I never found the diving boards bad, but I think that is due to starting to use trackpads back when they had physical buttons under them, and I never changed my technique. I use my index finger to move around, and my thumb hangs out near the bottom of the pad for when I need to click.
I’m not sure how else I’d do things like a click and drag operation. The whole double tap and drag thing always seemed pretty error prone for me.
I enable tap to click on those "diving board" style touchpads if I'm going to be using the system for long stretches without a mouse - the amount of force needed and top-to-bottom variability of the diving board drives me nuts. I'd definitely rather have a modern haptic trackpad though.
This is also a holdover from how older trackpads with physical buttons worked. The buttons were at the bottom, so click with the thumb and move with the finger(s).
This is how I first used a trackpad 20+ years ago and I never felt the need to change. I tried some of the newer ways to click and drag and they all seemed worse. Tap to click is the first thing I disable on any laptop, that’s what my thumb is for.
I believe three-finger drag used to be a first-class citizen before the introduction of Force Touch trackpads. Those made click-and-drag much easier than the older springboard design.
Well, I use Magic Trackpad on my desktop, and prefer it except for drawing diagrams (somehow a mouse feels nicer for that).
But I _hate_ clicking and love tap to click on the trackpad because it is much less error-prone from a precision standpoint (applying pressure invariably moves the cursor, which does not happen for me on a mouse).
I do agree on the three-finger drag aspect, though. That is the only way I drag windows around (again, would be harder to do if I pressed to click).
I have absolutely _zero_ problems with that, never "accidentally" clicked anything in my life, it's perfectly balanced for just the right amount of pressure.
Dragging requires more effort since you have to both move the finger horizontally while maintaining downward pressure, which increases the friction significantly. If the button was separate, you can hold it with one finger while just touching the touchpad and controlling movement with the other.
I find that changing the right click to the bottom right corner works well for me. I constantly have two fingers resting on the trackpad. Other replies have commented about using the thumb to click while you drag with another finger. I do that constantly so I just gave up on the two finger right click. It would trigger all the time when I didn’t want it to.
For click and drag, don't use your index finger to both keep the button depressed AND move the pointer. On a regular trackpad you'd click the left button with index finger and move the pointer by moving middle finger over the trackpad; you can do the same thing here by clicking in with index finger and then moving middle finger.
Other than click and drag I never use the physical click, tap to click is where it's at. OSX registers tapping much, much better than any trackpad I've tried with Windows.
You know I never really thought about where that habit came from. It’s been so long that it’s just second nature at this point, I dont think about it anymore than I think about typing or using a game controller.
That presents an interesting problem. The older physical click trackpads had a physical thing to encourage a specific use of it. Now that the device doesn’t care where you click, there is no longer something there to naturally find using it in this way.
At least for me - I don't really use my thumb at all unless I'm trying to click and drag.
I click with the fingers doing the navigation, by simply raising and lowering them real fast.
If I'm clicking and dragging, I'll leave my pointer finger on the pad and raise and lower my thumb (it rests on the pad by default).
Don't get me wrong - I still much prefer a physical mouse, but if I have to use a touchpad I don't want to have to guess at where a button or scrollbar might be.
I've never understood why anyone doesn't use tap to click on Apple trackpads. Physical or not, the full click is such a flow interruption for me it drives me crazy when I have to do it (fortunately, effectively never).
There was a viral Flash(?) game a few years ago involving a frog sticking out its tongue to trap insects; the catch for the game was that it had no help, everything in the UI was discoverable, but barely.
Unless, of course, you used tap to click, which wasn't registered by the game. I spent 5 minutes trying to play before deciding the whole thing must be a hoax.
I don't use my thumb. It wouldn't really make sense to click and drag that way on an Apple trackpad since you don't have to reach down to the bottom. It's very easy to do using your index finger and middle finger.
How are you even using the thing? If you had a trackpad with buttons at the bottom, you'd keep your thumb on the bottom and click with it, while using your index finger to point. Just do the same thing! Are you trying to click with your index finger?!
There's no reason you couldn't do both. I really hate the trackpad click thing though for a specific reason: the pressure required changes based on where you are on the trackpad. It takes much more force to click at the top than at the bottom, so I end up using my thumb to click on the bottom anyway, at which point... I'd rather just have a proper button.
I picked up the habit when a “real button” (before the full glass surface Taptic Engine) broke.
I now find it less of an effort not having to press down to register a click. 3-finger-drag now makes for a more relaxed, less RSI prone experience for me.
I find it infuriating. I have no idea how people live with those things. There's no reason you can't have buttons below a clickpad. It's like they just hate precision and users being able to right click without moving their thumb.
I’m not sure how else I’d do things like a click and drag operation. The whole double tap and drag thing always seemed pretty error prone for me.
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