I have used the standard hand held eyelet tool, I have used my best friends big mama-jama tool that sits on the table... this one, to me, totally beats the other types. You can punch holes & set eyelets anywhere on your paper that you want! It's ultra portable & compact and the mat it comes with seems to hold up great. The metal box it comes in is certainly a plus for those o.c.d. neat freaks like me! Grab a scratch sheet of paper and start working on learning the settings.