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Comment by hesk | Hacker News Reader

Maybe you just need a better trackpad implementation. On macOS:

- Right click: tap with two fingers.

- Move pointer while button is pressed: quickly tap twice to press button, move finger on trackpad, press a third time to release. (Although, this behavior is not the default and has to be activated in the system settings.)

Personally, I've been using trackpads for 13 years now and I prefer them over mice. I use an external trackpad at home.

Edit: paragraphs.

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For moving the pointer while the button is pressed, why not instead click and hold with one finger and drag around using another? I usually click with my thumb and drag using my index finger.

That requires you to contort your hand if making uncommon patterns. If you only need to double click, you can move your entire hand as needed because you’re not anchored to the click.

I find that straining after a while. Also double tap to press the button and third tap to release has the advantage that you can lift your finger from the trackpad while moving. That is very convenient.

You can also double tap and drag while holding the second tap, i'm OK with trackpads but what i find limiting is the area vs resolution ratio, if i set the resolution high or speed low to have more precision i need to lift my finger several times instead with the mouse i'm only limited by the size of my desk, also since i use an intellimouse i have 2 extra buttons and I don't wear my laptop, one thing that i hate about new trendy aesthetic minimalistic trackpads is that they have no clearly defined boundaries so i have to drag my finger across the whole palmrest to find it without looking.

With macOS and BetterTouchTool, I set up trackpad to do so much:

- 2 finger swipe left/right: go back and forward

- 3 finger tap: open link in new tab

- 3 finder swipe left/right: move between tabs

- 3 finger swipe up: new tab/window

- 3 finger swipe down: close tab/window

- 4 finger swipe left/right: move between virtual desktops

There are so many other gestures available too. While I prefer having a desktop and a mouse if I'm going to spend hours working on a project...the Apple trackpads are still the best out there imo.

I’ve never consciously thought about this but this seems to be how I use my windows 10 touchpads intuitively. The only difference I notice is three finger swiping for window shifting is better on Macs, though it is poorly implemented on windows.

This might be hardware specific implementation though?

The article implies to me he is just frustrated that his workflow is different with a touchpad and is hitting status quo bias

win10 has already perfected virtual desktop switching using windows key+tab. all they need to do is link three finger swipes to it

This is actually exactly what they have implemented it to do, it’s just shitty. On a Mac you can comfortably swipe left and right with three fingers.

On windows swiping with three fingers will confuse it. However if you rest your three fingers for a moment, left and right swipes are equivalent to alt tab and alt shift tab. Up swipes is a short hand for windows tab. Down swipe minimizes everything. The design is fine, but the implementation isn’t good enough to be useful.

have you experienced this problem with the surface trackpad or whatever they call ms certified trackpads?

The "move pointer while button is pressed" behavior has been there forever, even on Win/Linux. Two-finger right clicking requires multitouch support which is not universal, however.

How do you do a middle-click?

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