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Comment by laurentMiguel | Hacker News Reader

I'm still consistently enraged at trackpads without physically distinct left and right buttons.

No one does them right. Not even Apple.

I always turn on 'tap to click' on my trackpad so you can tap anywhere to click, and two finger tap to right click. I haven't missed physical buttons since getting used to this. Is there a particular use case that the physical buttons are better for? I can imagine gaming at least.

I've found trying to drag&drop with that method infuriating.

Activate 3 finger dragging in Accessibility settings. I use tap to click, two finger for right click and 3 finger for drag.

Works great. I guess I never actually click the trackpad with these settings.

This is by far the best setup for the trackpad. Ever since discovering 3-finger drag, I can't live without it. I don't understand why not everyone uses it, and why Apple decided to move it from the main settings screen to the accessibility settings.

It's a bit non-discoverable. I think that is why.

Agree though, I'd get crazy without it.

(The behaviour of the touch, not the placement in the settings.)

Absolutely this. It is hands down the best possible set up for a trackpad. I like this so much that I actually bought a Magic Trackpad so I can do these things when I’m plugged in to my main desk setup.

I never use the Magic Trackpad though. It’s the best solution if you have to use a trackpad. A real mouse is still just plain better.

I did the same, bought a magic trackpad and preferred mouse. But I think the problem is placement. Keeping trackpad to the right of keyboard somehow makea it harder to use for me.

I use my laptop exclusively now and even on a desk I don’t use a mouse. The trackpad is fantastic on the new MBPs.

On most devices tap-to-click is on by default. It’s always the first thing I turn off. I have always found it completely useless and it turns incidental touches into accidental clicks. “Oops, guess I sent that email.”

This isn’t relevant to the parent’s complaint, though. Without dedicated buttons, you’re relying on the driver to distinguish between a one and two finger click. That detection, even on Apple devices, is noticeably imperfect for reasons I don’t understand. (Click “anywhere” was solved by Apple with their haptic not-actually-clicking trackpads that are pretty awesome.)

Man I really disagree about Apple's new trackpads. I feel very uneasy using them. It's almost an "uncanny valley" type feeling.

I didn’t love the massive size of the new trackpads but it took me all of 5 minutes to adapt to the click. Happy to trade off a real click for click-anywhere behavior (and potentially better durability). Although I found the trackpad didn’t actually click well along the right edge. No idea what that was about.

This works amazingly well on Linux with the ancient synaptics driver. I've never had to change the defaults

This is probably a personal preference thing. It's always the first thing I turn off too, even on linux. No amount of tinkering with the settings ever got me to a "sweet spot" where I'm not accidentally clicking things.

I previously turned that feature off because it was terribly innacurate. Dell XPS is the first model that managed to get it right.

On MacOs, it's not possible to tun off the tap-to-drag release delay. So you may often end up dragging stuff around even after you think you're done dragging. The physical button helps ensure you get it right when you really need to (so the use case for the physical button is a workaround for the wonky software).

  Is there a particular use case that the 
  physical buttons are better for?

EVERYTHING.

Every time I need to create a new folder. Every time I need to copy and paste. Every time I need to see additional information about a file. Every time I need to inspect an element on a web page. Every time I need to move something off my desktop. Every time I want to open in a new window.

Every time I want to do ANYTHING involving a right-click for a context menu WHICH IS ALLLLLLLLLL THE TIMMMMMMMMME.

Tap-to-click, and two-finger context click, are both unacceptable. They result in accidental clicks, and accidental context menus on scroll. Adding any gestures to most track pads results in accidental gestures, and chained combinations of unintended actions. I turn them off.

You right click to copy/paste? And you complain that trackpads with gestures are unacceptable and inefficient.

I don’t know if I can process that.

>No one does them right. Not even Apple.

Not even Apple? That made me laugh. As best I can recall, Apple is to blame for no one having them. Apple introduced no buttons on their models and other manufacturers followed.

Since this article is about a Lenovo laptop, I'll point out that some Lenovo laptops (typically the big ones) still have physical left and right buttons for the trackpad. (I prefer their TrackPoint pointing sticks to trackpads myself, but that's a whole other discussion).

  I'll point out that some Lenovo laptops 
  (typically the big ones) still have 
  physical left and right buttons for 
  the trackpad.

Yes, I am well aware, and I absolutely love them for it.

I have a Yoga P40. It's a great machine. The CPU, RAM, and SSD are very fast: I can compile heavy stuff in a blink. The HDPI display is gorgeous: I can open it 180° or 360° and sketch or paint on it with an active pen. The keyboard is not bad. It's not mechanical, but it doesn't tire my hands as others do.

But the one thing that drives me nuts is the buttonless trackpad. This thing is utterly unusable. I've been trying everything: pushing it down with the finger that's doing the tracking; using another hand to use the trackpoint buttons; using the trackpoint itself... it's no use. Clicking on the odd link is ok, but doing any precision selecting, dragging or drawing is useless.

I used to be able to draw freehand with a good trackpad and a separate button under it. Now I struggle to drag a file over the right folder.

In hindsight, I should have bought an older model with actual buttons. This huge disadvantage trumps all the other benefits.

Are you refering to the trackpad that doesn't have buttons, and the whole trackpad moves down when you click?

If so, I have a Lenovo Yoga laptop that did that too. I bought a regular trackpad from the same line off of eBay and swapped it out myself, it was quick and easy. I recommend doing that.

WHAT!!! Is that even possible!?!?

If this works I owe your a beer!

Yes, I'm referring to the whole trackpad that moves up and down. I have separate buttons for the trackpoint above the trackpad, but I cannot use them with my thumb. The whole layout has been driving me nuts!

Wait, I don't think my line has the one with the buttons below. I have a P40.

Could you tell me which Yoga model you had and which trackpad did you buy?

I actually really liked the way Apple handled it on their 17 inch macbook pro. It had one physical button at the bottom of the trackpad that stretched the entire width of the trackpad. If you wanted to right click, you put two fingers on the trackpad and clicked with the thumb. It worked great.

Unfortunately, their first attempt at the magic trackpad worked poorly in that regard. I could never get the right click to engage reliably like I could on the macbook pro.

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