I haven't used a mouse for 14 years
axelk.ee
axelk.ee
A Fingerworks trackpad is when I switched away from a mouse, and in some ways it was even better than a modern Apple trackpad. First it was huge, maybe like twice the area of a MacBook Pro trackpad. It had no click switch at all. Taps only, which were very reliable.
It also lay flat on the desk and was only a few mm thick. So it felt like just resting your hand on the desk. And it was possible to just passively rest your hand on it with no reaction. So using it, my hand and wrist were totally relaxed when not moving the cursor (most of the time). Whereas with modern Apple trackpads, I sometimes get spurious inputs when resting my hand on it.
It also had tons of gestures that were mapped to keyboard shortcuts. So an “opening the jar” arcing motion with 4 fingers opened whatever file was currently highlighted. And “closing the jar” closed the current window. Etc.
I tried, on my current laptop, to see if I could get used to having tap-to-click enabled even without actually using it; I wanted to see how far off I was from being able to deal with any non-ThinkPad. I ended up turning it back off after a few days, after many many clicks I didn't want to click.
I really hate the hinge-style trackpads, but even on macs, I always enable tap to click and double-tap-drap to hold. On mac os and linux you can enable a "persistent hold for a short while" which allows to lift your finger briefly without losing the hold. Never found a similar setting on windows, which drives me crazy whenever I absolutely have to use that os.
I think they're officially intended for the trackpoint, yes. But I find buttons-above convenient, because if I rest my arm/hand in a relaxed fashion on the laptop palm rest, I can use my pointer or middle finger for precise movement, and click with my middle or ring finger.
That said, I'd take buttons-below over no buttons. With buttons-below, I'm using my middle finger to mouse and my pointer finger to click, and that's still reasonably comfortable.
In both cases, I find it better because: clicking the button requires a deliberate action that won't happen by accident while using the touchpad; there's no delay required to confirm if touching the touchpad is a click something else, it's never a click; there's nothing timing-based at all, motion is motion and clicking is clicking; right-click and middle-click have dedicated buttons (I probably use middle-click many times more often than right-click on any given day, to open links in tabs and to close tabs).
This isn't something that could be solved with a better touchpad or better software.
Huh, interesting. I just tried this, and it's indeed quite comfortable to use the index finger to operate the trackpad and the middle finger on the buttons. Middle + ring feels awkward to me, probably because of the size difference between my fingers. I suppose it never occurred to me to try it this way because I usually use my middle finger on the trackpad.
It's possible that a much better clickpad could be usable, where it's anchored in a non-hinged fashion so it pushes evenly, and the force required to click is comparable to a mouse button.
I'm talking about a touchpad that physically actuates like a button.
I believe all newer models still do that too since 2016, but just not the UI (force touch was mostly only on phones in my recollection). It can be used as a fairly accurate kitchen scale even: https://github.com/KrishKrosh/TrackWeight
I use them all at probably random ratios as the mood and task suit me.
I also use a single 30 inch 16:10 monitor.
Everyone else in my family hates this setup.
OTOH, I thought this might be a post from a keyboard shortcut wizard.
Preferring a trackpad to a mouse seems not so unusual, right? I guess sticking to it so completely is. I prefer marble-mouse type devices, but I can’t say with any certainty that I haven’t accidentally touched a mouse in the past 14 years.
I've never heard of those. Do you mean a trackball?
That + sport and standing desk, did wonder to me.
For years I used a Trackpoint external keyboard plus a mouse. The track point is great for small movements when you’re primarily typing, and the mouse is great for when you are primarily moving the cursor.
MacOS just seems more tailored to the touchpad experience. Windows and Linux more tailored to the mouse experience.
I'm running a Framework 13 and other than the physical click requiring more effort than the haptic "click" on a Mac, it's pretty dang similar.
Let your arms hang straight down. Now bend your elbows and lift your forearms so that they're at 90º to your body, i.e. parallel to the ground. Notice that your hands are naturally oriented so that if you were holding a pole, it would be much closer to pointing downward than sideways. Rotating your wrists "inward" so that your hand is parallel to your desk, in the position to use a trackpad, is not their normal position.
I used a magic trackpad for quite a while until I found myself in agony by the end of the day. One of my coworkers told me he was exploring using vertical mice and that caught my attention. I tried one and it stopped the pain, like, immediately. Mousing around was awkward for a few days until I got used to the different hand orientation and movement, but that passed quickly. Now I'd never, ever go back to a trackpad.
I'd considered making a little block to mount my magic trackpad sideways at, say, a 45º angle to my desk so that my wrist wasn't so pronated, but even then it nudges you toward radial and ulnar deviation which can also become uncomfortable over time. I'd rather just painlessly use my vertical mouse which uses forearm movement and write extension/flexion to zip the cursor around my screen.
It's got tenting, which approaches that natural tilt to your hands, and there are several mouse add-ons to choose from, I'm sure one of them will suit your needs.
But. If my hands start to hurt while typing, I'm definitely trying something like that as my first keyboard experiment.
(I’ve tried playing FPSs with trackpads as well but, even with Mac trackpads, which remain far and away the best, it is not a good - or even acceptable - experience. Mouse all the way for fragging action.)
"Right click and drag" is just not something a trackpad does well.
