Completely disable trackpad touches while typing

Dec 05, '07 07:30:04AM

Contributed by: vudoo

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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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20071121141206367