I originally purchased this because my wrist was really starting to hurt from using my mouse 10 hours a day.  At my former place of employment one of my co-workers swore by it so as a last ditch effort I paid the 100 bucks and gave it a try.

I believe the majority of people that purchase this with the intent to draw and take notes with it.  My intent unlike most was to use it for every day computer use.  I now use the pen about 95% of the day. It may sound funny because really, how much effort is it to use a mouse? But, with the pen it is much less effort and you don’t use your wrist the way you do with a mouse.

Bamboo Fun comes with the tablet, the pen and a wireless mouse. After you hook the tablet via USB you need to install the driver for it.  I am running Windows7, Wacom had the driver I need for download on their site.  The thing I like most about this is the area of the tablet represents your screen.  In my case both of my screens since I run dual monitors.  So if I move my pen to the upper right corner of the tablet the pointer will be in the upper right corner of my monitor.  You end up flexing and expanding your fingers more than moving your wrist because of this.  It really is nice.

The system offers some other nice features too.  You get pen flicks with it.  This is nice for  when browsing.  If you just  quickly tab your tablet moving from right to left it will be a back command.  Likewise Forward is just quickly tapping the tablet left to right.  You can customize the pen flicks for other features too such as delete, copy, paste, undo, and a whole lot more. The tablet also has a few buttons on it that you can program to do whatever you like. I have two set up to automatically launch programs.  One shows the desktop and one set up to do the equivalent of Win/Start  + Tab.  I really don’t use these but there are there if you want them.  Then there is one big button in the middle.  I have this one set up to do my window scrolling since you can’t really scroll with the pen. The missing scroll wheel is probably what I miss most from the mouse. This is really the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with the pen tablet but it is all I use it for.

The pen tablet does take some time to getting used to.  It took me about 4 days before I really felt comfortable using it.  It is weird, you know how when you see an older person use a mouse for their first time?  They just aren’t that accurate.  That is how you’ll feel when first using this.  It takes a little practice.  You also have to get used to just moving the pen to the correct position on the tablet to move the pointer where you want it  instead of looking at where it currently is and then moving it in the right direction like with a mouse. If you do use the mouse that comes with the tablet though it does function the same as a regular mouse. Clicks and double clicks are a difficult task at first as well. For double clicks you have to make sure to tap in the same place twice.  Seems simple, but at first it is easier said then done. Just stick with everything though and you soon won’t be even thinking about it.

There are a few cons I have found.

1. The scrolling as I mentioned above. It would be nice if there was a little scroll wheel on the pen.  I find it very cumbersome to use the scroll wheel on the tablet and in fact find myself quickly grabbing the mouse and using the wheel on that if I for see myself having to scroll a lot. For example reading a long article.
2. You have to drop the pen to type and pick it back up when you need to move the pointer.  At first this really feels like you’re wasting a lot of time doing this. If I am going to type something quick like a url, I have found that I can type with the pen in my hand.  Really though, after using it for a while you don’t even realize it and in fact get very quick putting the pen in the stand and grabbing it.  I do it without even thinking about it now.
3. I have found that some applications don’t respond well to clicks or double clicks.  One program that comes to mind is TweetDeck.  If there is a link in someone’s tweet for some reason I can never seem to click on it.  I always end up grabbing the mouse to click on it.  It seems this only occurs in a few apps, but none the less it is annoying.
4. Ironically Photoshop seems more difficult to use with the pen then the mouse.  I really only use Photoshop to slice up PSD’s.  In my experience I have found my hand isn’t steady enough to slice exactly where I want so I end up using the mouse mainly in this app.

In conclusion, even though there are a few cons I still highly recommend the pen tablet.  I do suggest getting one with a mouse to cover the cons mentioned.  I think the less expensive ones come without a mouse.  My wrist is extremely thankful I have made the conversion and I actually feel more productive using this now that I am used to it.  I really couldn’t go without it any more.

Do any of you use a pen tablet?  What is your experience with it?