[William_F_House]

My wife and I just sold both our old TiBooks (a 500mhz and a 1Ghz) and are enjoying our 12" and 17" Powerbooks. They're both amazing machines.

I'm having a small (but growing problem) with mine however. When I'm typing, I'm finding that the mouse cursor jumps and either selects a new point in the text (and of course results in me backspacing and then relocating to the place that I'd been previously typing in) or it selects another app or the Finder in the background.

I've got the "disable trackpad when typing" button selected, but it doesn't seem to affect the problem. This never really occurred with my Tibook. I do LOTS of typing and this is becoming an issue. I don't really want to get an external keyboard since I like to be mobile and do my work at various places around our home.

Is anyone seeing this or does anyone know of a solution? Disabling the trackpad altogether won't work since I rarely use an external mouse. Also, it seems that the problem occurrs when I'm typing really fast.

I'm boggled.

[spaced]

Honestly, I had to adjust my typing position slightly when I got my 17" PowerBook. I experienced the same problem but if I keep my hands off the trackpad while I type it's not a problem. That's the way you "should" be holding your hands while typing anyway.

[William_F_House]

I've been trying to adjust my typing position. It's just a force of habit though. My hands don't really come that close to the trackpad. They sort of rest on the heel of each hand (towards the outside edge of my hand if you take my meaning).

I guess I'm just curious as to why the preference button doesn't take care of this.

Originally posted by spaced:
Honestly, I had to adjust my typing position slightly when I got my 17" PowerBook. I experienced the same problem but if I keep my hands off the trackpad while I type it's not a problem. That's the way you "should" be holding your hands while typing anyway.

[AssassyN]

I've experienced this a few times as well...the "Disable Trackpad While Typing" Option *does* filter the trackpad, but it's not perfected, and I wish it would be in a future OS update. It doesn't *fully* reject all trackpad inpulses while typing the way it should.

As stated, pretty much the only way to deal with this issue is to adjust how you're typing, or continue to deal with the problem. I've used notebooks that have this problem terribly, and the 17" PB doesn't drive me crazy like some others do, but the issue is still there unfortunately. Good luck w/ it!

[jtbowden]

The problem is that disabling the trackpad while typing is not a trivial problem to solve. What counts as typing? There are times when I am typing, but pause to reconsider my sentence. If I bump the trackpad right before I begin to type, it will move the mouse because I have not been literally typing.

Plus, some trackpad movements could potentially require modifier keys, like option or shift. So where do you draw the line? (Perhaps having trackpad clicking and draggin on might affect your results)

However, this is not to say that the way it is right now always works even with these considerations.

A nice addition might be a slider in the preferences that lets you select how long the trackpad stays inactive after pressing a key.

A better solution is to get an external mouse. I am at a desk when I do most of my typing, so this is a great solution. Not only do I gain a scrollwheel and extra button, but I can click the "ignore trackpad when external mouse is present" preference.

[euphras]

Turn off the "moving items" option, allow only "move cursor" and "double click", that worked for me...

[William_F_House]

I understand fully how it could be a difficult problem. The main issue is that it's occurring "while" I'm typing.u're

You're righ, of course.....it's a difficult problem for engineers to solve (I worked at Cisco Systems in development for quite a while, so I can understand it from that angle).

As far as the mouse idea, I'd stated in my original post that I rarely use one. I have a Logitech MX500 and it's a great mouse. I just don't sit at a desk that often.

Thanks for the reply though.

Originally posted by jtbowden:
The problem is that disabling the trackpad while typing is not a trivial problem to solve. What counts as typing? There are times when I am typing, but pause to reconsider my sentence. If I bump the trackpad right before I begin to type, it will move the mouse because I have not been literally typing.

Plus, some trackpad movements could potentially require modifier keys, like option or shift. So where do you draw the line? (Perhaps having trackpad clicking and draggin on might affect your results)

However, this is not to say that the way it is right now always works even with these considerations.

A nice addition might be a slider in the preferences that lets you select how long the trackpad stays inactive after pressing a key.

A better solution is to get an external mouse. I am at a desk when I do most of my typing, so this is a great solution. Not only do I gain a scrollwheel and extra button, but I can click the "ignore trackpad when external mouse is present" preference.

[TAZ]

Have you tired disabling the tapping feature of the trackpad and only use the button for actual clicks. I had the same problem with my TiBk. Once I changed my settings to only use the button for picks the problem went away.

[William_F_House]

In Systems Prefs, under Mouse I have:

Use Trackpad for:

Clicking (checked)
Dragging (unchecked)
Drag Lock (unchecked)

Ignore trackpad while typing (checked)
Ignore trackpad when mouse is present (unchecked)

Originally posted by euphras:
Turn off the "moving items" option, allow only "move cursor" and "double click", that worked for me...

[William_F_House]

I've not tried that. I guess I'm spoiled to tapping the trackpad for clicks.

Will give it a try though. Thanks.

Originally posted by TAZ:
Have you tired disabling the tapping feature of the trackpad and only use the button for actual clicks. I had the same problem with my TiBk. Once I changed my settings to only use the button for picks the problem went away.