I almost exclusively use a trackball, specifically a Kensington Orbit. If you care to click the link, you’ll see it has no physical middle click; instead, it emulates one if you simultaneously left and right click. I originally found this uncomfortable, especially because its functionality was less reliable when I discovered it; since then, though, it has improved with newer models and I’ve gotten much more practice using it. I now find it eminently usable - enough even to perform in games and such.
Now my only real issue is the actual scrolling. I don’t use it to scroll documents very often, but once the ring starts spinning, it continues doing so pretty freely. When gaming, this can make it challenging to switch weapons with any precision. One of my friends described it not as a scroll wheel, but a selection randomizer.
At first I wanted a trackball mouse, now I just want a USB ThinkPad style keyboard instead, which I’d probably get if I had a desktop.
I basically don’t have to move my arms, the mouse is in middle of the keyboard. After a while it feels not like a pointing device, but an extension of the finger.
Scrolling long pages is also pretty nice. Press down middle-click with thumb, push down/up TrackPoint with index finger. I can just keep scrolling without moving fingers, just varying pressure.
But it’s not perfect either. There’s often some drifting. As far as I know, it continually calibrates itself, to prevent drift in most cases. Well, if you’ve just been scrolling down for a while and let go, the mouse pointer will drift upwards for a bit. Similar to if you’ve been resting a finger on it without doing anything. It got recalibrated as your finger literally being a part of it.
You just have to… wait a few seconds. Annoying but not too bad.
I almost exclusively use a trackball, specifically a Kensington Orbit. If you care to click the link, you’ll see it has no physical middle click; instead, it emulates one if you simultaneously left and right click. I originally found this uncomfortable, especially because its functionality was less reliable when I discovered it; since then, though, it has improved with newer models and I’ve gotten much more practice using it. I now find it eminently usable - enough even to perform in games and such.
Now my only real issue is the actual scrolling. I don’t use it to scroll documents very often, but once the ring starts spinning, it continues doing so pretty freely. When gaming, this can make it challenging to switch weapons with any precision. One of my friends described it not as a scroll wheel, but a selection randomizer.
At first I wanted a trackball mouse, now I just want a USB ThinkPad style keyboard instead, which I’d probably get if I had a desktop.
I basically don’t have to move my arms, the mouse is in middle of the keyboard. After a while it feels not like a pointing device, but an extension of the finger.
Scrolling long pages is also pretty nice. Press down middle-click with thumb, push down/up TrackPoint with index finger. I can just keep scrolling without moving fingers, just varying pressure.
But it’s not perfect either. There’s often some drifting. As far as I know, it continually calibrates itself, to prevent drift in most cases. Well, if you’ve just been scrolling down for a while and let go, the mouse pointer will drift upwards for a bit. Similar to if you’ve been resting a finger on it without doing anything. It got recalibrated as your finger literally being a part of it.
You just have to… wait a few seconds. Annoying but not too bad.
That seems achievable.