I have a new 15" MBP with the touch bar, but the trackpad is too big and my palms keep being interpreted as a touch

stevefram wrote:

Here is my 'hardware' solution. Seriously, it really works. Not sure if Jony Ive and the Apple Design Team would be in favor.

You could have used a different kind of tape.

https://www.staples.com/Duck-Tape-Brand-Duct-Tape-Hello-Kitty-1-88-x-10-Yards/pr oduct_949925

uniqueusername123 wrote:

Is there a way to make the trackpad ignore touches at the bottom, say, 20% of the trackpad?

Instead, you should consider keeping your hands lower, say, 20% lower, so the bottom of your palms never touches the trackpad.

Keep your arms spread apart from the trackpad when reaching the keyboard.

Hi,

No, not that I'm aware of.

Believe it or not, proper typing ergonomics have your wrists in the air, not resting on the computer. Although many people call it a "wrist rest," it's really not.

One user suggests that turning off Tap to click helps.

Another option is to use and external mouse/trackpad and select Ignore built in trackpad.

Another user says:

Actually here is a solution I just came upon that helps mitigate this issue for me.

I took some electric tape and taped off the edges of the trackpad, where my palm tends to accidentally hit it.

The first piece of electric tape doesnt work - trackpad (mis-)sense through it. However a second piece of tape over the first one seems to do the trick.

I just taped around the edge of the trackpad and now my "palm rejection" is much more satisfactory thanks to a physical barrier blocking off most of this hilariously oversized track pad.

It also peels off pretty easily and has not left a mark on the machine either (I peeled off once just to see).

Hopefully this may help others as well.

Now if I could figure out how to block off accidental input to the touch bar, that would be excellent so I could use it without accidentally sending off emails I am in the middle of composing, etc.

In the packpad settings

1, click strength: light

2. silent click: check

3. tap to click: uncheck

Should be a happy typer then!

Personally I think the tap to click does not make much sense, when the finger is sliding on the area, a simple light press does the click job, the touch is continuous and never interrupted, as for a tap you have to lift up that precious finger against gravity then quickly put it down, more energy wasted if you ask me.

Here's an idea: why not use the machine the way it was designed to be used (otherwise know as the "proper way") and stop trying to get it to work the way you want it to.

If you use the portable computer on a hard, flat surface (such as a table or desk) like you should, with you sitting in a chair instead of lying down or otherwise lounging, you can keep your wrists lifted in an ergonomic position while typing, without your palms or arms touching the trackpad. You could also readjust where and how you use the trackpad itself.

That's how the computer is designed to be used, anyway. If how you want to use it doesn't line up with that, it's your fault, not the computer's.

I think you'll find a lot of others call Apple's notebooks laptops, but Apple, who makes them, calls them notebooks, not laptops. There used to be an Apple Support Document specifically stating not to use its notebooks on one's lap, but I can't put my hands on it right now.

Sorry, but you can't "win" this one, because Apple makes notebooks, not laptops. 😉

Your thinking of a desktop. If you need a chair and table, get a desktop. You use the portable laptop as its name implies "lap" lounging? Why is everyone afraid to just say it. Apples new track pad ***** just as bad as the new non-magnetic charger does.

<Edited by Host>

I have used more than 10 Apple notebooks and this is the WORST EVER. Daily clicking on the OVERSIZED track pad gives me blisters on my thumb. Dragging files is a chore with ghe oversized trackpad. I had to turn on tap to click, and after that I CANNOT send an email with the cursor flying off to a part of the message without me realising it. Productivity has gone down. USERS should not train themselve to overcome a PRODUCT ISSUE. This new product is a piece of nonsense, avoid at all cost. It is a company issued notebook and I have given feedback to IT to avoid it at all cost. Deeply dissapointed, and I hate to say this: this piece of crap would not have made it past Engineering run in Steve's days.

I just got one of these new Touch Bar mac "NOTEBOOK" laptops at work and it is driving me insane. It keeps asking me if I want to enable Siri randomly, half the time I type the text just vanishes and I end up on the previous page of the website I'm typing into. Random bursts of palm rejection sounds. This is the first Mac product I've had where getting an external monitor wasn't "plug n play." Still trying to figure that one out.

WHY IS THE TOUCH PAD SO GIANT? Think Different? Think Broken. I wish I could go back to my old MacBookPro. That thing worked like charm. Solid, reliable and sensical in design. This "innovation" is a productivity ruiner so far.

When is Apple going to go back to doing things that are good ideas? They've been a pretty hard run at bad ideas for a while now.

Just now... for no reason this webpage just jumped to the top of the screen as I was taking my hands off the keyboard. I had a heart attack... BOO

What an unbelievable response! I sit in a chair at a table and STILL make all sorts of spelling errors. Plus I occasionally hit the track pad. It's very annoying to all of a sudden see your text enlarge to 32 pt or more while you're typing. I think the track pad is too sensitive. I changed my settings but still doesn't help. I turned off "tap to click" and it still clicks on a single tap!

Instead of forcing people to comply to the computer, more research needs to be done in the area of human factors or human-computer interfaces. My 2 cents.

There are many ways that you can tailor the trackpad to suit your needs best, but at the end of the day, you also need to only touch the trackpad when you need to use it.

I just upgraded from a 2013 model to the 2017 model MacBook Pro, I have tap to click and secondary clicks enabled, I use it at a desk, on my lap, in bed etc and never have any 'miss' touches of the trackpad. But that is just my usage, not anyone else.

If I were you, I would try changing settings in System Preferences > Trackpad to see what works best for you.

Try turning off Tap to Click setting. Then you need to press down on the trackpad until you feel the click to accept it.

Try changing the Secondary Click setting. You can set this to only occur in one of the corners. But if you turn it off completely, you can still get the secondary click by holding the Control key when you click.

You can also disable many multi finger gestures in the 'Scroll & Zoom' and 'More Gestures' panes if they don't work well for you. Most, if not all, have keyboard equivalents that you could use instead.

System Preferences > Accessibility also has more trackpad options. (no idea why Apple put some of these here), but enable the dragging setting can be useful for some too.

You need to find what these combination of settings works well for you. Everybody is different and there are many options available.

However, at the end of the day, the use of any computer has to be fit for your purpose and everyone has a different purpose. If you can't find a combination that works well for you, I would suggest that the model computer that you have purchased may not be fit for your purpose and you may need consider an alternative.

So, ultimately, Apple makes decisions based on what will sell. And I'm sorry to say they've lost at least one sale because of the size of the trackpad.

I recently purchased two 2016 MBP's with the large trackpad for use in video production. These are NOT my personal machines but one's used by employees in the field. Now that I've had a chance to use them, this large trackpad is unbelievably annoying for all the reasons stated.

I was giving serious consideration to upgrading my personal 2015 MBP, wanting to upgrade to 2TB HD's, better graphics, etc. But my experience with the trackpad deters me from spending $3500 so that I can be annoyed. I really hope Apple sees the error of their ways with this design and reconsiders.