Suffering from Carpal Tunnel. Caused by mousing, particularly scroll wheel. Considering using a touch pad. Will it help? Any recommendations? Windows 7. Prefer wireless. Really prefer Logitech unified thingummy.

Have you looked at how you're holding the mouse? Where it's located? How your desk is positioned? Your chair? Your chair's arms? Perhaps it's ergonomics related to your environment rather than the mouse its self.

I've gotten bad carpal tunnel in the past, but I've only had it for a day or two in the last several years. That might have been because I moved into my current condo and a different desk setup.

Switching to the Apple Trackpad at work seemed to help my mouse induced carpal tunnel. I made the change over with the early warning signs about two years ago now and it seems to be going ok.

Roger, what is your current mouse, BTW?

Logitech Performance MX.

I don't know if it will help carpal tunnel, but it will build up your arm muscles as you repeatedly throw your computer through the nearest window in frustration at the lack of productivity with the touchpad as compared to a mouse.

Perhaps YMMV.

tanstaafl.

Using a good trackpad, and good OS integration, I find productivity to be better then a mouse. About the only thing I miss is the free scrolling wheel on the Logitech mice. I do keep a mouse around for gaming, but thats it.

With gestures on a 5 inch pad, I have more flexibility for special actions compared to a multi-button mouse. Beyond the basics of left and right clicking and scrolling, I have 12 possible actions I can kick off (ignoring screen corners or other mouse location specific events). I use 6 of these frequently. A few of them would take two buttons on a mouse to replicate, as the direction of a gesture can indicate intent, such as back/forward in a browser.

Good thing nearly all mice on the market have AT LEAST two buttons.

*sigh*

Oh, one other handy thing Roger with a trackpad, it's easy to just swap which hand uses it. If you do start having further problems with the right hand, just start using the left hand instead.

I'm seeing the Logitech model out there using the unified receiver:
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/mice-pointers/mice/8417

Beyond that and the Apple one, I'm only seeing older laptop sized ones for the desktop.

I probably split my time 50% between the MacBook trackpad and my Logitech mouse. The Mac track pads really are the equal of any mouse I've ever used. It is unlike any other track pad on the market.

I know that sounds like total Apple worshiping BS, but it is true. I have no idea why no one else manages to make a track pad like the Apple one.

I still love the Logitech mouse because of the software controlled clutch on the scroll wheel, but the track pad is just as good it its own way.

I'm not convinced that a track pad will be any better than the mouse for wrist pain. I resolved my wrist pain issues by swapping to a desk at the right height with a curved inset to sit at. Not really had any pain in the ten years since I got the desk. And my Aeron completely eliminated my back pain. Correct furniture ftw.

Good thing Apple make an awesome track pad, as every mouse they have ever sold with a Mac since the 90s has been bloody awful, every single one of them. Which is equally as puzzling as the lack of decent non Apple track pads.

Well, my wife doesn't agree with that. She used one of those magic trackpads for two months but never got the hang of it. She then sold the trackpad and bought her one of those magic mouses. She couldn't be happier and claims it's the best mouse she ever used. (and she was a pc user for more than 10 years). Degustibus et coloribus I guess...

My biggest problem with the "Magic" mouse is the size, it appears to be designed for someone with hands the size of a three year old. Five minutes use and my normal sized hand is cramping up. It is better than some of their earlier disasters though

But yeah, pointing devices are a tricky area, one mans awesome pointing device is another mans digital torture device.

This really is the gist of it. The preferences between these products is more subjective than nearly every other computer component.

The issue at hand is: will a trackpad (of any kind) be better for carpal tunnel than a regular mouse?

My first inclination in this thread was to question the workspace. IMO, that will effect carpal tunnel far more than the type of pointing device.

I get carpel tunnel problems from using the trackpad built in to my MacBook Pro. I have yet to find a more comfortable mouse than the old Microsoft wheel mouse. But like other's have said, I think there are so many factors involved in this including individual physiology, I think you have to try different things until you find something that works for you.

But I can tell you from experience that trackpads are not a panacea for carpel tunnel and RSI problems.

Jim

There's only so much work can do in the short term. Our office is organised into banks of straight desks. This means that they're all the same height and shape.

Personally, I think the desk is slightly too low, and I prefer a curved desktop, but I need to explore easier options first.

A track pad won't, by itself, be a panacea, but being able to choose one or the other might help.

And presumably you've already switched hands for mousing?

Worth a try I guess, but the last time I tried, it felt like trying to write with my left hand...

That is one real benefit of having your main machine being a laptop with a good track pad.

I used to use my big clicky IBM style keyboard, but for the last year or so I've just been using the MacBook keyboard instead. Which means that my left hand can take some of the strain, without wholesale attempting to become ambidextrous.

