My Trackpad Training
So, I’m trying to train myself to use this Magic Trackpad. I’m getting a little bit better, it doesn’t feel totally frustrating any more. I feel like I can do basic web browsing without slowing down too much.
On the flip side, there are still certain things which confuse me. I’d really love to know how other people are using this device. Here are some of my questions:
I use my index finger to get around, but I’m not sure what to do with my other fingers. Holding them out straight gets tiring fast. When I curl them up I bump the touch pad with my knuckles. And if I just rest them on the pad I get random gestures. What do you do?
On a mouse I click with my index and middle fingers. On the trackpad I can use my thumb to click the bottom, but my thumb is just not very fast or accurate at this. I tried turning on the tap-to-click. Which is better, but lift and tap feels like a lot more effort than just clicking a mouse. What do you do? Thumb or tap?
Accuracy seems to be the biggest problem. I have the fonts in my editors set pretty small I guess (10pt Helvetica). I have a really hard time accurately positioning the cursor between characters. On the mouse I can do this task without effort, even left-handed. Do you have any tricks to getting better accuracy?
I normally leave my arm on my desk to rest and just mouse with the very tips of my fingers in little flicks. When I try to do something similar with the trackpad my index finger can only reach about half of the trackpad. I don’t really want to hold my arm up in the air all day, but i feel like I’m not making use of the device. How do you hold your arm?
Let me know: http://twitter.com/isaiah
