Does anyone else have this confusion when clicking on laptops

Yesterday I installed a new program on AntiX and ran into five minutes of panic when I couldn't get it to work. All the on-screen buttons seemed to be dead and weird menus kept sprouting up all over the place. Then I suddenly realised that I had been right-clicking.

With a mouse, this can't happen. I use a left-handed mouse since my accident, so I don't really think about left and right any more, just main and secondary. The main button is the one under your index finger, the one you can click without thinking. The secondary button is the one you have to move to before clicking it. Simples!

But on a laptop, I find that the natural place I want to click is the right end of the lever bar or the right side of the pad. It doesn't feel natural to use the left side with the right hand. Perhaps my old brain is confusing the two meanings of the word "right".

Is this just me or do other people have the same problem? Or should I be typing with the right hand and steering the cursor with the left? What do most people do?

Yes I do this on a regular basis with my laptop, I'm right handed so my clicking fingers are closer to the right side of the touchpad.

doesn't everything switch for lefties?
right button becomes left button
left button becomes right button.

You should be able too swap functions of the buttons, whether mouse or touchpad, but I don't bother - when typing, I use my right hand finger on the trackpad, & left finger or thumb on the button (left click), plus, right hand finger (right click) to open menus on the desktop - just sort of my natural way of working on laptops.

Another option (depending on your laptops functions) would be to disable the "hardware" buttons and do only tap to click. Single finger tap to click, 2-finger tap to right-click. Then it doesn't matter where you're clicking, it only matters how many fingers you're using.

Originally Posted by BW-userx doesn't everything switch for lefties? right button becomes left button left button becomes right button.

Technically yes, but it doesn't feel that way. I know because I always used my mouse right-handed before i broke my shoulder, and now I use it left-handed. I'm probably one of the few people who can do it both ways. And it feels the same because you don't think "left" or "right" except when you're setting it up with xmodmap or whatever. You think "ordinary" and "special", the one you do without thinking and the one you have to move your finger sideways to do.

Originally Posted by fatmac You should be able too swap functions of the buttons, whether mouse or touchpad, but I don't bother - when typing, I use my right hand finger on the trackpad, & left finger or thumb on the button (left click), plus, right hand finger (right click) to open menus on the desktop - just sort of my natural way of working on laptops.

That's exactly the kind of information I was hoping to get. How other people use their hands on a laptop. I think of my right hand as my typing hand, but I always use my left for modifier keys. And I have been using right for the trackpad too, but perhaps I should switch to left instead -- except when I want to right-click.

Originally Posted by Timothy Miller Another option (depending on your laptops functions) would be to disable the "hardware" buttons and do only tap to click. Single finger tap to click, 2-finger tap to right-click. Then it doesn't matter where you're clicking, it only matters how many fingers you're using.

Currently two fingers is middle-click and I'd like to keep it that way.

I never never ever never use the touchpad I always get a wireless mouse and tape part of a flattened out can over the touchpad
that way my thumbs never randomly tap the touchpad and mess up my typing at home I always type on a usb key board $3.00 at the thrift store

I almost always use an external mouse and disable the mouse on the laptop. But my travel mode is a laptop in a brief case, and it's a small laptop (11"), so there is ample room to the side of the laptop when using the briefcase as a knee to knee table. And plenty of room in the briefcase for a mouse, hub, usb stick, second laptop, and such. When not in travel mode I tend to use external everything including monitors aka clam shell mode.

You can gain access to udev extras with xinput. For things like adjusting speed and turning on/off features. Or swapping buttons. Although various distros have more limited options.

I use xinput to shut mine off when the desktop/ mostly windowmanger does not provide a means to do so and put it in the startup/autostart file.

#Shutoff touch pad
xinput set-prop 14 "Device Enabled" 0 &

just enter xinput to get the device number. Then use a mouse.

So it seems most people solve this problem by just not using the touchpad at all.