[Marcel Vijfwinkel]

Like many of you out there, I own a Wacom tablet. In my opinion it's the greatest input device ever, but there is one thing missing, good dual monitor support. Since the tablet is mapped to the screen, you cannot easily acces your second monitor, unlike with a mouse.
Some time ago I've suggested Wacom to implement a monitor flip feature, a keyboard shortcut to easily and quickly flip the mouse pointer between the two monitors.

An other user posted a message on their forum, requesting the exact same feature (actually four or five people requested this feature before me) , this was Wacoms response:

The idea for switching monitors on button-press or switching settings has been around for long time. It is not easy to implement, escpecially switching complete settings, as this leads to serious 'logistics' problems for the driver (f.e. pressing a button can change the function of that button ...), so any such improvements which require a major redesign of the driver will not come in a short time-frame ...

You'd expect that implemeting this would be a piece of cake for a good programmer. I'd certainly not expect a big company like Wacom saying "You are absolutely right, it's a great feature suggestion, but it's just too hard for us to program!"

These are the workarounds they suggest:

Assign one of the pen buttons to switch the tablet between absolute and relative (=mouse) mode.
This isn't much of a solution. I can't re-assign any of my pen buttons, I surely can't miss my second mouse button, and I can't do without the double click feature either. (Double clicking with the pen tip is just too imprecise)
Besides, I didn't buy my tablet to use it in mouse mode, that's what my mouse is for.

Remap the tablet so that the working area is spread out over the two monitors
Not much of a solution either, remapping the tablet over two monitors makes it way too imprecise, especially if you own a A6 model.

Buy a second pen
Those pens come at $50 a piece, not exactly cheap. And, having to swap pens 800 times a day would drive me freaking mad!

As you can see, they only offer clumsy workarounds, while the monitor flip solution is simple and elegant.
If you would also like to see this feature implemented, please reply to the thread on Wacom Europes forum:
http://www.wacom-europe.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=&TOPIC_ID=665

(if you scroll down you can go to page 2)

You can also reply to this thread on CG_Talk, then I'll repost your reply on their forum.
I hope that when enough people respond, it'll force them to implement the monitor flip feature.

Thanks!

Marcel Vijfwinkel

[ June 14, 2002: Message edited by: Marcel Vijfwinkel ]

[Loki]

why don't you map the tablet across both monitors ... ?

I'm tempted to accuse you of wasting energy ... and our time, hehe

[B3AND1P]

I just set my tablet to mouse mode. it seems to work fine, you just have to be careful about starting a long sweeping motion when you are already at the bottom on the tablet.
I say just be happy you can afford a tablet and dual montors

[Marcel Vijfwinkel]

>why don't you map the tablet across both >monitors ... ?

Every tried painting a masterpiece on a poststamp?
The resolution is just too low if you spread it out over two monitors, too imprecise. I've already explained that in my original post.

>I'm tempted to accuse you of wasting >energy ... and our time, hehe

Anybody that hangs around in a forum has enough time on its hands , so I'm not worried about that.

About the mouse mode, I have never seen somebody use it, everybody I know uses the absolute mode, there is got to be a reason for that.

And as far as affording a second monitor, you don't have to be rich for that, I use my old monitor from 4 years ago. All you need is an extra PCI video card, that's it.

[ June 15, 2002: Message edited by: Marcel Vijfwinkel ]

[ June 15, 2002: Message edited by: Marcel Vijfwinkel ]

[eyewoo]

Marcel... your dual monitor setup is exactly like mine... 2 PCI cards.

I'm not sure what you are referring to by writing that splitting the surface on a Wacom makes it too imprecise? Are you using a small tablet?

I use a Wacom 9 x 12 turned 90 degrees abd set in portrait mode with my monitors stacked. Works great and gives me a full 6 x 9 surface for each monitor... no problems with precision...

[Catfish]

Yeah, I posted about this on the Wacom forums a while ago, to basically be told 'nope'.

I'm with Marcel - a single Graphire tablet is too imprecise to cover 2500 pixels across the desktop. I've limited mine to the primary monitor, but having a keyboard shortcut to flip the tablet would be great.

[Loki]

Oh - you guys are talking about a graphire - true - the resolution might be way too low. Remember hitting the same probs with the old ArtZII's - they had the same rez than the Graphires - my apologies ... hmmm ... that makies it a tough nut to crack ...

The moast ignorant recommendation would be to buy an Intuos - but those are expensive, I know

oh - and about wasting time: yes, I hang out here a lot :P

[Alan]

Here's my less than 2 cents... I had the opportunity to use a dual monitor set up and was looking forward to playing around with all the extra space, etc...the system also had a tablet mapped to both monitors, so using the stylus in stylus mode you could zoom back and fourth just like a mouse... BUT i actually found the tablet a bit confusing like that. I kept wanting to use the tablet like i was used to (i.e. it represents the whole of one screen and not one part two screens). I guess it's just something you have to get used to.

[soogarrush]

sorry to resurrect this post, but i just got duals and was wondering if anyone knew if wacom is gonna incorporate the flipp feature anytime soon...

im using a 6x8 and the tablet is mapped across both monitors @ 1600x1200...the porportions are really bad, i would be drawing a circle onscreen, but my hand is actually drawing an egg shape on the tablet. hehe would this permantly disfigure how i draw in traditional medium if i were to use the tablet extensively?

ack...they need to implement this feature.