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Completely disable trackpad touches while typing System
Have you been frustrated with how the slightest touch on the trackpad causes the text cursor to jump to a different line when you're typing away, especially when you're in mid-thought and wanted to capture everything? (This only applies, of course, if you've enabled trackpad clicking.) Have you been even more frustrated when the Ignore accidental trackpad input setting within the Keyboard & Mouse preferences still doesn't work 100% of the time?

I've been very frustrated with that, and went looking for a Mac Gem or AppleScript that would allow me to disable the trackpad with a keyboard (similar to the PC laptops that have an extra button near the trackpad). I couldn't find anything out there (yet), but as it turns out, Apple has something built-in that allows you to accomplish something very close. And surprisingly, it's actually very effective.

Just visit the Universal Access System Preferences panel, click on the Mouse & Trackpad tab, and enable the Press the Option key five times to turn Mouse Keys on or off option and the Ignore trackpad when Mouse Keys is on setting. 2br Now, whenever you press the Option key five times, you'll enable Mouse Keys, and at the same time, disable the trackpad! Type away, and have no fear of the cursor jumping around. Then when you're done, and want to use the trackpad again, just press the Option key five more times, and you've got the trackpad back.

The best part is that the enabling of Mouse Keys doesn't take over your arrow keys, so you can still use the keyboard arrows to move the cursor around your document, etc. You can move the mouse using the keyboard, but you'll have to hold down the function (fn) key, and use the "cursor" keys on the number pad. If someone has a single (or combo) keystroke (through AppleScript etc.) to enable/disable the trackpad, I'd love to know about it, too. Thanks!

[robg adds: A decent macro program, such as QuicKeys or Keyboard Maestro should be able to script the pressing of the Option key five times. This older hint includes an AppleScript to disable trackpad clicking, which should also make the problem less troublesome -- the cursor would move, but not the insertion point. The AppleScript could be easily bound to a keystroke.]
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Completely disable trackpad touches while typing
Authored by: fud on Dec 05, '07 10:00:25AM

I'll have to give this a try when I'm doing lots of typing. This has been a real annoyance with Apple laptops, the Trackpad isn't centered with the Keyboard. Put your index fingers on the home keys F and J, with thumbs on the SpaceBar, and see your right palm covering more of the trackpad. Form over function, it "looks better" with the trackpad in the center?



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Completely disable trackpad touches while typing
Authored by: Lutin on Dec 07, '07 02:36:54AM

Not the purpose of this hint, but this would have helped me a lot a while back when my trackpad was acting really weird (or not at all).

Common sense hint of the day: if you decide to clean your laptop, even a tiny amount of humidity can be harmful to your trackpad. Mine was considered dead. I didn't had the opportunity to repair it, so I bought a mouse. One month later, it was back to normal.



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Completely disable trackpad touches while typing
Authored by: ldmac on Jul 29, '08 10:03:14PM

When I try this on a mb air, it disables the keypad, except for mouse keys...what am I missing (besides braincells)?



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Completely disable trackpad touches while typing
Authored by: drf on Feb 17, '09 08:48:18AM
You may want to try a little app I developed to work around this issue. I call it Sausage Fingers. It's a free menu bar app that lets you turn the tap-to-click feature on and off easily. Here are the relevant links:

http://falesafeconsulting.com/sf/
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/sausagefingers.html


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Completely disable trackpad touches while typing
Authored by: asmeurer on Feb 18, '09 09:24:46PM
This hint is interesting when viewed in conjunction with this one. Accidentally enabling mouse keys caused me to lose the ability to use my keyboard.

Also, I wanted to note that the thing that gets me the most is when I'm typing and accidentally hit shift-up arrow when I'm trying to type a right shift, causing me to type over the last line I wrote. A way to possibly disable this key combo, maybe even just when I am typing somehow, would be a good hint.

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