I use the same Logitech trackball that volomont uses, and have been using it for maybe 15 years or so. For me, trackballs are much more accurate and easy to position than mice. It’s much easier to make small adjustments by rolling a marble with my thumb compared to pushing a whole goddam bar of soap around my desk, and having to pick it up and reposition it when it reaches the edge of the mouse pad.
Another vertical mouse user. I was having issues with my elbow, which went away after I changed to this mouse for work.
Absolutely this. You can also place the trackball on your cat. As long as s/he’s soundly asleep.
That’s a combo Mouse/felt maker.
I have this $12 “Zelotes” mouse. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IFRH6JS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It has cool LEDs, don’t care about that. What I care about is it’s reasonably large and I can rest all my fingers on it, each finger has a groove. I wore one out after 3 years and bought a second one.
And it can become a sudden impromptu haptic feedback device.
(Though it only has one setting where it simulates the skin of your hand and arm being flayed off by an angry cat.)
I’m another Microsoft Arc mouse user. Small, light & easy to carry when I need to bring it along, and easy to turn off and on. Low mass and hence low effort to move.
Like the rest of me, my hands are long and slender and that mouse fits me well. My short-fingered but petite wife likes hers too. Somebody with big meaty bear paws might not.
I also used to use the Kensington ExpertMouse trackball, except that the drivers were updated so infrequently that each new PC would often break either the functionality totally or all functionality except point and right and left click. I don’t know if I trust it to not break again to buy it again, but it was a really great mouse for all the reasons given. Plus, you can save clicks by setting one of the upper buttons to double click with one click and the other to left-click-then-hold so you don’t have to hold down your finger while selecting text. That is, until that functionality got broken with a new OS.
But another reason that they were good was that, while a pain to clean, the trackball version needed to be cleaned less often than trackball versions of regular mice. Both moving to optical negates that advantage.
Another Magic Trackpad fan here. I’m clumsy and it works beautifully for me!
I stopped using mouse pads years and years ago. No point in 'em unless you’re on a very glossy desktop.
I’ve always been a fan of the Logitech MX Master series. I have a 2S, but they’re up to the 3S.
The killer feature: switchable indents on the scrollwheel. On the desktop, I want a smooth-turning wheel with a lot of momentum, so I can scroll down huge web pages or text files easily. In games, I want a clicky wheel so that I can step through weapons/tools one click at a time. A little button just under the wheel toggles the mode.
It’s also a generally decent wireless mouse, but that feature alone makes it worth it for me.
I have started to develop problems with my dominant hand/wrist/elbow. Using a mouse makes it worse.
I’ve switched to a vertical mouse and it helps immensely. This is the one I use:
I was worried about how difficult it would be to get used to holding a mouse differently, but it just feels natural.
Another vote for Logitech trackballs.
I had mine for years until I spelled a glass of sticky stuff into it. When I rushed to Best Buy I found they had an upgrade, the MX Ergo.
It’s a compromise between a vertical mouse and a flat one. It sits on a lift with a hinge that can slant it 20 degrees. That feels just right for me.
That’s the one I’m using now! I like it a lot.
Another vote for track pads. So much more precise, and more natural to move things with my fingers than with my whole hand.
When I do use a mouse, I need one that isn’t right-handed. I mostly use my mouse with my left hand, and some mice are so aggresively right-handed as to be really unpleasant to use. But if you are left-handed, you already know that, so I suppose that’s not a helpful comment.
Get a high quality mouse with a high resolution, and crank up the speed to the maximum. I don’t move my mouse more than an inch to cover a 34" screen. I only move my fingers, not my hand. Still single-pixel precision. Way more precise than a trackpad.
Yup. 43" screen. Two inches of mouse from one side all the way to the other. Edge to edge. Rarely need to do that.
I don’t understand why people use mouse pads with a laser mouse. Unless you are on a very reflective surface, there is no point in it. I can, and have used my mouse just on my leg.
I have, too, but i have several mouse pads knocking around, and one has the phone number of my employer’s internal help desk, which is useful enough to give it desk space. Another is just pretty.
A mouse pad defines a space where you won’t put your coffee cup or your pen. When I’m using a mouse i sometimes use a mouse pad.
I’m left-handed and just don’t have fine control with a mouse in my left hand, I’m weird.
Used one of these until it broke,
(Left click is in the finger loop. Mouse ball, right and middle click with your thumb.)
Was nice to not need a surface to mouse on!
Ex wife used a trackball. I always hated using her computer when she asked me to. I’d get an RSI watching her use it.
Me, I just use a wired mouse. I found I hated wireless mice because there was always a tiny delay or pointer inaccuracy or glitchiness vs wired mice. I use a wired gaming mouse that has variable pointer speed, this one below. It’s awesome: click the little button behind the mouse wheel to toggle pointer speed from glacial (when retouching or whatever) to 3 different speed racers for normal mousing.