How to Use the Touchpad, Your Laptop’s
Built-In Mouse
Though you may have used a
keyboard of some type or a traditional
mouse attached to a
desktopcomputer, a
laptoppointing device, called a
touchpad, may be new to you. Frankly, a laptop
touchpad, which is essentially your laptop’s built-in mouse, takes a little
getting used to.
Laptop mouses come in two types: the touchpad and the
pointingstick. The
touchpad, by far the
most common type, is a flat area, located beneath your keyboard. A
pointing
stick is a small button located among your computer’s keys.
When you move your finger across the touchpad surface or place
your finger on the pointing stick and move the stick slightly in any direction,
a corresponding mouse pointer moves around your computer screen. With a
touchpad, which is what you’re likely to have on your laptop, you perform
clickingactions
to open or
select things on screen by using the right and
left buttons on the bottom of the touchpad.
The left button on the touchpad is used for left-click actions
and the right button for
right-
click actions. Left-clicking opens or selects
items, while right-clicking opens a shortcut menu from which you can choose
commands to perform actions.
Here are the main
functions of a touchpad and how to control them:
Clicking: When people say “click,” they mean
“press and release the left mouse button.” Clicking has a variety of uses. You
can click while in a document to move the
insertionpoint, a little line that indicates where your next
action will take place.
For example, you might click in front of a word you already
typed and then type another word to appear before it in a letter. Clicking is
also used in various windows to select check boxes or radio buttons (also
called option buttons) to turn features on or off, or to select objects such as
a picture or table in your document. You can also
double-
click to open objects for editing or to
quickly select whole words.
Right-clicking: If you click the right touchpad button,
Windows displays a shortcut menu that is specific to the item you clicked. For
example, if you right-click a picture, the menu that appears gives you options
for working with the picture. If you right-click the Windows desktop, the menu
that appears lets you choose commands that display a different view or change
desktop properties.
Clickinganddragging: To click and drag, you press and continue to hold down the
left mouse button and then move (drag) the mouse to another location. For
example, you can press the left touchpad button (keeping it held down) and drag
your finger on a touchpad up, down, right, or left to highlight contents of
your document.
This highlighted text is selected, meaning that any action you
perform, such as pressing the Delete key on your keyboard or clicking a button
for Bold formatting, is performed on the selected text.
Scrolling: Many touchpads and wireless mouse models have a way to
scroll through a document or Web site on your screen. Just roll the wheel on a
mouse down to move through pages going forward or scroll up to move backward in
your document. With a touchpad, there is often an area marked on the right or
left where you can run your finger up or down to scroll through a document.
If you’re used to a desktop computer mouse and can’t get the
hang of the built-in mouse on your laptop, consider buying a portable wireless
mouse. By plugging a small transmitter into a
USBport on your laptop, you can use this more
standard mouse to point, click, and drag, just as you do with a desktop
computer.