Know Thy Enemy: The Trackpad

In my experiments this month to reduce my repetitive strain injury I have discovered the main culprit: the trackpad.

The trackpad on my laptop is an easy and lazy way to manipulate the pointer, but it also destroys my fingers in the process. Twenty minutes of trackpad use is like being on the mouse all day.

Sadly, Apple computers don’t come with any alternatives, such as the nipple found on IBM thinkpads, and there is no way to disable the apple trackpad to force me to use the mouse at all times.

However, it is possible to temporarily disable the trackpad while the mouse is connected:

1. Open System Preferences

2. Go to ‘Keyboard and Mouse’

3. Click on the ‘Trackpad’ tab

4. At the bottom, check the box ‘Ignore trackpad when mouse is present’

This has helped me, at least a little, to break my trackpad habit.