Hardware :: Use Wacom Bamboo As A Mouse / Looking For An Alternative For Notetaking Assignments?

I never have thought about purchasing one of these as I figured they were just for photoshop which I do not use. Boy was I wrong.I saw one in best buy when picking up the new U2 cd last week, and thought I'd look at them online when I got home just out of interest. I am currently a sophomore studying engineering and find myself using tons of notebooks and paper for notes and homework. They usually get somewhat disorganized, I do keep subjects separate and homework separated by subject as well, but I have been looking for a better way of taking notes, a different way. I kept thinking that taking them on the computer would be so much better, if i needed to go further on the page couldnt I just scroll over and add something in? Zoom out to see the entire thing? Add notes to something where if I was using a notebook I'd just have to use another page or squeeze something in where I'd get totally confused.

So I looked at this online and realized that a tablet can be used for many other things. I purchased the Wacom Bamboo, i didnt need to extra software in the bamboo fun and I thought the Bamboo looked better, so I got it as Amazon.com and had it sent. I got it today and have had a ton of fun with it. First things first, I can use it as a mouse. It works really well although not quite as fast (yet) but with the 4 customizable buttons at the top for spaces and expose and turning on/off ink plus the scroll thing, its like a combo mouse/keyboard. I can write and it'll recognize my handwriting (apple's Ink software does, then inserts it into whereever the curser is in any program) although my handwriting is horrid. I do have to slow down for it to be read correctly. The two buttons on the pen can be used for right clicking and the other is for spaces. What a great alternative to the mouse.

Secondly, I am looking for an alternative for notetaking/homework assignments.Since Im in engineering I take classes that require doodles of pictures and math equations and such, which are impossible to do on the computer. I downloaded inkBook and have been trying it out. I can set the page to be fullscreen and i can add pages as I go. I can choose pencil/pen/highlighter/brush for my input, can change colors, and a cool feature of the tablet is that I can push harder and the lines get darker, or pull up and they get lighter. This is neat for having to draw reference lines that need to be there but distinguished from the rest. I really would like something that can organize all my notes in one location though, instead of having to open a new file each class. Something like evernote would be great, but the tablet function does not work (yet?) on the mac software.

So far it is great. I'm not sure if It will replace note taking for me this semester, but I may use it for homework assignments or re-writing notes just to get used to it and get a process down to possibly use starting in the fall semester as a complete replacement of a notbook (or mostly complete at least). inkBook is a nice piece of software, I'm not sure if it is the note taking software I'll end up purchasing. I have evernote but the mac client does not recognize tablet input from what I could tell using the program and reading the forums (if this is wrong please correct me and show me how to do this). I would really like to use something like evernote because of the syncing and separate notebooks to be used for different classes and such. I also tried microsoft word in notebook view, and it recognizes the tablet. The only thing is it is limited in how large a page will get. I still think i'll leave it as an option though as I already have purchased it.

If anyone has a better note-taking and organizing software let me know, It just has to have support for this tablet.All in all, a great $60 spent. My sister does work with pictures and some graphics so she may buy one of these after she sees it. If anything, I'm just doing my part to keep the economy going; afterall, it is a consumer economy and we have to buy things for it to work right? Well I had some spending money from work so I got this and a new lacrosse stick. Two completely justifiable purchases. Now I just need about $2500 so I can get a spiffy new macbook pro to speed up final cut. I'd love to put that $2500 into the economy if I had it.