I don't understand why Apple does this. It's like the "allow ANC with one AirPod" setting, which is also inexplicably an accessibility option.
The Mac trackpad, however, is wonderful. I enjoy using it.
web moves: https://github.com/televator-apps/vimari mouse moves: https://github.com/mjrusso/scoot window moves: https://rectangleapp.com
Drag lock is a good setting, just test drove it and will be using it.
I need to do precise drawing work, like drawing electronic schematics or PCB layouts or other kinds of technical drawings.
I cannot imagine doing such things comfortable with a touchpad.
I have also not used a mouse for more than a decade, but that is because I had switched at some point from a mouse to a trackball and a few years ago I have switched to something much better, i.e. a small graphic tablet (having the size of a mouse pad) used in mouse mode, a.k.a. "Relative" mode, instead of in its default "Absolute" mode.
With a sharp stylus, I can point much more precisely than I could ever do with my fingers. I can also move the cursor instantaneously to any part of the screen, with a minimal movement of my fingers, because the velocity of the point of the stylus is much greater than I could ever achieve for the tip of my finger.
Moreover, the position in which I hold the stylus is more comfortable than if I would have to put the finger on a touchpad and the movements of the fingers have a smaller amplitude than required by a touchpad, which also improves comfort. (To reach any point on the screen, only the 3 fingers holding the stylus have to move, no hand movement is necessary.)
So from my experience, a touchpad cannot compete with a stylus, neither for accuracy, nor for speed, nor for comfort. (With a very light stylus, like from Wacom, also the transitions between touch typing on the keyboard and using the graphic pointing device are much faster than with a mouse, because touch typing remains possible with the stylus between the fingers.)
A touchpad may be fine for text manipulation or Internet browsing, but for drawing, it is too slow in comparison with a mouse or trackball, and even more so in comparison with a stylus, while the devices that are better for drawing can also easily accomplish the simpler tasks for which a touchpad is acceptable.
defaults write com.apple.AppleMultitouchTrackpad TrackpadThreeFingerDrag -bool true
defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.trackpad TrackpadThreeFingerDrag -bool true
ETA: I tested it, and the behavior is correct when I log back in after running the above. Oddly though, the settings aren't showing as turned on in the settings panel. If anyone has a scriptable solution to that I'd love to hear it.
I was given one free, when Wacom was my client in my first job, and after a couple of days of awkwardness have never looked back.
In that time I have owned 4. Just upgraded to a 2025 model (the latest) recently.
I have large hands and using a mouse means my hand is resting more in the desk than the mouse. I find it uncomfortable and inaccurate.
I love being able to do graphical things with a pen and though I love the trackpad, prolonged use causes discomfort due to needing to keep my fingers under tension. The more precision you need on a trackpad the worse it gets.
I think the learning curve on tablets is hard to overcome. They feel weird for the first few hours. It’s worth trying to overcome.
Also around cheap tablets. Wacom survive for a reason.
Broke my wrist snowboarding which ended up with my wrist getting pinned back together. After it surgically "fixed" and healed and I started using that hand again, I got super inflamed tendons in my wrist to the point it would wake me up a night and barely able to use a normal mouse at work. I ended up trying 3 different types of ergo mice, none of which helped. In desperation I ended up ordering the pen tablet, it felt good in my hand right away and after struggling with brain/hand/cursor location for 2 weeks it's become my preferred method. I mapped the shortcut keys on the tablet to copy/paste/middle click/ double click which is awesome.
For me the tablet lives right in-front of the keyboard, just like a laptop trackpad. I tried off to the side, but couldn't get used to it.
I have hear multiple times that patents are the reason for the bad trackpads outside of Apples products. But I have never been able to find a confirmation.
Talking about mouse alternatives I would like to give rollermouse a shout-out. Beside the relaxed arm position they give, I really like that they invite to use both hands at the same time. With the similar workload between both hands and arms I find the over all strain lower even with repetitive tasks for a long time.
I did learn recently that Zowie released an ergonomic version of their mouse that I plan on checking out though. Unfortunately there's just not a ton of options out there for ergonomic gaming mice.
Also it is funny going back to a standard mice, it feels like you are awkwardly using a tiktak for input.
Gyro aim is a must, and if you wanna be the best you can be, I would also suggest learning Flick Stick, which in addition to using gyro, remaps the right stick to immediately turn to the direction you tilt it in, allowing instant 180s (at the cost of no longer aiming vertically at all). Steam Input allows you to set this up for any game. You need to initially dial it in by adjusting how many pixels a 360 degree turn moves until you can do two 360s and be aiming in the same spot. You can do this by temporarily binding a button to do a 360 degree rotation and then finding something in the game to stare at. You can find videos of people doing this on Steam Deck.
As for the controller, I'd currently recommend the 8BitDo Pro 2 or Pro 3, but if you can wait, the new Steam Controller should be even better.
I thought you use it to distinguish between external trackpad vs laptop touchpad, but seems many people still use it even for laptop touchpad, so can someone enlighten me what's the distinction in usage?
When I first learned of them I thought they were ridiculous, but it really saved my hands going ergonomic w/ the Trackball and Keyboard (Microsoft Ergo style - Nulea as well).
And yet I'll use nothing else. Conversely, I have never gotten along with pointy sticks, all the way back to the original 1993 Toshiba Portégé[0] despite their apparent popularity.