Moving from Magic Mouse to Magic Trackpad (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Alriiighty Then....


Got my Trackpad yesterday. Hooked it up with little

effort this morning.


About an hour in, I don't want to pick up the Magic
Mouse anymore.


This trackpad is a huge step up above the Magic Mouse

with two exceptions thus far....


Highlighting text to copy and paste is a bit of a pain.

You need to spread your fingers so that your thumb is

on the click button on the bottom and your other finger

does the highlighting. I am hoping there is a better

alternative to this, but so far, it's a tad annoying.


Also, surprisingly, it screws up the formatting of
large chunks of cutting and pasting.


For instance, I cut and paste large blocks of text

from email to the forum when posting press releases.

Doing it with the Magic Trackpad resulted in formatting

that was just waaaay off. I switched over to the Magic

Mouse, did the highlight/cut and paste and the formatting

was perfect. So, I don't quite know what is up with that.


Suffice to say, I still keep Magic Mouse in the corner

of my desk, but for the most part, I feel as if I have a

more natural interaction with my desktop using the trackpad.

I can easily glide my cursor from one end of a 27" screen

to the other without running out of space or having to pick

up the mouse.


I no longer have to deal with gunk collecting on the
mouse tracking plate. I no longer have to blow out cat

hair that collects in the eye of the mouse.


The trackpad has a very smooth, silky feel below my

fingers.

Next thing I am going to do is install Better Touch Tool

and play around with those gestures.


A trackpad may not be for everyone, but I implore any

of you who own a Magic Mouse (or Mighty Mouse) to

read the reviews on Amazon and Apple regarding the

Magic Trackpad. Very positive -- almost life changing

testimonials as to how much better the computing

experience has become.


Lion is going to be all about gestures and I think
those who want to take advantage of it may want to

get ready.


Again -- not for everyone -- but I am hooked!

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Congrats on the new trackpad!


Highlighting text has not been a problem for me, I guess I'm used to it from the trackpad/button on my MacBook.


I just tried to copy/paste your post to this reply box, and it worked fine. Maybe it has something to do with hard carriage returns. I'll bet that most press releases don't have those.


So far, I've lost bluetooth connectivity once, and that's the only glitch I've seen.


I hardly touch the mouse any more!

 

[Sam Posten]

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein


Highlighting text to copy and paste is a bit of a pain.

You need to spread your fingers so that your thumb is

on the click button on the bottom and your other finger

does the highlighting. I am hoping there is a better

alternative to this, but so far, it's a tad annoying.

If you are doing significant amounts of text highlighting with a mouse might I humbly suggest "You're doing it wrong" =)


Seriously tho, I find that when I'm editing I find it a lot easier to use the keyboard shortcuts and never touch the mouse at all -when focused in a particular app-. I think this might be helpful way to think about full screen apps. Use a touch device (or even the mouse) for gross motor movement and stick with the keyboard for fine details.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

If you are doing significant amounts of text highlighting with a mouse might I humbly suggest "You're doing it wrong" =)

You offer a negative but don't provide a positive.


So, how may I improve highlighting specific pieces

of text without using my trackpad?

 

[Sam Posten]

Oh jeez, you really don't know how to do it with just the keyboard? Damn, sorry, I thought you just found it better to do it with the mouse. Trust me it's 100x easier with the keyboard.


Shift and arrows.


(control instead of command on a PC)


Command shift and arrows to do it a whole word at a time, Shift and up down arrows to do a whole line at a time. Shift and page up and down to do whole chunks at a time. Shift and home and end to highlight to beginning and end of line. Shift and control plus end or home to highlight all the way to the beginning or end of a document.

Command A to select everything.

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

Alriiighty Then....


Also, surprisingly, it screws up the formatting of large chunks of cutting and pasting.

Magic Trackpad use should have no effect on the results of copy/paste. It's a "mouse". It doesn't affect the results of copy/paste. If copy/paste is behaving differently after adding the MT, then something is configured wrong...or you inadvertently enabled a "remove formatting" option in your applications.



Also alternative methods include:

Click to set insertion point.

Shift-click to set selection point.

Cmd-C to copy

No click-dragging to fumble with



Keyboard:

Cursor to set insertion point

Option-Select-Arrow to select words / paragraphs.

Cmd-C to copy

No MagicTrackpad to fumble with


Also: I do a lot of copy/paste by keyboard. Option

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Dave,


Thank you for these.


