Proper Touchpad Use

How do you use your touchpad? do you glide and click using the same hand? Do you use your thumb to click, or your forefinger? Or maybe you glide with the right hand and then click with the left forefinger?

When you buy HP or Compaq laptops, a small sticker on the chassis will prominently greet you, asking you to visit their site on ergonomics and proper computer use. In the case of my Compaq V2000, it says go visit http://compaq.com/ergo.

Here’s what the Compaq guide says about touchpad use.

The illustration just says just make sure you’re relaxed. The illustration, though, shows the user gliding with the right forefinger and clicking with the left forefinger. I found this a comfortable position when using my Compaq V2000, which had small, rubbery clickers.

But with my Mac, I just use the same hand for gliding and clicking (forefinger for gliding, thumb for clicking), since the mac had a very large, curved clicker (only one, of course). With my old Thinkpad, I found the trackpoint quite comfortable to use, with just the proper distance for the forefinger and thumb.

I found it comfortable either way. However, It’s certainly more efficient to use only one hand (so the other would be free for other stuff, say, reaching for my cofffee mug).

What about you? What are your touchpad habits?

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