To report a bug or give me a quotable endorsement for my next ClickPad II ﾒREAD ME,ﾓ send e-mail over the information wagon trail to:
danwr@halcyon.com
You can obtain the latest version of ﾒClickPad IIﾓ by harnessing up your web browser and directing it to:
<http://www.halcyon.com/danwr/warrior.html>
Important: ClickPad II is now shareware, not freeware. See ﾒWhat is Shareware?ﾓ and ﾒPayment,ﾓ below.
Why ClickPad II is Better than Sliced Bread
ClickPad II allows you to use the TrackPad on your brand-spankinﾕ-new PowerBook 520, 540, or 5300 without subjecting your thumb to the ergonomic horrors of the TrackPad button.
To click using ClickPad II, just tap the trackpad with a spare finger.
To double-click, just tap the trackpad twice (with said finger).
To hold the virtual ClickPad button down:
･ Position the TrackPad cursor
･ Tap once, then immediately plop your finger back down (down, quickly up, quickly back down and hold)
･ You donﾕt need to hold your finger down and wait; if you want to drag, just start moving your finger
･ To release the virtual button, lift your finger and wait. If it releases too slowly, you can release it more quickly by tapping the TrackPad again (as you did to start the drag).
･ Oops ﾑ you ran out of pad? Quickly lift your finger, move it back to the center of the TrackPad, lower your finger, and away you go. If you lift your finger off the TrackPad for too long, ClickPad II will release the button. [If you like, you can now turn this feature off; see ﾒDrag Pausesﾓ below]
You can also lock the virtual button down so that it wonﾕt be automatically released:
･ Position the TrackPad cursor
･ Tap once, then immediately put your finger back down and hold it there without moving
･ When you hear the low-pitched (lock) sound, the button is locked down. You can now move the cursor about, head off to the kitchen for a snack, and return later to complete the drag. This can also be used to hold down the button over a scroll bar arrow to scroll continuously. If you leave your finger off the TrackPad for an extended period, ClickPad II will repeat the lock sound as a reminder (note: if the sound volume is turned all the way off, ClickPad II will automatically release the lock instead).
･ To release the lock, tap the TrackPad again with your finger.
Using ClickPad II with your PowerBook allows a much softer touch than pressing the physical button on the TrackPad and will ensure many hours of increased productivity; eating sliced bread which using your PowerBook will just leave you with lots of itty bitty crumbs clogging up your keyboard (and if you spread honey on your sliced breadﾉ<shudder> donﾕt get me started).
Requirements
ClickPad II requires a PowerBook with a TrackPad; specifically, the PowerBook 500 and 5300 families are supported. The PowerBook 2300 family is not, because the 2300ﾕs come with TrackPads that exhibit ClickPad-like behavior right out of the box. Future PowerBooks will likely come with these fancy-pants TrackPads as well.
Installing & Configuring ClickPad II
Drag the control panel ﾒClickPad IIﾓ to your system folder icon and allow the system to move it to the control panels folder. Restart your PowerBook and youﾕre ready to go.
From the control panel, you can enable/disable ClickPad II without having to reboot, enable/disable audio feedback, and enable/disable automatic menu locking (the virtual button is automatically locked down when you click in the menu bar; it is released when you click again) ﾐ this is like the old freeware extension StickyClick.
Control Panel Settings
With one exception (ﾒPop-ups Stickﾓ), all changes to settings take effect immediately.
G E N E R A L S E T T I N G S
･ Make Sounds
Make clicking sounds (three sounds: click down, click up, and click lock).
･ Menus Stick
When set, clicking on the menu bar locks the button down automatically. Pop-up menus will also stick, if the ﾒPop-ups Stickﾓ is also on.
･ Button Locks
Turning this on causes the (physical) TrackPad button to lock the (virtual) button down. To unlock it, tap the TrackPad.
･ Shorter Clicks
Single-clicks terminate more quickly when ﾒShorter Clicksﾓ is on. The chief disadvantage of shorter clicks is that some applications ignore clicks that are too brief (typically clicks in floating palettes or custom controls).
F I N E ﾐ T U N I N G
･ Louder Sounds
Boosts the ClickPad sound volume.