When I'm just scrolling around I'll typically use my left hand and revert to the right when I need more fine grained control. It certainly seems to help stop my right wrist from getting tired.

I never thought I'd ever stop using my big clicky keyboard. Maybe I should get a couple of Magic Trackpads and put one either side of my old keyboard

(though I'm not at all convinced that the slant on the Magic Trackpad is a good idea)

It's a good thing to do, if you can get your brain to rewire itself. When I had wrist issues years back, I switched the mouse to the left side, and it took a couple of weeks to become productive again with it there.

But that has long since paid many dividends. At some point I moved it back to the right hand, and then last year moved it back to the left again when I developed "hockey elbow" on the right. Now this summer I've got a left-side injury, so the mouse is back on the right again for a while.

At this point, I'm about equally good on either side, and very happy that I managed to adapt to doing this years ago.

Cheers

Probably a silly idea, but what about a trackball?
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/mice-pointers/trackballs/wireless-trackball-m570

Ten years ago I used to have it (an older version) in my main PC and I loved it. I don't know why at some point I reverted to mouse, but every now and then I think I'd rather go back to it.

Of course, many hate trackballs, so it may just be me.

I used a trackball similar to the one you linked for years. Ended up stopping due to feeling pain just in my thumb, and switched to various mice. After a few years, the mouse was causing some pain too, so I switched to the trackpad, and the ability to use either left or right hand.

Being ambidextrous here may help, as Mark has more definitively pointed out. The reason I went from mouse to trackpad was due to having a right hand only mouse, and an OS that gained gesture support.

Now that you mention it, I remember some pain in my thumb as well; but, it was when I started to use the trackball, so a quite different issue. Then I got used to the new movements, pain went away in a week usage or so, and I was happy since then after.

Also, I remember being able to be more accurate with a trackball than I am now with a mouse, not having to worry about a mousepad, not needing space around the device other than that needed to rest your hand comfortably... Gosh, I can't find a reason why I went back to a mouse

I'm using a Contour Mouse, largely because it has three buttons, but it also has a scrollwheel that's controlled by the thumb, which seems a much more natural motion to me. I never used the scrollwheel on mice that had it in the traditional place, but I use it all the time now. The mouse is expensive, but I got a free trial. Also, I can almost guarantee that you want the smallest one. Even it is large, and the larger ones are ridiculously enormous.

Have to agree - I love my Kensington Expert Mouse trackball. Not just because it uses a pool table ball

Joining late to this thread:

I switched to Apple Trackpads all around, and I'm very happy with the switch. At work, I cobbled together a mouse pad using a folded t-shirt. This required monkeying around with various settings to allow for double-tap-drag to be a substitute for click-hold-drag, and the logic that distinguishes that double-tap from a standard double-click is sometimes a bit dodgy.

That said, the most important thing in mouse usage isn't to switch your mouse to the other hand but rather to aggressively use all the keyboard shortcuts at your disposal, e.g., scrolling with page-up and page-down. Also, never-ever-ever do menus by click-hold-drag. Instead, you can do click-release-drag. Click-dragging turns out to be all kinds of bad for carpal tunnel issues because, when you've got pressure on your fingers, you get less blood flow, which leads to the very problems you wish to avoid.

Also important is to have your mouse/trackpad/whatever as close to where your right hand normally sits as possible. This is a great reason to get a keyboard without a numeric keypad, or to mouse with your left hand. That said, if your mouse is in some awful position and you over-use it, you'll just injure the other hand as much as you did your primary hand. That's no fun for anybody.


Ideally, you want to be sitting with your upper legs parallel to the floor and your feet straight on the floor. Your back vertical. Your arms hanging straight down with elbows at your side, and your forearms again parallel to the floor. That's where your keyboard belongs. If your desk is too low, then a simple plank of wood will do the job. If your desk is too high, then there are a variety of keyboards trays that can be screwed below your desk. There are some very cheap ($30) fixed height keyboard trays that you can buy, as well as much pricier adjustable ones. I tend to favor the ones that are hung by the sides, so they don't bounce around as much as the ones that articulate from the middle. Also, I favor ones that are flat on top (no built-in wrist rests). If you're at the proper height, with your elbows at your side, then you don't need anything in particular to rest your wrists upon.

Lastly, for what it's worth, I've been a happy Kinesis user/customer for roughly 20 years (eeek!). I like their contoured line. There are some obscure firmware bugs that they haven't bothered hiring somebody to fix (sometimes, key-up events don't happen -- this is rare, but you get in the habit, when things are wonky, of pressing all the shift-control-etc. modifier keys).