Robin Williams Mac OS X Book, Jaguar Edition, The

Trackpads and Trackballs

Some people prefer to use a different “pointing device,” such as a joystick or a trackball. The Macintosh laptops use trackballs or trackpads.

A trackball is like an upside-down version of the roller-ball mouse—instead of moving the little mouse box around to make the ball roll underneath, you use your fingers to roll the little ball on top as it sits in the box. Trackballs have buttons to press that act like the button on the mouse. Depending on what kind of trackball you have, you may click the button with a finger or, as seems to be easier on some laptops, with your thumb.

The trackpad is a flat space and you use your finger to drag the pointer around the screen. It takes a little time to get used to it.

Trackballs ...