A stunning revelation...
 

So i was talking to my newly converted mac user friend today (aluminum powerbook) and he told me that while going through his trackpad preferences he saw that you could "use trackpad for clicking" and other things.

Me, being the "experienced" mac user out of my friends, thought for a second, "yes, i have seen that option, never really thought about what it does though".

See, i had always been under the impression that you simply could not tap the trackpad on Mac laptops to perform the clicking action. It was kind of as hardwired in me as the whole idea of one mouse button on Mac laptops/mice. Don't ask me why.

So today, i proceeded to test out that option, and sure enough, i have been happily tap-clicking and tap-dragging all day now.

He began to laugh that i hadn't ever noticed that, so i quickly pointed him to the iScroll plugin that enables slide scrolling on most Alu Books, and he was happy.

The first time i double tapped my trackpad to open my Macintosh HD, and it worked, i felt like my world had turned upside down.

Where could i have possibly come up with this notion from!?

-Mike

I think tapping has been around on Mac laptops for at least ten years. You've led a sheltered life.

Chris

I struggle with any laptop that has this feature enabled; I always end up accidently clicking on objects. Also, I hate using the trackpads on PC laptops, since I always accidently right-click (I'm used to the one-button on my iBook, and keep my thumb centered appropriately).

i can't use a trackpad at all. my old dell laptop had a little pruple circle thing in the middle of the keyboard that functioned as a mouse. if and when i get a powerbook i'll have to get a bt mouse

I always turned off the Tap feature too. I can't stand accidentally clicking! Now with Sidetrack, I use the Tap feature in the lower left corner to act as a right click.

I didn't pay any attention to that feature either, but somehow it got turned on and my PB was behaving very badly. I would be typing away and the cursor would suddenly jump to another part of the screen and mess up the whole document - very frustrating.

Someone on another forum mentioned this feature and when I realized that it was turned on, I turned it off and no more erratic cursor jumping around.

It seems that I accidently hit the trackpad a lot while I'm typing :(

Take care, Margaret

I think you got this idea because it's Off by default, whereas most PC laptops have it On

Jees, I remember this feature from like before the PB 1440's..

Ah the joys of sitting on dads knee playing with his new Laptop each year... :)

I hate the trackpad tap feature, but I'm happy that Apple has its there for those who like it.

I like trackpad tapping, but my iBook's trackpad doesn't always respond to taps. Maybe one out of every ten taps just doesn't seem to take. Combine that with the unfortunate lack of feedback when you push an Aqua button (or most Web buttons), and it makes me feel rather silly once in a while waiting for the computer to do something that it doesn't even know I've asked it to do yet.

On the bright side, I think the trackpad on the iBook is much more responsive movement-wise than any PC trackpad I've used. I can point right to anything on the screen, where on a PC I always overshoot the taget and have to go back to it.

i use tapping...dare i say i actually LIKE it.

i remember when i got my first 'book ~5-6 years ago the thought of learning to use the thing frustrated me (not actaully using it...just the THOUGHT of using it). But, i viewed it as a necessary evil. unless i wanted my mobile experience to always be plagued by a superfluous array of peripherals i decided then and there that i'd embrace the trackpad--with all its tapping, double-tapping and tap-dragging goodness.

well, it's only been ~5-6 years, but i am now completely at ease with the trackpad as mouse. i found myself just last night at my powerbook with a BT logitech mx900 at my side, but using the trackpad with a single finger to create a photoshop path with nice, flowing bezier curves.

as far as where you got the idea? IIRC the duo 2300 was one (along with the 190) of the first 'books to have the trackpad rather than the trackball. i dont believe it had any provision for tapping. but, that was in the summer of '95---c'mon now.

Thank you Thank You :) As a recent mac convertee (not sure if its a real word but hey!) This is the best bit of news I have had in ages. I can tap again :) woohoo

Me and trackpads don't mix. I don't know if my fingers are sweatier than the average user or something but it seems to be extra sensitive and just a really frustrating experience. Plus when I have it enabled I tend to sweep files off my desktop when I'm reaching for the keyboard. Then you have the fun of figuring out where they were dropped.

I hate that feature so much. I touch the trackpad and something gets selected that I didn't want to select, or some ad on a web page gets accidentally clicked, or something gets accidentally dragged and dropped into some random folder and lost until I can figure out what got moved and Spotlight it out of there.

Just my preference.

I don't personally use the trackpad tap feature, I always have similar problems as described earlier.

But what I do absolutely love is the two finger scrolling and the two finger click for the contextual menu! I hate the sidebar scrolling that is on most laptops, I could never seem to find the right place that I had to scroll to make it work. Multi-touch technology is a lifesaver!

What I would like to see is multi-touch technology, à la the Apple iPhone, implemented in OSX -- and the apps run on OSX. Imagine: a simple check in a preference dialogue box.

And then I can pull two fingers apart to zoom part of a browser window, magnify details of a photo, etc.

Mmm...

I might be able to live with two finger tapping (if anyone knows if they do it), but one finger tapping causes me to do funny things to documents more often than I care to recount (like winwintoo). Which is sad because it's awful useful.

What's funny is that when I let a non-Mac user onto my little 12"PB they always ask me, "What? Mac's don't have pads that can do the tap-click thing?" I always say, "No, they do, but I don't like the feature so I turned it off!". This always gets me this odd look, it says something like, "You like Mac's, and you don't like touch clicking? What kind of simpleton are you!"

I like the tap feature...Though I find myself using the button more.

This isn't quite as convenient, but you can (at least on a MBP) turn on a feature under the trackpad settings that allows you to zoom in when you hold a button and scroll.

I like this feature a lot.

Personally I found myself feeling clumsy with the trackpad, so I bought a bluetooth muse instead. I use the trackpad on my Laptops sparingly. I wonder why Apple never brought back the trackball idea? I personally thought it was great.

Trackballs are short-lived and it was pretty much agreed by nearly all users that they suck.

The pointer stick is one that I've always wondered about; lots of users liked it, and while I prefer the pad, I did find it usable. I really liked my Dell that had both.