New Buttonless Touchpads = Pain

[jjcore]

Is it just me, or do the new aluminum macbook touchpads make your fingers sore after a while. I hate clicking now! Maybe I have weak fingers or I'm clicking too high up but seriously, not trackpad should be painful. Your thoughts?

[DeusInvictus7]

Why don't you just turn on tap to click? Made things a lot easier for me, that's for sure.

[StingerT125]

I like the new trackpad. If you are finding it hard to click to far up on the trackpad, use it as if there was a button on the bottom and I think it will work better for you.

I have mine set up for tapping to click and that works great with how I work.

[Luke1robb]

I'm not a big fan of the tap to click, but I love the buttonless trackpad, its an amazing feature that added to my macbook purchase desire alright built up pre-launch.

[Roadking]

I was never a fan of tap to click. But I gave it a try temporarily, and now that is how I have my system set.

I think I didn't like it before on my old windows laptop. This track pad is a huge improvement.

[Solemony]

I love the trackpad. It's very convenient to use and easy...just made life easier...:)

[KyPosey]

well if your fingers hurt then you just pulled landscaping duty grandma.

[drichards]

well if your fingers hurt then you just pulled landscaping duty grandma.

Stiller rules in Happy Gilmore.

[SnowLeopard2008]

tap to click gets my vote.

[vienta]

I agree...actually clicking the pad does get very old. I turned on tap to click though and have been very happy since.

[VSMacOne]

Quite the opposite for me... i LOVE the new trackpad! and when i went to a PC laptop with a regular size trackpad, after about an hour my thumb started hurting from using the Right Click...
tap to click is awesome, and the two-finger Right Click is AWESOME!

[MarkMissoula]

The glass pad rules! So smooth and silky. Everytime i use my friends HP , im like man this thing sucks .

[robanga]

Add me to the fans of the new Touchpad. When I move over to my MBP I miss it.

[Carnivor]

The glass pad rules! So smooth and silky. Everytime i use my friends HP , im like man this thing sucks .

+1 here, even when im using the wife's yr old macbook its so prehistoric

[wordslinger]

i got my aluminum macbook in november 2008, and a couple months ago i started getting a sore and burning sensation in my fingertips when using the pad. almost feels like a layer of skin has been worn away! i started using a mouse recently, but my fingertips still hurt when i type even though i'm using the pad a lot less. guess it'll take a little while for my fingers to recover? hope so because it's painful to use my macbook.

[tallguy]

Clicking the trackpad does suck but that's why they gave you the option to touch tap. It's just so much better and you don't have to listen to the clicking all the time. Mmmm silence. :)

[11800506]

I definitely know what it feels like moving over to a PC or even a regular white Macbook! I love the buttonless trackpad and I don't mind the clicking either. The gestures have just become so natural to me that when I go to other computers I find myself cramped and surprised when the gestures don't work.

[NikFinn]

Tap to click + gestures= best navigating experience ever.

[fun173]

i dont have one but i agree, i dont like them either and for me tap to click interferes

[NewMacbookPlz]

Tap to click+multi-touch+multi clutch for extra Firefox support= heaven.

[Kelly Craig]

I LOVE the new trackpads.
tap, douple tap, two finger tap, two finger rotate, two finger expand and contract, three finger tap, three finger swipe, four finger swipe, palm it

[Carnivor]

tap to click on it isn't like tap to click on any other trackpad, it actually works very very very well. other trackpads i used to find myself accidently tapping so i was a bit sceptical when i first turned tap to click on, now im in tap tap heaven.

I still dont use tap to click on any of my other laptops tho, it still sucks on them.

[monkey86]

if you dont get on with the trackpad get an external usb or bluetooth mouse, solves all the problems

[cube]

Tap-to-click is unusable.

[Menge]

tap to click = perfect on those touchpads.

tap to click + multitouch + gestures = bliss!

[dubhe]

The MBA has the best trackpad, big pad, thin button. Best of both worlds, and a positive click ;)

[Hayduke60]

The pad comes in a little stiff, as you use it it softens up. At least mine did. It's either the pad that changed or my spindly granny fingers got all buff and macho.

[KielderWolf]

Heh oh dear this may be a bad place to write this but I absolutely hate the glass trackpads.

Adding too many functions to something I don't really use all that much and removing half the visible hardware (the click button) and then making the whole thing feel slightly like a polished marble surface just ruined the Apple trackpad for me.

