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DarwinOSX

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 3, 2009
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I've been using the Magic Track pad for about a week and love it. Pretty much never use a mouse anymore. When I do use a mouse I find it uncomfortable. The on issue that i still have though is dragging over long distances on my 27" iMac because I run out of space on the trackpad before I get to where I want to drag something. Anyone have a solution for this?
 
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I've been using the Magic Track pad for about a week and love it. Pretty much never use a mouse anymore. When I do use a mouse I find it uncomfortable. The on issue that i still have though is dragging over long distances on my 27" iMac because I run out of space on the trackpad before I get to where I want to drag something. Anyone have a solution for this?

Only to turn the speed up in System Preferences :) Also, there are custom drivers (maybe ControllerMater? not sure) that can even do greater mouse speeds. Some might even be free—I don’t know.

Or form the habit of starting on the far side of the pad to leave the most room, OR the habit of moving your finger really quick for long distance moves (which is what I do). You can cross the screen in one swipe if you go quickly.

If you’re dragging something and don’t quite make it, you can even do this: move your finger back the way it came, slowly, and then try again moving fast. Without ever letting go, you’ll now have more room.
 
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Being multi-touch you can use two fingers to do it more effectively.

Click down anywhere on the trackpad with one finger, and use another finger for the movement. As long as you keep the initial finger held down, the item will still be dragged. You can lift the 'movement' finger as many times as you like in order to get more 'space' to drag. Then once you've moved it to position, lift both fingers from the pad. :)
 
On my MacBook Pro I use drag lock, tap twice to select and item, then you can lift you finger and drag again while the item stays 'locked' in it's drag state.
When you get to where you want to drop it, tap again.
If you don't have that turned on, it'll be an option in system preferences, some people find it quite annoying but I find it really useful.
 
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You've all got it wrong! Well kinda....

There is a delay between when you do a 3 finger drag, and when it lets go. I'm pretty sure thats its very deliberate to help you with this exact problem...

As you have about 1 sec after you take your fingers off the trackpad before it registers, you just quickly re-swipe with 3 fingers, and it will be like you never took your fingers off at all! I have 2 x 24inch screens I use side by side and I use this all day. You can do it for as long as you need.

Hope that helps
 
You've all got it wrong! Well kinda....

There is a delay between when you do a 3 finger drag, and when it lets go. I'm pretty sure thats its very deliberate to help you with this exact problem...

As you have about 1 sec after you take your fingers off the trackpad before it registers, you just quickly re-swipe with 3 fingers, and it will be like you never took your fingers off at all! I have 2 x 24inch screens I use side by side and I use this all day. You can do it for as long as you need.

Hope that helps

Problem with 3-finger drag is that it takes over the 3-finger navigation swipe, which I can't live without. I just do 2-finger drag, like -Ryan- described above.
 
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