Newsgroups: comp.human-factors
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!news.cs.indiana.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!klefstad
From: klefstad@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Sue Klefstad)
Subject: Re: Track ball on a keyboard?
Message-ID: <1991Jun12.142307.210@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
References: <91163.083144CJS@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1991 14:23:07 GMT
Lines: 21

CJS@psuvm.psu.edu writes:

>I understand that users of track balls find them superior to mice.
>They are now readily available as mice replacements.

>But I would like to see keyboards with track balls built-in.  I'll bet
>there are some now or rsn.  Comments?

>It seems to me that it would be nice to reach the ball without moving
>your fingers from the home row of the keyboard (unlike most cursor keys
>and function keys).  I wonder how a location right below the space bar,
>reachable by either thumb, would work.  Comments?

This is what the 3rd party Mac portable (the Outbounder?) uses.
It's a bar that sits just below that space bar with a button
on each side.  Haven't heard raves about it but anything new would
take some getting used to.

-- 
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Sue Klefstad    Ill. Natural History Survey    s-klefstad@uiuc.edu