The cursor that runs amok

[pmrid (Peter)]

I'm being driven nuts by a cursor that for no apparent reason will just jump back into the text of whatever I'm writing - seemingly randomly - so when I look up from the screen I find the last line or two of text has been plonked down somewhere in the midst of whatever I'd written previously. Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone have an explanation/cure?

Peter

[RobF (Rob)]

Its not a laptop is it Peter?
(those scroll pads can be treacherous sometimes while you're typing.....)

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by RobF

Its not a laptop is it Peter?
(those scroll pads can be treacherous sometimes while you're typing.....)

Yes it is: and my thumbs do tend to drag around the keyboard a bit. I wonder if it is possible to disable the touch-pad.
Peter

[allan gould]

Yes same thing with my laptop and it seems that a small touch on the pad while typing will place the cursor into the middle of where you have been writing so that its out of frame so-to-speak.
Clumsy fingers

[michaellxv (Michael)]

You should be able to disable the touch pad. I have mine set so that it is disabled when I have a mouse plugged in. Look in Control Panel.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by michaellxv

You should be able to disable the touch pad. I have mine set so that it is disabled when I have a mouse plugged in. Look in Control Panel.

Tried that but I just can't see where that option is hiding. Any hints?
Peter

[michaellxv (Michael)]

It's part of Mouse Properties.

The actual options you get will depend on what the device is and the driver.

My work Laptop (Dell) has an option to 'Disable Touch Pad/Stick when USB pointing device is present'

I could not find the same option on my home HP laptop, but it does have a snesitivity setting to guard against accidental touching the pad with your palm.

[RobF (Rob)]

If you look closely at all the icons in your System Tray (usually bottom right corner of the screen), there's usually one for the pointing device on a laptop. Right click on that and choose properties. Depending on brand and hardware, there should be an option on one of the tabs for disabling automatically when a usb pointing device (mouse) gets plugged in.

I lost an hours worth of email like this on my work laptop once - somehow multiple selected the whole damned thing, typed over it with a few characters, then couldn't get it back.

Vowed and declared I'd never do anything too complex without a mouse plugged in after that......