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Sue.Martin.1
Sue.Martin.1
Known Participant
November 24, 2018
Question

Reach out to other owners of Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch Tablet #CTH490AK

  • November 24, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 840 views

I have a Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch Tablet #CTH490AK that I purchased in 2016. I have been using it almost exclusively for Photoshop and only to make selections and draw lines using the brush tool—simple dragging, clicking, and using the pen buttons to right-click.  

This week I decided I wanted to use the tablet's Express keys to zoom in and out.  I spent quite a bit of time today, reading the online manual, setting and resetting the tablet properties, and making sure the driver is up-to-date.  I’ve concluded that something is wrong with the tablet driver viz-a-vie Photoshop because the ExpressKeys and the Radial Menu aren't working.  The UI appears when I activate them, but the buttons/slices don’t respond when pressed.

The ExpressKeys functioned as advertised when I first got the tablet, and they still work for zooming in/out in Microsoft Word).  The Radial Menu is dysfunctional in Word.

BTW, the finger gestures all work (some of them not as shown in the Wacom properties menu).  However, it won't switch from using the pen to hand gestures and I can't make accurate selections or draw with my fingers.

I’m not terribly surprised by the malfunction because Wacom has always made iffy devices (the Wireless Adapter Kit I purchased worked for two weeks—now it suddenly won't stay ON in wireless mode with a full charge). The reason for this post is to verify that other Photoshop users are having similar trouble with the small pen tablets' ExpressKeys and Radial Menu so that I don’t feel tempted to keep trying to get it to work. 

Every now and then I check out the pen tablet market, to see if one of Wacom’s competitors has finally introduced a reliable product, with instructions in decipherable English, at a lower price point than Wacom.  If anyone out there has discovered such a marvel, I’d love to hear about that, too. 

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    1 reply

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 24, 2018

    There was a problem after the CC 2018 update in that the Wacom driver was not seeing the new version.  You had to remove Photoshop from Wacom Preferences, and add it again making sure to point to the new version.

    I have my Touch Ring set to toggle between brush size and rotate canvas

    But out of interest I have just changed it to add Zoom

    It initially didn't work, and was causing the canvas to scroll up and down. Un checking this Photoshop Preference setting fixed it.

    So as far as I can tell, everything works as it should, and has always done so for me.  I can say that I have responded to a lot of post on this forum with people who were not so lucky, and usually around pen pressure.  That usually comes down to the API with Windows users.  WinTab working better than Windows Ink.

    Can you tell us what operating system you are using, and what specific issues you are having?

    Sue.Martin.1
    Sue.Martin.1Author
    Known Participant
    November 25, 2018

    Hi Trevor,

    Nice to "speak" with you again. 

    Per your questions, I’m using Windows 10 Version 1709 on a new desktop PC.  I only recently loaded the Wacom program on the new machine, after first getting my Adobe Photoshop subscription up and running.  As you suggested, if the Wacom driver was going to recognize the version of Photoshop I’m running, it did it on install. 

    My problems in more detail--

    My tablet is the simplest of the Wacom family--its only mechanical feature is four buttons called ExpressKeys and the Pen isn't touch- or tilt-sensitive.  When I depress the keys I set to Zoom In and Zoom Out, the UI appears on my monitor and it zooms in Ms Word, but nothing happens in Photoshop. 

    The Radial Menu for my tablet is virtual.  One must program an ExpressKeys to bring up the Radial Menu on the monitor screen.  The menu appears when summoned in both Photoshop and Word, but none of the functions I programmed work when clicked on, in either program, except the command to bring up the Wacom Tablet Properties.

     

    I played some more with the Wireless Accessory Kit that stopped functioning.  The transmitter in the tablet isn't finding the receiver in the computer's USB port.  The transmitter searches for a few seconds, as the on-light flashes, then gives up.  There are no instructions for troubleshooting this problem, and the kit with postage cost me $65, so I decided for once to try getting my money back.  I sent Wacom Service an e-message explaining the problem and asking if they would please send me a return for refund authorization number.  The email I got back from them is titled "reply, no" and the text gives me a case number.    I assume this isn't their final answer to my request, though it could not be more cryptic or less encouraging!  LOL  On the bright side, I'm still sending thanks, to whomever it is due, that I seem to have escaped the lemon bullet with my new HP computer and two ASUS monitors.

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