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Trackpad too big. Lots of accidental inputs. 13'' MBP TB

J

joejoejoe

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 13, 2006
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Anyone else find the trackpad way, way, way too big?

Every time I have the laptop on my lap, I inadvertently hit the trackpad while I'm typing, causing emails to close, send early, tabs to switch... it's crazy town.

Had a 15'' rMBP for years beforehand and never once had that problem.

On my 13'' MBP TB it's a daily occurrence and super frustrating.
 
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That problem, along with the battery draining during sleep, caused me to return my 13" MBP TB. One thing you can do is disable tap to click, but it sucks that you have to do that just to avoid accidental clicks.
 
joejoejoe said:
Anyone else find the trackpad way, way, way too big?

Every time I have the laptop on my lap, I inadvertently hit the trackpad while I'm typing, causing emails to close, send early, tabs to switch... it's crazy town.

Had a 15'' rMBP for years beforehand and never once had that problem.

On my 13'' MBP TB it's a daily occurrence and super frustrating.
Click to expand...

I find the problem has lessened since 10.12.3
 
joejoejoe said:
Anyone else find the trackpad way, way, way too big?

Every time I have the laptop on my lap, I inadvertently hit the trackpad while I'm typing, causing emails to close, send early, tabs to switch... it's crazy town.

Had a 15'' rMBP for years beforehand and never once had that problem.

On my 13'' MBP TB it's a daily occurrence and super frustrating.
Click to expand...

Yes.

I've returned both of the 15" 2016 models I tried in favor of a 2015.
 
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Nope! Never have had that issue on the 13". When I've played with the 15" I can see how that can be an issue for some but my hands never touch the trackpad on the 13"
 
Yea. . hate to say this but. . proper body posture is to have your fingers curved, typing with the tips of your fingers and your palms NOT RESTING ON THE LAPTOP.

I have the 15". The trackpad, while absolutely Ginormous, only gives me issues when I'm being lazy with my typing... (and mostly not even then. . though I do occasionally get cursor jump)
 
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erure said:
That problem, along with the battery draining during sleep, caused me to return my 13" MBP TB. One thing you can do is disable tap to click, but it sucks that you have to do that just to avoid accidental clicks.
Click to expand...

I agree as I use several different trackpads I tend to use touch to click across all as it evens out differences in using them

When I have to use my Mrs rMB without touch to click on it's really weird

What a pain and I guess it's worse for those that use bracelets or loose watch straps etc
 
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yes, returned mine. I'm too old to change my typing or arm movements etc especially for a $3000 computer.
 
Mindinversion said:
Yea. . hate to say this but. . proper body posture is to have your fingers curved, typing with the tips of your fingers and your palms NOT RESTING ON THE LAPTOP.

I have the 15". The trackpad, while absolutely Ginormous, only gives me issues when I'm being lazy with my typing... (and mostly not even then. . though I do occasionally get cursor jump)
Click to expand...

I agree to actually use the areas as wrist rests whilst typing requires careful positioning/posture to avoid bending your wrists

Personally I never use them whilst typing
 
Kinda tongue-in-cheek, but I have to giggle. The big complaint about the touch bar was that people were taught to look at the screen and/or source text while typing, and not down at the keys--which makes the touch bar counter intuitive. Somehow, however, the whole thing about "wrists up while typing" seems to have been tossed out the window. I'm JUST AS GUILTY, do it all the time. . and sometimes a cursor jump bites me in the rump. . but I would never blame the machine for my lazy technique. Of course I'm also one of those people that gets irritated at the misuse of the words "your" and "you're" and gets homicidal when people forget to drop the E in words like "using" "trying" "thinking" ... etc.

Probably because I had all of that beaten into me so hard coming up through the ranks in school as a wee one.
 
Occasionally when I'm thinking I accidentally touch the trackpad with my thumb or index finger and it moves my cursor elsewhere. But It doesn't happen all of the time.
 
SteveJUAE said:
I agree to actually use the areas as wrist rests whilst typing requires careful positioning/posture to avoid bending your wrists

Personally I never use them whilst typing
Click to expand...
They're not really wrist rests, and they never should have been called that. At no time should anyone's wrists be resting there. However, that doesn't mean some people don't do it...
 
I haven't had this problem at all. I guess I must use a hand posture that keeps me from hitting the trackpad. I like it's size.
 
Mindinversion said:
Yea. . hate to say this but. . proper body posture is to have your fingers curved, typing with the tips of your fingers and your palms NOT RESTING ON THE LAPTOP.

I have the 15". The trackpad, while absolutely Ginormous, only gives me issues when I'm being lazy with my typing... (and mostly not even then. . though I do occasionally get cursor jump)
Click to expand...

Seems like with the apple of old, the goal was to try to accomodate us, and all our unique workflows and ways of using the computer.

Now, WE need to make accomodations for the computer.

And on a related point, was there ANYONE ever complaining that the track pad on the 2010-2015 models was too small?!? Apple 'fixed' something that wasnt broke, and 'broke' it.
 
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kbk75 said:
But, but....there's no E in either try or think! xD
Click to expand...

And yet it is EXTREMELY common, at least for me, to run across people who spell them "Tryeing" and "Thinkeing"

I saw someone spell doing "doeing" once. I think it broke my brain a little ...
 
robeddie said:
Seems like with the apple of old, the goal was to try to accomodate us, and all our unique workflows and ways of using the computer.

Now, WE need to make accomodations for the computer.

And on a related point, was there ANYONE ever complaining that the track pad on the 2010-2015 models was too small?!? Apple 'fixed' something that wasnt broke, and 'broke' it.
Click to expand...

I agree.

Just tried a Mid-2014 with the non-force touch trackpad and wow does it feel better than the one on my 2015!
 
When laptop first came out I remember some manufacturers tried the touchpad in a variety of different locations and with actual physical buttons.

Now we have one of the best if not the best trackpad ever designed and people find a complaint.

I have an idea, just take the trackpad off completely and use a Bluetooth one next to it. Oh the old dongle complaint about requiring extra stuff and Apple making more money off it.

What about those old "chicklet" keyboards, maybe we need those back too. And I'm really getting tired of retina displays because all that detail just bothers my eyes.

I before e except after c.

o_O
 
I have a 2010 macbook 13" and I hit the pad sometimes quite annoying.
End up closing stuff or typing over text.

My fix when I'm at work is bluetooth mouse and set preferences to ignore touchpad when mouse is present.
 
robeddie said:
Seems like with the apple of old, the goal was to try to accomodate us, and all our unique workflows and ways of using the computer.

Now, WE need to make accomodations for the computer.

And on a related point, was there ANYONE ever complaining that the track pad on the 2010-2015 models was too small?!? Apple 'fixed' something that wasnt broke, and 'broke' it.
Click to expand...

Who is "WE"? A lot of us, probably most based on comments here, are enjoying the larger trackpad. We mourn for your trouble with change, but we move on and benefit from it.

But yeah, the good old days!

And get off my lawn!
 
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OP wrote:
"Anyone else find the trackpad way, way, way too big?"

I did.
That's why I bought a 2015 model instead.

I don't use ANY "gestures" -- in fact, the first thing I do with a MacBook is to disable ALL gestures. I want only "left click" and "right click". ALL others are disabled. I'm getting too old to remember stuff like that. ;)

I didn't care for the appearance of the oversized trackpad esthetically, either.

Edit:
In future MacBooks, perhaps Apple ought to compromise. Perhaps a trackpad larger than the 2015's but smaller than the 2016's …?
 
Last edited:
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