I was thinking about something like this for some time as well... care to elaborate? do you pick up the pen every time you switch from keyboard to "mouse" or do you have some type of ring holder?
The tablet, which has about the same size as a traditional mouse pad, has a concave space at the upper ridge, where you drop the pen when switching to the keyboard.
However, the pen is very light and I can retain it between the fingers without it limiting much the movements of the fingers. Because of that, if I have to type only a few words between some pointing actions I do not bother to drop the pen, but I touch type with the pen still between the fingers of my right hand. If I have to type more than one sentence, I drop the pen on the tablet and I pick it up again after finishing typing.
This actually makes on average the switching of the right hand between typing and pointing less distracting than with a mouse, because the heavier mouse must be released and grabbed after that, even when typing a single letter, which takes more time than moving the hand holding the pen between tablet and keyboard (especially now, after I have recently switched to a narrower ergonomic keyboard, without numeric pad, where the movement of the right hand is minimized).
The left mouse click is done by touching the tablet with the pen. The pen has 2 buttons for the thumb, which can be mapped to various events. I map one button to be the right mouse click and the other to be the double left mouse click.
I just dump my pen in the gap between the function keys and number keys.
I still have a mouse, so for quick stuff I tend to use that. but when I want to give my right hand a rest, or if I am doing precision stuff (ie copy pasting with small fonts, or drawing/CAD) then I use the table in absolute mode( that is the top right of the tablet is always top right of the screen)
However, the pen is very light and I can retain it between the fingers without it limiting much the movements of the fingers. Because of that, if I have to type only a few words between some pointing actions I do not bother to drop the pen, but I touch type with the pen still between the fingers of my right hand. If I have to type more than one sentence, I drop the pen on the tablet and I pick it up again after finishing typing.
This actually makes on average the switching of the right hand between typing and pointing less distracting than with a mouse, because the heavier mouse must be released and grabbed after that, even when typing a single letter, which takes more time than moving the hand holding the pen between tablet and keyboard (especially now, after I have recently switched to a narrower ergonomic keyboard, without numeric pad, where the movement of the right hand is minimized).
The left mouse click is done by touching the tablet with the pen. The pen has 2 buttons for the thumb, which can be mapped to various events. I map one button to be the right mouse click and the other to be the double left mouse click.