Trackpad

[sleigh]

I'm currently playing with my belated Father's Day present (thanks to an Apple gift card from Megen): a "Magic Trackpad." It's a bluetooth -powered large trackpad that is replacing my sometimes temperamental trackball. When using my laptap away from my desk and the keyboard set-up there, that I like the trackpad and using the gestures to do all sorts of things that the trackball can't.

It'll be a bit before I'm totally comfortable with it, I suspect, but so far I like this a lot. The only issue is that I've turned on the "Tap for Click" function, which I've never used before, and it's a bit sensitive (or I'm a little hard when putting my fingers on the trackpad) and I sometimes end up clicking on things inadvertently. I'l leave it on for a bit, but if that doesn't go away soon, I'll disable that function again.

Otherwise, this is nice! Anyone else using one of these?

Comments

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

I like tap to click, but only after I went into the settings and turned off almost every other option that involves tapping. The buttons on the trackpad are hard to push, and I find tap to click is much gentler on my hands.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Agreed with Cath, here. I turned off almost all the other options (I kept the two-fingers-to-scroll option), and that made it easier.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

I tried it out late last year when I got a new iMac. I didn't love it enough to buy it. I've gotten used to the Magic Mouse that came with the iMac, but still don't use the gesture functions very much. Maybe I'm now ready for the Magic Trackpad ...

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

I always hated trackpads on laptops, but when I was buying a new desktop computer earlier this year, I figured what they hey, I'll spring for the extra bux and get the magic trackpad. I'm getting severe issues in my wrist from mouse-clicking, and thought maybe the trackpad would help.

It took some getting used to, but I find it wonderful when I'm typesetting (which requires A LOT of mouse-clicking). I still prefer the mouse when I'm cruising the internet or straight-up designing, and sometimes even in typesetting it's easier to do a particular action with the mouse because it's less sensitive (as you note).

But after the first book or two, the trackpad got a lot easier to use. I keep both the trackpad and the mouse handy--they're both wireless and my desk is big, so why not--and switch as needed depending on the type of task.