I've always been more of a person to use keyboard shortcuts (and I miss the days you could dismiss dialogue boxes by pressing y for yes, n for no and so on) and leave the mouse be, but I have slowly moved on to using my mouse more and I love my BlackBook trackpad because it is simple. It moves the cursor, and I can click, even right click with two fingers, and that is all I need.

All this forward/back app switching tomfoolery is best suited to the command key, the tab key and the nav keys.

</rant>

I can't believe I used the word tomfoolery. I'm 19 not 69 :rolleyes:

[dubhe]

I can't believe I used the word tomfoolery. I'm 19 not 69 :rolleyes:

But do you wear a flat cap?

[Banbeerd]

Tap to click is garbage. It's for people who have patience and nothing to work on. Don't click with your fingertips, people, if it bugs you. Press down with the side of the pad of your thumb. Jeez. (Use the muscles that rotate your forearm toward you. They're stronger and will press the button faster due to faster rotation.)

I've always been more of a person to use keyboard shortcuts (and I miss the days you could dismiss dialogue boxes by pressing y for yes, n for no and so on) and leave the mouse be, but I have slowly moved on to using my mouse more and I love my BlackBook trackpad because it is simple.
Hit control-F7. Then you can use the tab key and the space bar. The Return key functions as "Y", the space bar as "N", and you can get to the other with tab, or shift-tab.

It moves the cursor, and I can click, even right click with two fingers, and that is all I need.
I'm a keyboard shortcut freak, but sorry, gestures are much faster. You just need to use Multiclutch to assign gestures to the shortcuts you define.


All this forward/back app switching tomfoolery is best suited to the command key, the tab key and the nav keys.
I'm with you, here. Apple did a bad job with four-finger horizontal swipe. It
ought to just do what command-tab and shift-command-tab do. Replicating the action for both left and right gestures is a misguided waste.

[crackbookpro]

the new trackpads are a great feature... Apple keeps making them better & better than the prior trackpad!

Makes you never want to go back to a laptop without it ;)

[flapperdink]

i, too, love the trackpad. three finger gestures makes surfing the internet so much easier. the pad is stiff if set up without tap to click, but turning tap to click on saves your finger.

[KielderWolf]

But do you wear a flat cap?

Ah no, I'm a county too far north to be seen wearing a flat cap. Black wooly beanie hat all the way. The more obscure the band name scrawled across the top the better!

Thanks Banbeerd for the control-F7 thing, I never knew this setting existed! It's gonna save me a bag of time in the field.

Anyway I'm command-tabbing my way towards iTunes for a chill spell; Wolf says peace out dudes ∑:•p

[Banbeerd]

Thanks Banbeerd for the control-F7 thing, I never knew this setting existed! It's gonna save me a bag of time in the field.
No problem. There are a few other things you might find useful, listed under the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences pane. I couldn't deal without this. Really fast menu navigation.

[MWPULSE]

No problem. There are a few other things you might find useful, listed under the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences pane. I couldn't deal without this. Really fast menu navigation.


same here lol.. thats a genius thing, i have always been a shortcut guy, and using the trackpad is a bit of a pain sometimes when my fingers aren't in the wrong place!! :s

PTP

[RMo]

Personally, I can't stand tap-to-click; I always tap (and therefore click) by accident all the time as I'm using the trackpad, thus leading to unhappiness.

But to the original poster, I find that if I click at the bottom of the trackpad--just I would if there were an actual button--then it is quite easy. You can click almost anywhere (except, perhaps, the very top) in the trackpad, including the middle where you would normally move your fingers about to move the pointer. But since the hinge is at the top of the trackpad, it's easier to click the farther down you are on the "uni-button". Using my thumb also helps--it's a bit stronger, and then I barely even have to move my tracking fingers.

[brn2ski00]

Why don't you just turn on tap to click? Made things a lot easier for me, that's for sure.

x2, I try to tap as much as possible.

Come to think of it - doesn't the new glass trackpads remind you of a Blackberry Storm?!?!? :p

[GlenL]

I think I didn't like it before on my old windows laptop. This track pad is a huge improvement.
After getting my MB CE, I can no longer use a PC trackpad for more than a couple minutes without getting irritated.

If PC manufacturers spent any time at all on choosing the right devices to put into their products, they wouldn't be losing marketshare as quickly.

[no.1 Apple Fan]

I love the buttonless trackpads.:)