Posted on 11/24/2022 10:50:30 PM PST by Paul R.
I've been looking at new (or slightly used) laptops. Many if not almost all have touchpads that do not also have any kind of associated buttons or a trackball. So, if I am working in a document and want to select a sentence or block of text to copy and paste, how is that readily accomplished?
I've read reviews by owners of such in which they complain of no easy way to do such selections, which seems like an astonishing lack of functionality. The laptops I've been looking at are 14" or 15.6", so there is certainly lots of real estate where the old style buttons could reside.
What am I and these reviewers missing?
My wife thinks that on Chromebooks the kids use a “two finger drag”.
(That sounds like a quite controversial topic on FR if it’s not about computers!)
Turn it off! I drag my thumbs, hate touchpad. Absolutely distruptive for typing.
The bottom of the touchpad has a click function, like you click a mouse. You have the usual right-click and left click function. You just click and hold down while dragging your finger across the main portion of the pad to highlight text, etc. It functions just like a mouse, you’re not losing anything. You can buy a USB mouse if you want, but it’s not necessary.
I hate trackpads. I connect a USB wireless mouse.
Message Hunter Biden. He has a lot of experience fingering laptops.
Hi.
For starters, 8gb ram minimum is a must if you use office applications.
Most touchpads still have the same buttons but they’re not mechanical - they’re zones on the touchpad.
A godsend for me is the Logitech MX Anywhere mouse - it’s wireless, works on any surface even glass, and charges over usb so you only need it plugged in when charging it.
Adaptors from USB to HDMI or displayport are cheap enough. I have 3 curved ultrawide monitors connected together with displayport and there’s just one usb cable to the laptop... giving me 4 screens in total.
I convinced my company to buy an ultrawide monitor for each desk when replacing old VGA dual monitors - cheaper, uses less electricity, more ergonomic, leaves an extra free power socket on every desk, and gives you the ability to put two documents side by side for comparisons.
With 28” or bigger, an ultrawide can display twice as many columns in a spreadsheet at once than the laptop screen.
So a good Black Friday deal on one of those can be a really good investment if you use it for work.
My brother-in-law, which has extensive experience in and teaches IT Security who also has a gazillion different computers, laptops, etc., swears up and down on Chromebook.
What I suggest is to drop by an Office Depot kind of place if convenient and purchase a mouse that's either blue tooth enabled or has a USB dongle that can plug into the laptop. Batteries in the mouse will last a very long time. Emphasize long long time.
First time you fire up the laptop with the new mouse, the laptop will automatically recognize the new device and will activate on board drivers or download drivers via the internet. From my 30 year experience with laptops, this is the easiest and best laptop improvement that can be made. If you can, get a mouse with the scroll wheel on top and side buttons. Once you get used to the buttons and wheel, you can really zip through things fast with low effort.
What I suggest is to drop by an Office Depot kind of place if convenient and purchase a mouse that's either blue tooth enabled or has a USB dongle that can plug into the laptop. Batteries in the mouse will last a very long time. Emphasize long long time.
First time you fire up the laptop with the new mouse, the laptop will automatically recognize the new device and will activate on board drivers or download drivers via the internet. From my 30 year experience with laptops, this is the easiest and best laptop improvement that can be made. If you can, get a mouse with the scroll wheel on top and side buttons. Once you get used to the buttons and wheel, you can really zip through things fast with low effort.
Ah, ok, that’s what my wife was seeing.
I do use a small mouse when I have room, esp. for more intense work, but it’s not particularly practical in the car (that assumes I’m NOT driving!) and similar situations.
Thanks!
Yes, IF I bought a laptop w/ 4 GB RAM I’d upgrade it to 8 or 12 GB.
Noted on the “new” style touchpads. (I’ve just had the ol’ HP a long time, it has 8 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD, i3 processor — it does, er, did, everything I needed, quickly.)
I use (mostly Logitech) wireless mice with dongles for most everything. Granted mine are battery powered, but the batteries last quite a while, and at Black Friday prices (Rural King has their own brand @ 14 AA or AAA alkalines for $1.99 @ present, and Menards has AC-Delco AA and AAA alkalines @ 30 for $4.98 after rebate [might be a little better battery]]) cost is nil. The Logitech mice seem to get flaky slowly as the battery runs down so @ the first sign of trouble I pop in a new batt. I have yet to be “away” and have a mouse “die” from a low battery. OTOH, I have had a couple M170’s just suddenly quit. One death was a static zap, IIRC. :-(
At my old consulting gig I’d connect my HP laptop to a 27” 16:9 monitor & use both the laptop screen & the 27”, which was plenty for what I was doing (which did not involve spreadsheet work. At “home” I have a 4:3 24” Dell monitor in front of me and a 16:9 24” monitor ABOVE that (limited space to the side) w/ the latter rotated long dimension vertical. Again, not doing much w/ spreadsheets, vertical height helps me more than width.
Shortly, however, the top monitor is getting replaced with a 43” UHD TV (2021 Black Friday deal). I did a trial run and text & graphics definition is “good enough”. (Even with new glasses my “senior” vision can’t handle super tiny text such as is on some product labels.) The area should easily handle side by side (comparative) windows (data curves) and such, and, I can lean back and watch TV or a movie in the evening while paying bills (or whatever) on the Dell. (A 43” UHD screen ~1.5 meters away isn’t bad...) Then to upgrade the speakers, for which I’ll build custom units. ;-)
See #12.
“Turn it off! I drag my thumbs, hate touchpad. Absolutely distruptive for typing.”
Best answer especially if you are working on documents. You can scroll with two finger drag, and click with a tap on the touchpad. But the heels of your hand are going to rub it when trying to type and drive you crazy.
Get one with several USB ports, turn off the touchpad, and use a mouse. You will be glad you did. The touchpad is only useful if you can’t use a mouse, and only web surfing.
I am with what seems to be the majority here ... touch-pads are a pain in the a$$. Include roller-balls in that assessment.
Unless you are blessed with the dexterity of a watch-maker, touch-pads are maddeningly imprecise. Get a mouse with at least two buttons, a wheel, and uses USB wireless connection. I have a Logitech M310 that I have had for 5-6 years - about $35 on Amazon last I checked. Gotta feed it a new ‘AA’ about twice a year but that’s it.
Sorry for the double post ...
My son just found this Black Friday deal at Best Buy:
Big memory, big SSD, big screen ... all for about $650 out the door (your tax burden may vary).
I thought it was just me, hating on touchpads. Been using a mouse since I was 4 years old, and “set in my ways.”
Every machine I get, I turn off the touchpad. Big waste of space imo.
I can think of several different solutions:
Go to your touch pad settings and turn on the feature that allows a click and drag. You tap on the touchpad twice but on the second tap do not lift your fing and drag instead.
Click and hold while holding down the CTRL key
Click and hold down the SHIFT key where you want to start the selection, then click where you want the selection to stop.
Use whatever “gesture” your keypad supports. That would be a multi finger like possibly 2 finger drag. These can vary by manufacturer.
There may be more I am missing. Assessabillity settings can help as well.
I use a USB wireless mouse.
Touchpads, especially on used laptops are just horrible.
I never got used to a touch pad... Always just got a sensor USB and external mouse and keyboard...
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