Trackpoint versus Trackpad ?

[Eboy]

A longtime IBM/Lenovo laptop user and a fan of the Trackpoint "eraser head" input device, I have started to look at Macbooks. I went to a local Apple store. They showed me how the Macbook Trackpad worked, and how I could edit documents with it.

I played with it for a while and did some writing. I don't know. Is the Trackpad something that is just a matter of getting used to? I do a lot of writing and it seems I had to move my hands a lot more, and take more time, on the Macbook for basic text editing. Is the Trackpoint or Trackpad inherently faster for text editing?

I searched on Google and thought I detected an overall preference for the Trackpoint, but not by a lot. And, no one really says why they voted the way they did except that "they like it."

[Mac the Knife]

I never found it easy to use the TrackPoint - it seemed rather more counterintuitive than the TrackPad but perhaps I never used one for long enough.

Have a recent MacBook and an elderly Asus laptop with TrackPads - I can use 'em, but I'm so used to a mouse...

Solution - a mini-mouse in a USB port - now I'm happy.

Guess it's what you're used to

[Just love the MacBook I must say - but I won't switch to Leopard just yet]

[bladewashout]

I've used trackpoints for about 10 years since they arrived, they are great once you get used to them, and I can drop the cursor exactly where I want it.

I found the pads a pain in the neck, nothing like as accurate: tried for a few weeks but gave up.

Again, it may well be experience. I need a new laptop, and it'll be yet another thinkpad.

I can't get along with Mac stuff, bit like marmite, you love it or you hate it!

BW

[BOAC]

Solution - a mini-mouse in a USB port - now I'm happy.

- me too - no more than £3 and I'm sorted.

[Saab Dastard]

"Trackpoint" eh? I have always just referred to it as the nipple. That is actually what it was called on my first laptop - a Toshiba - way back in 1994. At least there was a little bag with 2 replacement tops, referred to as "replacement nipples" in the manual!

So I'm a nipple man, myself

Oh, and it is far better than the fingerslide thingy, btw.

I have no scientific evidence for this whatsoever, other than the fact that I loathe the trackpad.

SD

[Gonzo]

I've found trackpads can vary quite a bit.....I've often had to rock my fingertip to one side to get precise placement of the cursor, rather than actually move it across the pad.

[P.Pilcher]

Well, I'm a trackball fiend myself. Many years ago, one of our ATC types was showing off to me his fancy new radar display which incorporated a heavy trackball, and I was hooked! I mean I don't mind other peoples mice, but I don't use them myself. Trackpads seem to have got better over the years - likewise I can't stand the "nipple" so have never bought a laptop fitted with one, however there has always been a trackball in my laptop case for precise work. However, I hardly ever get it out these days as the trick of rolling my finger on the pad seems to provide the necessary precision with drawing/drafting programs.

P.P.

[stickyb]

Green Nipples!

I too rememebr with fondness the Toshiba nipples - in fact I think I have the bag of 2 green spares tucked away somewhere long after the laptops were consigned to history!

When "company policy" forced a change to trackpads, I had a lot of trouble adapting. One of my major problems was that for smaller, more delicate movements of the cursor i instinctively seemed to use lighter pressure, and this sometimes caused what I can only describe as "finger bounce" which the trackpad interpreted as either one or two clicks on the mouse button, with unwanted side effects. Also, if one really did want to position the cursor and then tap twice, if you did not tap your finger in the same place, ie lift it staight up and down, then the cursor jumped away from where you had carefully positioned it.

I suppose it was the classic case of running into problems when using the same interface for 2 different functions.