Problem typing on laptop

[Ian J]

I do most of my work (and play) on a PC and have no problems but when on holiday like now I use a Toshiba Portege laptop on Windows 7 but have problems typing on it.

I can be typing away and look up and find that the cursor has magically moved on it's own to somewhere else on the page and has carried on there.

I then have to cut and paste the typing back into where it should be which I have already done once on this post.

Any ideas anyone?

 

[intheTRADE]

Any ideas anyone?

Put it away. Grab a beer and enjoy holiday. Worry about it when your holiday is over

 

[Darren_Ssc]

I do most of my work (and play) on a PC and have no problems but when on holiday like now I use a Toshiba Portege laptop on Windows 7 but have problems typing on it.

I can be typing away and look up and find that the cursor has magically moved on it's own to somewhere else on the page and has carried on there.

I then have to cut and paste the typing back into where it should be which I have already done once on this post.

Any ideas anyone?

I have a google doc saved and bookmarked, pre-formatted and displayed in full screen mode. I use this for typing anything longer than a few sentences then cut and paste to where it's needed.

The spell-check is more efficient than my browser's and it's also useful for saving often used snippets of text.

 

[mattk]

When you tap on the laptop's touchpad, does it produce the mouse click action? It sounds as if you may be inadvertently doing this as you type and moving the cursor around the screen.

You can turn this off in the mouse settings, it is usually called something like "one finger tapping".

 

[KM-Tiger]

Most likely you are hitting the touchpad or a key combination (eg hitting CTRL as well as SHIFT).

 

[Mr D]

Move the mouse off screen or to bottom of screen. And keep an eye on the screen.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Most likely you are hitting the touchpad or a key combination (eg hitting CTRL as well as SHIFT).

I always use a proper mouse with a laptop. I find it 100 times more productive.

 

[Newchodge]

I have this problem quite regularly. I use a mouse through the USB port and disable the touchpad. It still happens and I, too, would be interested in a solution.

 

[Mr D]

I always use a proper mouse with a laptop. I find it 100 times more productive.

Won't go that far but for some stuff it is easier to use one method over the other.

 

[alan1302]

I always use a proper mouse with a laptop. I find it 100 times more productive.

Seems cruel to the mouse though - I prefer a PC mouse -less to feed as well.

 

[KM-Tiger]

I prefer a PC mouse -less to feed as well.

Some are easy to feed though, they just eat batteries.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Seems cruel to the mouse though - I prefer a PC mouse -less to feed as well.

Mouse Mouse! Fully functional, and furry!

https://www.instructables.com/id/Mouse-Mouse!/

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Ian
As you are obviously very rich by now, here is my suggestion

First move with the times and get a more modern computer, Windows 7 presents the old fuddy duddy image of someone who will not move with the times

Second get Dragon NaturallySpeaking software so you can dictate the message/ report

Third Sit in the sun talking to your computer with a pint of cold beer by your side

 

[MBE2017]

Easiest way to stop this, cut out the drink.

 

[Onthebrightside]

You are hitting the touch pad on the front whilst typing. On the bottom right hand corner of the keyboard you will see an 'Fn' key. Along the top of your keyboard are the F (function keys) one of them will have a mouse emblem on it (On my laptop it is on the F4 key. Hold down the Fn key on the bottom right hand corner and tap the button with the mouse displayed in it. This will switch your mouse pad on and off.

I too have stopped using the mouse pad on my laptop altogether. I bought a wifi mouse, which had a small usb you can leave in all the time without fear of damage (some of them are very large and catch on things all the time) and cart that around with me. If I ever forget it I can just toggle the internal mouse on and off using the Fn and F4 keys.

 

[Ian J]

Ian
As you are obviously very rich by now, here is my suggestion

First move with the times and get a more modern computer, Windows 7 presents the old fuddy duddy image of someone who will not move with the times

Second get Dragon NaturallySpeaking software so you can dictate the message/ report

Third Sit in the sun talking to your computer with a pint of cold beer by your side

Many thanks Chris. Great advice as always

 

[Ian J]

You are hitting the touch pad on the front whilst typing. On the bottom right hand corner of the keyboard you will see an 'Fn' key. Along the top of your keyboard are the F (function keys) one of them will have a mouse emblem on it (On my laptop it is on the F4 key. Hold down the Fn key on the bottom right hand corner and tap the button with the mouse displayed in it. This will switch your mouse pad on and off.

I too have stopped using the mouse pad on my laptop altogether. I bought a wifi mouse, which had a small usb you can leave in all the time without fear of damage (some of them are very large and catch on things all the time) and cart that around with me. If I ever forget it I can just toggle the internal mouse on and off using the Fn and F4 keys.

Thank you. I'll give that a try

 

[Paul CROKER]

Hi Ian

It maybe that you are pressing down on the palm rests, this has a habit of slightly warping / moving the track pad enough to start the mouse curser moving about the screen. I've seen many customers with this kind of problem. Solution is either turn off the track pad, use a external mouse (usb or Bluetooth as you wish) or if your laptop has the "nipple" mouse option try to use that.

I hope this helps

Regards

Paul

 

[Karimbo]

Temporarily disable the touchpad, use the fn and the f key for the touchpad. It could be fn+f3 or fn+f4

I think one disables the buttons and the other disables the trackpad. It's the trackpad that's causing it.

 

[gpietersz]

Is it not possible to set the touchpad to either be automatically disabled while you are typing, or to ignore palm presses based on their width? I do both those with Linux but have no idea whether you can with Windows but find it hard to believe neither is possible.

 

[Ian J]

Is it not possible to set the touchpad to either be automatically disabled while you are typing.

According to a couple of answers given above it is possible although I haven't tried it out yet as I haven't been away recently