Entry Level Pen Tablets: Making the Artist's PC-Life Easier

What Else Can Tablets Do?

Not everyone needs a new imaginative outlet, but some might consider these tablets for other uses. By and large, they are most practical for artistic and creative purposes, but their usefulness doesn't stop there. Wacom's Graphire3 has a clever feature that helps out with Microsoft Office and Excel. While writing a document in Office, you can turn the pen over (eraser down) and drag it across a section of text you might want deleted. Once the text is highlighted, simply lifting the pen removes it. This feature also works in Excel; deleting cells by groups, rows, or columns can be done with the eraser. Overall, while this task is interesting, it might not be a huge time or energy saver. However, the pen does make it somewhat easier to highlight text than a mouse, and you remove an entire step of the deletion process when you don't have to click or hit delete. This feature will be even handier once handwriting recognition software improves, but don't throw your keyboard away just yet. Aiptek didn't really shine in the area of text editing or Excel. The functions of the HyperPen tablets don't really change those of our old friend, the mouse.

With the proper software, all of these tablets can be used for signature identification. Imagine signing your name instead of typing in a password to log onto a computer. At present, it's not a good idea to attempt these functions with Aiptek's Hyperpen 8000U, but the other two tablets could manage the tasks.