Problems for Lefties on MacBook Pro Trackpads

I guess I noticed something was odd about my new MacBook Pro's trackpad while I used it over the past couple of days, but most of the time I was using a mouse so I didn't really notice it. I also chalked it up to the trackpad's iPhone like abilities.

However, this morning, as I was pulling out my laptop for a presentation at MEBSR's 15th Annual Sustainable Business Conference I discovered that the button on my trackpad wasn't working. Basically, it was behaving as if it was the 2ndary button on a two-button mouse. To further frustrate the situation, I couldn't manage the trackpad through System Preferences because THAT required a primary button click!

Luckily, I was able to work around using my laptop at the conference, but I was still pissed. After the conference I came back to the office where I had a mouse. I plugged it in and played around. The mouse worked fine, but the trackpad continued to behave like the secondary button on a two-button mouse. I couldn't figure it out.

On a whim, I opened the mouse control panel and switched it back to the righty/default position: left button as primary button Boom! My trackpad behaved correctly.

Now, who's the genius over at Apple who would have the primary button control affect the behavior of a one-button mouse!?! Is there not one lefty on quality assurance in Cupertino? (Please note that on all previous versions of the MacBook Pro changing the primary button on the mouse had no affect on the trackpad button's performance.)

Luckily, thanks to this thread at the Apple Discussion board, I discovered Steermouse, a free application that fixes this bug/feature.

You just need to install Steermouse, restart your Mac, and then open up Steermouse through the System Preferences.

I'm sure Apple will fix this bug in a later release, but if you can't wait--and trust me, you can't--download it now. There's a lot of other features in Steermouse worth checking out, but if you're a lefty like me, it's a life saver.

Rich Brooks
Southpaw

Comments

[SEI Design Group]

That's interesting. When I first saw the title, all I was thinking of was how hot my new MacBook Pro is on the left palmrest, so thought you were writing about that.

[topedaman]

i'm having the same problem with my macbook pro.

im sure this is a very helpfull blog. im still at the office right now so i havent tried it just yet.

but how can you install it without the having a new mouse?