TragicMonkey
Poisoned Waffles
I loathe gimmicky mouses. Two buttons, scroll wheel, that's all I need.
Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)
- Thread starter JoeMorgue
- Start date
- Status
quadraginta
Becoming Beth
I use my middle (scroll wheel) button a lot. I'd hate to give it up. One click to open a link in a new tab. I'd really miss not having that.
And I'm not all that wild about using a mouse, period. I've been using a trackball since forever (decades) and find changing over to a traditional mouse to be a real PITA.
This trendy nonsense of using your trackball upside is just a passing fad!
Faydra
sinning sybarite
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2007
- Messages
- 7,439
slack channel message out of the blue from cow-orker:
"Hey there, I don't have permission to edit the spreadsheet".
"Um.... what spreadsheet?"
"The one he put in the slack channel"
"What slack channel? Who's he?"
I don't have direct access to the context in your brain, people.
"Hey there, I don't have permission to edit the spreadsheet".
"Um.... what spreadsheet?"
"The one he put in the slack channel"
"What slack channel? Who's he?"
I don't have direct access to the context in your brain, people.
TragicMonkey
Poisoned Waffles
I had no idea that did that! I've been rightclicking and selecting "open in new window" for years. You have saved me so much work!
alfaniner
Penultimate Amazing
I think I had the same setup on my mouse for a long time but lost it -- and now I can't find the spot to configure the buttons, even on the website info. I remember what it used to look like.
fyi, maybe the above could be put in the "How come nobody ever told me...?" thread.
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
I had my first followup appointment with the Hand Clinic for physio yesterday and I told her that I was getting a vertical mouse, and she heartily endorsed it. I think a licensed physiotherapist who specialises in hand and wrist problems can be considered authoritative.Meh.
I'll stick with my MX Ergo. All of that, and a trackball too.
Plus multi-keyboard and Logitech Flow™
One of the things about the vertical mouse that I like the most is that one of the thumb buttons works as a modifier, like a Ctrl key for the other mouse buttons. So there's effectively six main buttons and a thumb button. I configured the modified left and right click as copy and paste. Very, very convenient.
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
I was walking through the room on my break just now and someone obviously posted something funny on the Teams chat. It occurred to me that this must seem very strange to a visitor - a bunch of people all at different desks in different parts of the room, all suddenly laughing out loud at the same time for no apparent reason.
TragicMonkey
Poisoned Waffles
My team had its virtual Xmas party on Teams today. People actually thought that behind me was a background applied, rather than my actual house. My tree and bookcases looked just that nice.
quadraginta
Becoming Beth
I had my first followup appointment with the Hand Clinic for physio yesterday and I told her that I was getting a vertical mouse, and she heartily endorsed it. I think a licensed physiotherapist who specialises in hand and wrist problems can be considered authoritative.
<snip>
That's, umm ... nice.
I'm not sure why you bring it up though. I guess because of the product name of the new Logitech trackball.
That's not why I like them, though. Although they do have some ergonomic advantages of their own, shared by all trackball types. Mainly, you don't have to move your wrist at all, unlike any mouse style pointing device.
I've been using Logitech trackballs since the first Trackman came out in 1989. I like trackballs because I don't have to move them around to move the cursor, and they are surface independant. They work just as well on a desk, a chair arm, a lap, next to you on the couch or bed ... basically anywhere you can put them down. The surface doesn't have to be flat, or hard. Just there. And it doesn't need to be bigger than the trackball itself. (It really doesn't even need to be as big. Although it's best if it won't fall off of wherever you put it.)
For the curious, the new model Trackman got its "Ergo" moniker because they added a magnetically attached tiltable base which, I have to admit, does seem to make it somewhat more comfortable to use. It has two positions with the base plate, and another platform which snaps on and essentially adds two more. I like it with the first tilt, but others may find one of the other tilt positions or no tilt at all better for them.
Last edited:
I’ve been using the MS Trackball Explorer since it was launched. (Discontinued a long time ago.) It’s a slightly unusual design as you use your index finger to move the ball rather than your thumb.