･ Drag Pauses
When dragging with the virtual button unlocked, you can ﾒpauseﾓ the drag by lifting your finger and repositioning your finger on the TrackPad (if you donﾕt put your finger back on the pad quickly enough, ClickPad II will automatically release the virtual button). As a result, there is a brief pause between when you lift your finger and the end of the drag. You can eliminate this delay by turning off ﾒDrag Pauses.ﾓ You can also release the virtual button more quickly by tapping the TrackPad when you wish it to be released.
･ Pop-ups Stick
Controls whether pop-up menus stick when ﾒMenus Stickﾓ is on. By default, they do. [The primary reason for turning this setting off is a matter of compatibility: This is the only ClickPad II feature that involves a global system patch; if you wish to be absolutely pure you can turn it off and prevent that patch from being applied at boot time. For this very reason, you may need to reboot before a change to this setting will take full effect.]
Trouble-Shooting
Problem: The icon for ﾒClickPad IIﾓ shown in the Finder does not match the one in this document
Solution: Rebuild your desktop database by restarting your computer while holding down the Option and Command keys until a dialog appears. Click ﾒOKﾓ when asked if you want to rebuild your desktop.
Problem: With ﾒDrag Pausesﾓ enabled, the virtual button is released too slowly/imprecisely following a drag.
Solution: Of course you could turn off ﾒDrag Pauses,ﾓ but this isnﾕt necessary: you can terminate a drag very precisely by tapping the TrackPad when you want the virtual button to be released.
Problem: Every time I tap the TrackPad, ClickPad II responds with a double-click (but with the single-click sound).
Solution: You still have a copy of ClickPad (1.0) installed. Remove it from your Extensions folder and restart.
Problem: I canﾕt unlock the TrackPad by clicking the TrackPad button, even though ﾒButton Locksﾓ is enabled.
Solution: ﾉAnd thereﾕs the reason the option is called ﾒButton Locks;ﾓ tap the TrackPad to release the virtual button.
What is Shareware?
ClickPad II is shareware. Shareware is software distributed via local bulletin board systems (BBS), commercial online services, user groups, and between friends. You are allowed to use shareware for a trial period before you pay for it, but you must pay for it after that time.
Shareware exists because people (like you) continue to pay on this honor system. As a user of shareware, you benefit because you get to try the software to see if you like it before you pay.
Pricing
ClickPad II is $14 (USA currency) for an individual users. You can purchase a site license (to cover all employees in one city) or a world-wide license (to cover the field offices as well).
To register, open the ﾒRegisterﾓ program that accompanies ClickPad II (if itﾕs missing, you can get a copy from the ClickPad II web site). Enter your name, your email address (important ﾑ this is where your serial number will be sent!) and the number of single user licenses you desire. Save or Copy or Print the data from the Register program and send the data and payment to Kagi Shareware. Kagi Shareware handles my payment processing. Their email address is shareware@kagi.com and their fax number is 1-510-652-6589. Payments sent via email are processed within 3 to 4 days. You will receive an email acknowledgement when it is processed. Payments sent via fax take up to 10 days and if you provide a correct internet address you will receive an email acknowledgement.
If you are paying with cach or check (in United States dollars, drawn on a U.S. bank) you should print the data using the Register program and send it to the address shown on the form, which is:
Kagi Shareware
1442-A Walnut Street #392-WR
Berkeley, California 94709-1405
USA
Important: When you send in your payment, be sure to include a current, correct email address so that I can send you your serial number (this will generally be about 2-4 days after you receive your email receipt from Kagi). When you receive your serial number, you will be able to personalize your copy of ClickPad II and disable the payment reminders. You will also need that serial number for technical support.
Contacting the Author
To obtain the latest release, visit the ClickPad II web site:
<http://www.halcyon.com/danwr/smoothie.html>
To report a bug, request a feature, or just shower me in praise/scorn, send e-mail:
<mailto:danwr@halcyon.com>
For a snail mail address, please contact me via e-mail, or check the above web site. I try to respond to all e-mail I receive, but I frequently get overloaded, so please be patient, especially if youﾕre reporting a bug ﾑ in most cases I won't reply until/unless I have a fix or need more information. For a speedier response, be sure to include your serial number in all correspondence.
