlike mouse pointer inputs, there is no clear gui standard in place.

Paintbrush.app 1.1 support is spotty, does not seem to do anything not more easily done with a mouse.

Tags: bamboo, digitizer, wacom