They have a built in security system... if folk aren’t used to trackballs (and hardly anyone is these days) they struggle like hell to begin with, seen people literally picking one up to try and make the cursor move!
ETA: Here is the beauty
They have a built in security system... if folk aren’t used to trackballs (and hardly anyone is these days) they struggle like hell to begin with, seen people literally picking one up to try and make the cursor move!
ETA: Here is the beauty
Attachments
Last edited:
alfaniner
Penultimate Amazing
I never really considered using a trackball, but recently I've done a lot of delicate Photoshop and Blender work and additional precision (if that's what it provides) may be helpful.
quadraginta
Becoming Beth
They can. It depends on the device. This is also true of recent mouse designs, a control to change precision is almost standard with the most recent devices. At least the ones going for the high end market.
The Ergo version of the Trackman has a dedicated button next to the trackball to switch to very fine-grained precision. Arth mentioned that his vertical mouse has one as well.
Logitech's pointing device software also lets you change the the speed and/or acceleration of standard pointer travel. This is aside from the button I just mentioned. I expect most manufacturers of the better pointing devices have something similar.
The earliest trackball designs for computers were aimed specifically at CAD and image handling professionals to address exactly the issue you are wondering about. The concept moved from there into more mainstream devices.
But. ironically enough, even before computers were on desktops the idea of using a ball to plot points was introduced to radar plotting. Later, someone had the idea of using it upside down, and thus the concept of the mouse was born.
A true case of "What goes around, comes around."
Last edited:
I would say that they aren’t as good for artwork (I know there will be some artists that are exceptions), because everything is based on moving your index finger or thumb so there is no physical movement that you can “map” to your artwork. A mouse isn’t great but when you want to draw an arc you physically map that out on your desktop.
For artwork I’d suggest a tablet with stylus, there are some fantastic value ones these days. When I started back on producing art on my PC, my very old Wacom tablet was having problems so I bought a new non-Wacom tablet for £50 (https://smile.amazon.co.uk/XP-Pen-Professional-Graphic-Drawing-Shortcut/dp/B077W5SZD3) wasn’t expecting much from it but it is superb.
alfaniner
Penultimate Amazing
I've tried a Wacom tablet and found it so unpleasant to use I sold it within two days. Perhaps not enough transition time but I was getting behind in my projects.
I only use my tablet for drawing, not as a mouse replacement for general usage. I have
my trackball and the tablet connected all the time.
I'm transitioning from using my mac laptop all the time to a windows laptop most of the time. For now I have them both open on my desk most days. The windows unit is plugged into my large monitor and I just use the laptop as a keyboard and small screen slightly below my large monitor.
When I go to the office I have a dual monitor setup with no room for the laptop in front, so I use a keyboard and mouse. The keyboard and mouse just feel so inefficient as compared to the laptop keyboard and pad. Taking my hand off the keyboard to move the cursor around just seems weird now. It sort of breaks me out of the document, if that makes sense.
When I go to the office I have a dual monitor setup with no room for the laptop in front, so I use a keyboard and mouse. The keyboard and mouse just feel so inefficient as compared to the laptop keyboard and pad. Taking my hand off the keyboard to move the cursor around just seems weird now. It sort of breaks me out of the document, if that makes sense.
I knew a kid in high school who did that. You know what this means? They're multiplying!
novaphile
Quester of Doglets
I feel your pain, in at 7am, out at 8pm, be glad when this **** is all done and dusted.
Meanwhile, to my amazement, I'm also a long term user of Logitech Trackman track balls.
But also bought an MX Ergo recently, because my Trackman had died and I wasn't able to get a replacement quickly. (I like it but I like the Trackman more)
It's odd that so many of us would use them, there are very few of them at work.
(Two the last time I went looking)
Wudang
BOFH
You can get keyboards with pads but all the ones I've seen the pad is on the right rather than centre so may not help. Swiching to a keyboard without a numeric pad might help as it reduces the reach over the numeric keys to reach the mouse as does switching to using to the mouse with the left hand.
- Status