Disclaimer of Warranty
This software and related documentation is provided "AS IS" and without warranty of any kind, without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Credits and History
ClickPad II owes a debt to the original ClickPad by Bruce Oberg, of course, and uses the same underlying method to work its magic. ClickPad II, like the original ClickPad, does not install any trap patches, so the chances of a conflict are tiny. Bruce credits Rich Kubota, Gordon Sheridan, and Brian Bechtel for ClickPad, so I think they deserve mention here as well. Kudos to all the early ClickPad II pioneers who sent in bug reports!
New/Changed in 2.1:
･ Delayed initialization of sound is now done with the assistance of the Notification Manager (eliminating the _SystemTask patch)
･ Added a Sleep Manager task: CPII now rebuilds the sound channel on wake-up (this should avoid reported problems with sound malfunctioning after sleep).
･ Shorter clicks available via a control panel switch (implemented by postponing the click-down until half the delay to the click-up has passed). It was necessary to change the popup-menu patch to support sticky-popups with the shorter clicks.
･ Added the option to disable sticky-popups separately from sticky-menus; this allows you to avoid trap-patches all together (in the event of actual conflicts or rampant paranoia).
･ General-purpose drag-locking: start dragging the usual way, but don't move your finger until the lock sound is played. Terminate by tapping. If you leave your finger off for a while, CPII ﾒthocksﾓ to remind you that itﾕs locked (if the sound volume is all the way off, CPII auto-terminates the drag instead!) You can also drag-lock with the physcial TrackPad button (unlock the usual way, not with the button), if you set the appropriate switch in the control panel.
･ Drag-pausing, which causes a delay at the end of a drag before auto-termination (to allow the drag to be continued), can now be turned off.
･ CPII now checks for an external mouse on wake-up, too (not just boot).
･ New icon (rebuild your desktop if you care to see it, or just look at the top of this document)
･ Added option to boost the click volume (a user request).
･ Normally, CPII snoozes to allow sleep & screen-dimming to occur; starting with 2.1, CPII will not snooze if sleep & screen-dimming are disabled (set to ﾒNeverﾓ). If you turn these sleep-settings off, CPII will no longer grow bored and inattentive; indeed, it will become a happy, excitable fool, always eager and ready to serve at momentﾕs notice.
･ [With sleep and/or screen-dimming enabled:] CPII will be more attentive when your PowerBook is plugged in ﾑ a little less drowsy, a bit slower to snooze, and more readily awakened. CPII behaves as before when running on battery power.
･ ClickPad II is now shareware (various changes to INIT code and control panel interface)
･ Other changes to the control panel interface
Changed/Fixed in 2.0.1 ﾐ 2.0.4:
･ Added detection of an external mouse at boot; if one is installed, ClickPad II avoids talking to the TrackPad at the same time as the mouse driver is speaking to the mouse.
･ Minor performance tweaking
･ Now works with 7.5.3 500-series TrackPad driver. For some reason Apple took out the 'tpad' gestalt selector.
･ Fixed a problem on some systems where ﾒMake Soundsﾓ didnﾕt work unless you opened the control panel and toggled the setting. Under system 7.5.3 this is a problem with the Sound control panel.
Changed/Fixed in ClickPad II 2.0 (vs the original ClickPad):
･ ClickPad did not work on the new PowerBooks (190 and the 5300 family) because of a slight change in the TrackPad driver software.
･ ClickPad did not work exactly right with an external pointing device (e.g., a mouse) plugged in. ClickPad II does.
･ ClickPad prevented the new PowerBooks from sleeping or dimming the display, and used the processor fairly heavily (resulting in increased power usage and perhaps slightly slower performance). ClickPad II is more responsive during heavy trackpad usage and ﾒdozesﾓ when you stop using the trackpad to reduce CPU & power usage.
･ You can now ﾒlockﾓ the trackpad button down, allow drags and menu selection without using the (physical) trackpad button. Way cool.
･ ClickPad II provides audio feedback; this helps with dragging the cursor. Hopefully it's subtle (read: quiet) enough to use in an environment like a meeting or airplane (it's actually slightly quieter than the keyboard on my machine).
Fine print: Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Didja know SimpleText doesnﾕt support shiftﾐarrow to select text? Nor does it support option-arrow, nor command-arrow. Actually, it does in read-only documents, but not in editable documents. The shift-arrow thing is really beginning to annoy me.
