Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

o what do we have here? Two
graphics tablets, one big, the other
minuscule (and not really a graphics
tablet at all). Let's start small
and work our way up.
Our mini tablet is a device that has seen
1;1 service on many a modern laptop and is called
the Alps GlidePoint (made by the electronics
arm of famous car stereo manufacturer Alpine.
Perhaps you can get a sticker to go across the
top of your monitor that shows you have
ClidePoint tool). The idea is that it replaces a
mouse or trackball setup and allows you to use
your computer just by moving your finger
around. The GlidePoint's operating area is only
about an inch by two, but the manufacturers
reckon they have a resolution of some 4900
dots crammed into that tiny space.
This little beastie plugs into your valuable
serial port to work, so owners of multi-serial
cards can sigh with satisfaction that they can at
last use one of those extra serial ports, while
owners of Al200s will have to tear their hair
out when they want to use a modem, or the
other tablet in this review.
DR IVI NC
24
There is accompanying driver software
included on disk which can sit in your
WBStartup drawer, ready to run when you
boot In my experience, using serial mice on an
Amiga can cause frustrations when you need to
boot from a disk other than your normal one. I,
certainly, always left my normal mouse plugged
in, just in case. This, of course, limits the usefulness
of these devices and along with the serial
port use, must limit the appeal of the product
for most people.
However, all this would be fine if the product
was great to use, but unfortunately it isn't I
found the GlidePoint to be awkward in use,
especially for moving windows around. You
couldn't use it for drawing any more than you
could use one of those lightpens that were
popular about four years ago. In short, the
tablets that are
• • •ssore sensitive alto* for more painterly
such as varying a line's width or
inging the amount of paint laid down.
PCs haw to use thew
•isl port to plug a mouse ento, there
r a mouse parr This has lead to a
re variety of mouse-type dessces that
you could plug into your Amigo's serial
The PowerTemplate software that comes with the
PowerTab is almost worth the asking price on its own.
It allows the user to create templates for their
favourite programs so that all functions (or at least as
many as possible) are available directly from the
tablet, without having to go through menus or
requesters. The template software can replace keyboard,
qualifier and ARexx commands with buttons
on the tablet that take some getting used to, but are
much faster once acclimatised.
However, all is not perfect with PowerTemplate.
NTSC users might have a problem displaying the
whole screen, and non-AGA, non-graphics cards
using Amigo owners won't be able to run the
Ms-
Take two tablets into the showers?
Not Ben Vost, he would rather
plug them into his Amiga
Jargon
box
port if a) you are wilifing to give it up, and
b) you can find a &ne,.
a template is a file which you
load when you bun your tablet software it
tells the tablet that certain areas ore to
Lie used for mouse movement your
drawing area if you bike, and others ore
segmented off for button or menu
replacement
TEMPLATE FOR A GENERATION
software at all. It's also slow and clunky to use,
although looks very nice. The worst problem, though,
is the fact that although the PowerTab software will
run through any serial port, PowerTemplate will only
use the internal serial port found on every Amiga.
The software is also a bit buggy and prone to
crashing, so frequent saves must be made in order to
ovoid losing work. But all that considered,
Power
can - only hope will improve over time. I'm currently
making Templ a template for LightWave's Modeler that will
save ate me an enormous amount of time looking
through i s Modeler's menus, and that alone makes up
for a all of PowerTemplate's faults for me.
n i
c e
p i
AMIGA COMPUTING
MAY 1996
GlidePoint is really only suitable for those wellheeled
Amiga owners who have an extra serial
port or two going unused and so little desk
space that they have to use it. Anyone else
would be recommended to look at getting a
trackball or three-button mouse.
Our second tablet, on the other hand, is a
much better affair. You still need to take up that
valuable serial port, but at least with this product
you'll probably only be using it occasionally.
Tablets of this kind have been available
before, but this is the first I am aware of that
actually comes with template editing software
to allow you to set up areas of the tablet as buttons,
rather than having to use the menus or
••••••• Immo t•M•P ••8
keyboard shortcuts_ The tablet also corn
equipped with both stylus and four-butto
puck, which is unusual, and Power hay
supplied ready-made templates for some
the most popular graphics packages on the
Amiga, DPaints IV and V, and Personal Paint
6.4. The tablet itself is sturdily made and, as
you can see by the photograph, the puck is
ergonomically designed.
The Power tablet performs well in drawing
operations, although for best use a tablet
needs to be pressure sensitive and the stylus is
a bit top heavy due to the trailing wire, but
other than these minor qualms, I would have
no hesitation recommending this tablet to
prospective buyer.
Product
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