Use an additional attached trackball to pan around.

[Anonymous]

Being a recovering RSI addict, I'm always looking for ways to make interfacing with a program efficient and cut down the number of mouse clicks and movements to do something.

Try this, to get an idea to how liberating this could be:
1) attach a second mouse with a scroll wheel.
2) Now in one hand use the scroll wheel to zoom, while at the same time with the other, hold down the scroll wheel and move the mouse to zoom.

This is so much quicker to move around a document.

However, a huge improvement to this would be to use a trackball for panning - so no holding a button down and moving the mouse, lifting it up, then sliding it back, then moving it, lifting it up, back, etc.

[Dwight]

You are not liking the arrow keys for panning, then?

[Richard Swann]

Dwight wrote:
You are not liking the arrow keys for panning, then?

Surely you're using the speech recognition on your supermac...
left a bit..
I do actually use speech recognition in private moments, great for moving between windows, stories etc....

[Dwight]

Richard "isn't that pronounced "A-loo-mini-umm?" Swann:

Glad to see that you are still around.

How COULD i use speech recognition with this new-fangled watching movies on your computer feature. Streaming television. Watch your productivity plummet.

Most I use the cussword command system.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that Dwight - I've been using AC for about a month now and didn't even know you could do that! I guess I didn't read ALL of the manual before diving into it 😕

With arrow keys on the right-hand side of the keyboard (and me being a righty), I'd have to get a numberpad to make it efficient. I'll give it a go.

TIP: I've tried all sorts of RSI-relieving devices, and found the biggest relief from RSI is to have 2 mice devices - one in each hand. On the right mouse, swap the buttons around (in software), so the right is now the main select button. That way your hand sits more naturally over the mouse and makes clicking less stressful. On the left, I use a Logitech MarbleMouse - but just use the left and right buttons. It's shape allows me to use my thumb on one button and again my hand sits really naturally "on its side". Since using AC, I've actually started using a scrollwheel mouse in the left hand, but facing 90degrees right, so I can use my thumb on the scrollwheel - and with the bottom laser taped over so it doesn't move the cursor. And with big buttons, I can still use it for clicking, although it's not as easy as the MarbleMouse.
So generally, I move the cursor with the right and do the button clicking with the left. That way, the workload is halved on any one hand.

Just a shame I can't use the trackball ball to scroll! 😉 (Logitech has software to do it, but you have to hold both buttons down at the same time to do it! Very irksome.)

Advantages of the trackball scrolling over arrowkeys:
1) Scroll in any direction, not just NSEW.
2) Have fine control over speed of scrolling.

Has anyone used the Logitech NuLOOQ Navigator in AC?

[Richard Swann]

Dwight wrote:
Richard "isn't that pronounced "A-loo-mini-umm?" Swann:

Glad to see that you are still around.

Better than asquare
Dwight you have a scarily good memory! Nice one..

btw, productivity is a thing of the past thanks to AC11!

Respect

[Dwight]

Add that to the list:

"Failure isn't an option, it comes packaged with the software."

[Anonymous]

Well I tried the arrows keys for a while, and while they're good for only travelling a small way, they are cumbersome when, say, going to the opposite side of a room. Holding one down makes the pan quite uncontrollable, so multiple key-hitting is the only choice. Hard work and not so RSI-friendly!

I guess an analogue joystick would also be another option?

[Dwight]

I t has been a while, but:

I have a Wacom tablet and matching five button Wacom mouse. To pan, you push down to click the wheel. To zoom in or out, you scroll the wheel. What can be better than this?

[Anonymous]

The inefficiency with using a mouse and scrollwheel button to pan is this:

1) Click and hold down the scrollwheel/middle button.
2) Move the mouse as far as you can.
3) Let go of the button.
4) Move the mouse back again.
Repeat steps 1 - 4 until you arrive at your destination.

Versus a trackball:

1) Roll the ball contuously until you arrive at your destination.

Or even more efficiently... versus analogue joystick:

2) Push the stick until you arrive at your destination.