Knew about the CMND+C and CMND+V for copy/paste.


Will try the option key to highlight small pieces of text

when I get home tonight and see how that works out for me.


Thank you so much again.

 

[Carlo_M]

Good to hear you're handling the transition well Ron. As with Sam, I'm a big keyboard shortcuts kind of guy, so to me, the trackpad is a natural progression with whatever new Mac I'm going to buy. Most of the benefits of a mouse over the pad are for functions that I naturally do with a keyboard. I have done most of my work the last few years on my Macbook Pro, and while in 2006 I carried a mini mouse wherever I went because I was used to it, I haven't used a mouse with my MBP in probably two years. The trackpad will bring all that I'm familiar with on MBP over to either an iMac or a Mac Pro (if they'd ever refresh the damned thing!).

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Carlo,


Can't believe how much I am loving this trackpad.


I'll never go back to the mouse again. It's a HUGE improvement.


Just switched over to Lion DP4 and the new gestures from the

trackpad are night and day over what was available in Snow Leopard.


However, unfortunately, the one thing that did not seem to work in

Lion made me switch back this morning -- SpamSieve. All my good

mail was going into the Spam Folder without the assistance of that

software. Talking to the company now to find out what I need to do

to make it work.


...but I digress...


The Trackpad is amazing. Recommend it to everyone!

 

[DaveF]

Bought a Magic TrackPad last night and set it up this morning. With developing RSI-type issues, I need to stop using a right-handed only mouse (MX Revolution) and be able to switch hands. The MTP is ambidextrous.


Installed but haven't turned on or configured BetterTouchTool yet.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Dave,


Congrats on your purchase.


Keep us updated on how you are liking the trackpad.


I love it. Will never go back to a mouse again. And wait...

once you get to Lion, you will see the full advantages that

await you with a trackpad.

 

[DaveF]

Our main question now is whether to use rechargeable or regular batteries.

 

[Carlo_M]

Dave - I've bought the Apple rechargeable batteries (not a bad deal IMO at $29 for the charger and six batteries) and have had great life with it on my Magic Mouse which I still use on occasion with my MBP. Much better performance and memory too (or lack of it) in comparison with the Energizer rechargeables I had, which lost a tremendous amount of its capacity after about a dozen charges.


Being a camera guy, I've heard great things about Eneloop rechargeables. As soon as I buy my flash I will get a set of Eneloops from B&H and a charger.


One caveat for both the Apple and Eneloop chargers: I believe they are "slow" chargers meaning it takes 3-4 hours to charge. I think this is part of the reason why they last longer because the Energizers did a quick charge of 15 minutes and would get very hot, versus the Apple batteries which get warm.

 

[DaveF]

I do have a number of Eneloop rechargeable at home. I thought going rechargeable at home would simplify and reduce costs on my battery-powered gadgets. But they add new difficulties and costs over disposable. It's a personal matter: what set of annoyances are less annoying in battery use?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Dave,


I am currently still on my first set of batteries that came

with the Trackpad.


I do have Duracell rechargeables that I bought a few years

back for my iPod. Still have some that have yet to be used

and thought I would do so with the Trackpad.


What do you think the difficulties are in using rechargeables

over regular?

 

[DaveF]

Rechargeables, even the Eneloops, don't last as long as disposable. Lesser rechargeables, much less (and never buy the Sony 2700 mAh ones. They're garbage. The literally self-discharge in a day or two after charging). And because of the self-discharge problem, I can't keep a spare set charged waiting for a month or three for the current set to run out of "juice". So I'm ready to, say play Xbox, and the controllers are dead. I put a set of batteries in the charger and wait 3 hours before I can play. And the rechargeables are so expensive, and I can buy warehouse-store bulk packs of Duracells, that I'm not sure rechargeables really save me money in the long run.


I do recommend only the Eneloop brand or battery of similar low self-discharge design. They're lower total capacity but they last *so* much longer that I've found they're worthwhile in any mixed-use device (like game controllers). For a camera, that will use intensive use over a short period, conventional rechargeables seem to work just as well, since the duration isn't as important the higher capacity becomes useful.


The best use has been for my wife's camera, since I can charge up two sets the day before vacation and take a spare charger on the trip.


So as I think about it, I may use Eneloops for my MTP. They'll work pretty well, should last two or three months, and I can switch to a mouse temporarily when they need charging.



So I use rechargeables in some things, and not others. They've not been as positive an experience as I expected.