Hi all
(for TL;DR and the solution scroll down)
I have had this problem for a very long time and finally found a solution. I have spent a lot of time and energy finding a fix and I now want to share it with everyone else. There is one downside to it, though - you will have no ability to double-click inside Flash (unless you have a suggestion for a workaround), but considering many other things that the solution will fix, it will be worth adapting your new workflow to the one without having to use double-clicks.
The problem is that Wacom tablets seem to generate microscopic double-clicks at random times when using a Wacom pen. This is especially annoying when you use programs like Adobe Flash (or Animate) for things like drawing with the Brush tool. This would sometimes result in brush strokes appearing as dots and not lines. And if you have Use Pressure enabled (which most of you do when sketching or rough animating), not even a dot will appear on a failed line - the drawn stroke is not even generated.
If you don't believe me that this problem exists in Flash, try going to Control Panel > Mouse and set your Double-click Speed to Slow (press apply). Then go to Flash, select Brush Tool and double click with it (using a pen or mouse) on the drawing area (don't release the mouse/pen on the second click). Now while you're still holding down the mouse/pen (after aforementioned double-click) try moving the mouse/pen. The dot is still there, the cursor is moving and nothing is drawn from the point where the dot is. Then you can test all of the following problems that I describe down below using this double-click trick. The problems affect: drawing, GUI element interraction like Timeline scrubbing, Symbol dragging, Transformation editing of an object.
If you don't believe that your Wacom pen is generating these random Double-Clicks go to Control Panel > Mouse. Under the "double-click speed" section there is a little box with a folder that you can use to test your double-clicks on. Now use your Wacom pen to "draw" inside that little box using little strokes. What I mean by that is: imagine that the box with the folder inside it is your drawing space and you just have to draw tiny little lines WITHIN that box. Suddenly you will notice that the folder in that box opens/closes even though you didn't deliberately double-clicked in there. Connect this (Wacom random double-click) problem with aforementioned Flash-Double-Click problem and you can see how many things are affected by it. Maybe your Tablet is fine, but I tried this with 3 different tablets on different operating systems, using different drivers and different Flash versions - the problem seems to be universal.
Main problems in Flash when double-clicks are generated (you can test this by provoking the double-clicks yourself):
1). (Drawing): Draw something. Select it. Select Free Transform Tool to rotate, scale or skew it. Sometimes you click and drag with your pen on the transform handles and it's just not responding - you have to do it again.
2). (GUI Elements): When you drag different windows inside Flash (like Color, Properties, Timeline windows, etc.). Let's say you want to move the Timeline window. A double-click is generated and the Timeline window is collapsed.
3). (Timeline scrubbing): Sometimes, scrubbing the timeline also triggers the problem - the scrubbing does not register.
4). (Dragging Symbols): Also, when you drag around a Symbol, sometimes with a randomly generated double-click it automatically enters the symbol (as if you would rightclick the Symbol and choose Edit Symbol) - this is so annoying because you then have to exit the symbol to move it and hope it does not happen again.
5). (Other Drawing Tools): The problem can also happen when you use Pen Tool and Eraser Tool. And sometimes, when editing a shape of a line by dragging, it generates a double-click and selects everything, instead.
In other words - nearly every element of Flash / Animate GUI (graphic user interface) is affected by this annoying bug.
This becomes very frustrating in the long run - it was for me at least. Sometimes you just know which line to draw and where to draw it but once you start drawing it, it is not even appearing - pure anti-climax.
This problem (the double-click bug) seems to appear around 10-20% of the times according to my testing.
I had this issue on Windows XP (32-bit) and Windows 7 (64-bit). Even Windows 8 and Windows 10 didn't seem to solve the problem.
TL;DR and SOLUTION: To fix the Wacom Tablet issue in Flash (for when your brush lines are not appearing or the user interface is not responding properly when interacting with it when using your Wacom pen) press Win+R (or go to Start > Run), type "regedit", press OK, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Mouse, rightclick on "DoubleClickSpeed" entry to the right and choose Modify, change the value to "1", press OK, relog or reboot. To get your double click function back, simply change the value of "DoubleClickSpeed" to something higher like "200" (minimum) or "900" (maximum). Alternatively, you can do it by going to Control Panel > Mouse and playing with the slider of the Double-Click speed. Lowest value should be 200 and the highest 900. This is at least true in Windows7. I also tested this in Windows XP.
Normally, I use my upper button of my Wacom pen for double-clicks (mostly for entering and exiting symbols) but after setting DoubleClickSpeed to "1" I can't seem use that button for double-clicks. So I found a temporary workaround solution. In Wacom Tablet Properties I assigned this button to Keystroke "Ctrl+E" which is a shortkey for Edit Symbol in Flash. Then in Flash I created a Command for "Exit Edit Mode" and assigned a shortcut "Ctrl+Shift+E". Now I can select a symbol, use my upper button to go inside it, go inside the next nested symbol, etc. And to go back to the main stage, I can hold down Shift and press my upper button (which will trigger "Exit Edit Mode") until I am in the main stage.
Conclusion:
In the beginning I thought that this problem was Flash-exclusive. But I saw similar behaviour in Toon Boom Studio 8. The same dots were generated sometimes, when drawing. Maybe it is a common problem for some vector drawing applications.
After tons of research I tried many different things including going to Wacom Tablet Properties, setting Double Click Distance to "off", Disabling "Windows Ink", disabling lots of things in "Pen and Touch", etc. But nothing helped except this simple Regedit trick.
EDIT: I think I just found a fix to solve the double-click issue in Flash and still be able to double-click using the Wacom pen button. The Regedit value of DoubleClickSpeed still has to be set to 1 (and you must remember to reboot or relog to apply changes). Now open Flash / Animate. Then open Control Panel > Mouse and fiddle with the Double-click speed slider (mine is set all the way to the left). DON'T press OK or Apply. Just leave it be. You should be able to draw in Flash and use the interface without problems and STILL be able to double-click stuff for like: renaming layers, entering and exiting symbols, etc. I haven't tested it out properly, but so far it seems to be working without any problems.
I hope this helped someone out there fighing the same problems that I have. I am not quite ready to give up Flash, as it is still an excellent program for animations and drawing. Yes, Toon Boom Harmony has some great drawing tools and features that Flash doesn't have, but for many of us who are used to working in Flash and feel quite comfortable in it - well, now you have a fix :)
If you have any other suggestions or fixes (especially regarding this double-click issue), please let us know.
-Aleque
Heya
