About
Newsletter
RSS
Bluesky
Latest

Switch on "tap to click"

Tap to click allows you to execute a 'click' by lightly tapping your trackpad instead of pressing down. This intervention removes a tiny amount of friction and relieves some strain from your clicking finger.

If like me you spend hours and hours every day using a laptop with a trackpad you may have experienced a strain in your clicking finger.

I'm not a doctor or even remotely qualified to be telling anyone what to do about anything at all — but I do know that once I turned on 'tap to click' my finger felt a little better.

This practical betterment assumes that using your computer is aligned with your goals. If instead your computer is primarily a distraction from what you want to achieve, then finger discomfort may actually help you.

You could also implement other practical betterments to help your computer serve your goals without hurting your finger at all.

How to enable 'tap to click'

On MacOS

  1. Open System Settings on your laptop
  2. Navigate to Trackpad
  3. Switch on Tap to click

Clicking in the usual way will still work. You can even change the settings so clicking requires a lighter press.

On Windows

Different systems have a different way of navigating to the settings, but typically it will look something like this:

  1. Open Settings
  2. Navigate to Touchpad
  3. Enable Tap with a single finger to single-click and Tap with two fingers to double-click.
Tags
Published
Updated