Almost ready to buy

I did not have a lappy that had that eraser head... but I know that before I got my current lappy (not a sager) I hated touchpads. Gaming is quite hard with them, especially, so I recommend a mouse if you are going to game. As far as general computing is concerned, you can set the touchpad to move as fast as you want... In other words, you can change the ratio of the size of the touchpad to the screen. If you want, you can make it so moving your finger from one side of the touchpad to the other is equivalent to moving from one side of the screen to the other. I do like touchpads now though, once I have gotten used to them. It is easy to clock because you just tap the touchpad (you can change this option as well). I'm sure someone on the forums has had a thinkpad, though, so they will post if they see this :-) Post any questions you have! Hope this helped! Good luck!

Dragon57,
I have been using the TrackPoint for about 4 years on various Toshiba's, ThinkPads and Compaq's. I bought a 5660 a month ago. In the begining, it was a bit weird. But I've begun to like it very much. Actually, using the trackpoint in not very comfortable now.

Pluses:
Higly configurable. I hardly use the mouse buttons (except for right click). With the Tap Zones, I dont have to move the mouse pointer a lot. Making the touchpad respond to double clicks and holding the mouse button helps a lot. Scrolling is greatly simplified - I just have to move my finger up and down on the end of the pad.

Minuses:
Actually all the minuses were before I got used to the touchpad. I had to learn now to move the pointer across the whole screen without moving my hand back and forth across the pad. Prolonged use caused a slight pain in my wrist, as the trackpoint did not involve moving the hand at all. The pain went away in about a week.

To summarize, the touchpad is a little weird when you start using it. Once you get used to it, you'll never go back. Maybe that's why you don't find the trackpoint in many laptops!!!

Let me know if you have questions on any specific application that using a trackoint is essential for (I absolutely had to have it for designing VB forms).

HTH,

dgantony.

One downside to touchpads (having one on the lappy at all) is that when you are typing, if you aren't careful, your wrist can tap it and move the cursor to a different spot on the screen... It used to happen to me a lot before I got used to it (this applies to any lappy with a touchpad down below the keyboard). Some of my friends have the problem and they have trouble adjusting, so they take a little post-it note and post it just above the touchpad so the paper covers it when they are typing long things :-) Lol, it actually works really well if you have that problem. I adjusted though and most people have no trouble at all with it.

I thought I saw an option in the Synaptics Config Applet for the "wrist touching the pad while typing" issue. I'll find out when I get home.

dgantony.

Whoa?! lol, my lappy doesn't have that... Thanks for letting us know and for offering to look for it!

I have used a touchpad exclusively since working with laptops. I tried using a laptop with that nifty little nubbin but I found it horrendous to use. It was just so difficult to get it to go where I wanted it to. Using my touchpad has become like second nature...even with a mouse plugged in I usually end up using the touchpad without even realizing it. I never really understood how people used those trackpoint instead of touchpads but I guess to each his own.

You know, come to think of it, I did use a "nubbin" once on a dell and I became somewhat frustrated with it as well... I guess I am inept when it comes to nubbins :-)

Go Sager! :-) Glad to hear of your decision! Check out the vendors you've read about in this forum for pricing. Post if you have any questions and good luck with your purchase!

In the Mouse Properties applet, there is an option to adress the "wrist touching the pad while typing" issue. In the Touch tab, there is a slider for PalmCheck that "Helps to prevent accidental pointing while typing". Here is what the help files says :

Prevent Accidental Pointing While Typing

Unintentional pointer movement and accidental taps can be caused by accidentally brushing the surface of the TouchPad with your palm or another part of your hand. The results of this contact can be observed as a changing cursor location when typing, causing subsequent text to appear in the wrong place. Or text may “spontaneously” be highlighted and replaced. Most often, this unwanted pointing activity occurs when typing on the keyboard. The TouchPad can detect and prevent accidental and unwanted pointer movement while you are typing.

If you see unwanted pointer movement occurring while you are typing, you can adjust the Palm Check slider located on the Touch Properties Page in the Mouse Properties dialog. Move the slider thumb to the right towards Maximum. Now accidental brushes of your hand on the TouchPad while you are typing are more likely to be ignored.

On the other hand, in the midst of typing, you might purposefully use the TouchPad to point and click, and sometimes the TouchPad may not seem to respond. In this case, move the slider thumb to the left towards Minimum. Now pointing during typing is less likely to be interpreted as an accidental brush with the pad surface, and will not be ignored.

HTH,

dgantony.

i like touchpads better personally, but i also have a micro mini wireless mouse and a logitech wireless mouse for day to day work which works great !!!

Thanks for the instructions! I definitely did not know that was there, although it makes sense that it should be. :-) Hopefully the placement of the touchpad on the 8886 and the 5660 is conducive to typing without tapping.

You are right beebster. I don't have any problem using the touchpad and keyboard.

dgantony.

Ah yes, very nice. I'm glad to hear it! Go go Sager touchpad! (hehe, Inspector Gadget).

Put your finger in the top right corner of the touchpad and slide it along the right edge and it will scroll the page up and down as fast as you move your finger. I guess many people know about it, but it's one of the coolest features of the touchpad IMO.

Agreed, I love that feature. Also, if you run your finger along the bottom it will scroll through windows that have a scroll bar horizontally at the bottom of the screen. :-)

Some apps don't work with the touchpad scrolling...

I have found two applications (Mozilla / Netscape 6.0+ browsers and any Java based GUI application) that do not respond properly to the "edge-scroll" feature of the touchpad. Also, the up/down rocker does not work.

After a bit of a hunt, I found a solution. Edit the file: C:\Programme\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.ini. Add the following lines:

[Mozilla Browser]
WT = "*mozilla*"
SF = 0x10000000
SF |= 0x00004000

[Java Apps]
WT = "*java*"
SF = 0x10000000
SF |= 0x00004000

My guess is that this will work with a lot of apps that don't use a traditional Window's style scroll bar. Hope this helps some of you!

-Larry

hey! that touchpad scrolling is swell!

Thanks for that info java! I actually do get annoyed when the scroller feature doesn't work, lol. I will use that frequently, I imagine.