5 Tips for Using a Bamboo Tablet

If you (or your college) can’t afford a tablet computer, then a peripheral tablet or digital pen can be a good inexpensive option.

For those who have never used a Bamboo Tablet, it’s like writing with a pen.  You hold the stylus like a pen.  When you apply pressure to the tablet, the mark (digital ink) does show up on the screen, but… It’s also not like a pen, in that the friction between the stylus and tablet is much different than that of ink gliding across paper.  This causes an “unanticipated roughness” in the appearance of text written on the tablet.

That being said, here are my 5 tips for using the tablet:

1.  Use proper ink width.  If you are given a choice, that is.  Your choice of ink width will probably depend on your writing style.  If you normally have small writing, you may want to use a thinner ink width.  Likewise, if you make larger letters, try a thicker ink.  Here are examples of different widths:

2. Relax. Clutching the pen and writing slowly is not worth the effort. You’re better off trying to imitate what you do naturally (with a real pen) than trying to “reteach” your hand how to write altogether.
Here’s what I mean.

3. Find a comfortable way to hold the stylus without disturbing the pen buttons.  If you accidentally press the button, which is right where you grip the pen,  it is like right-clicking with the mouse.  I’m not sure why the buttons on these styluses are always in such a bad location but they are on every tablet pen I’ve ever encountered.

4. Make an extra effort to dot your i’s and cross your t’s. These don’t always show up (especially if you normally do them quickly on paper).

5. Practice, practice, practice! (Did you think this wouldn’t make the top 5?)

To learn more about the Wacom Bamboo Tablet, here is the user’s manual.

One more tip, if you’ve got a Bamboo Tablet and can’t find an inking program on your computer (like OneNote or Windows Journal), then try installing the free program Jarnal (see Jarnal Tutorials in previous post).

This post was written by Christine Gardner  and edited by Maria Andersen.  

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Maria Andersen

Dr. Maria Andersen has spent most of her career teaching, writing curriculum, and developing digital products for learning. Recently she returned to the classroom, having new teaching adventures in K-12 middle and high school.

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