On the SF writer’s retreat at Kyoto, Haruna Ikezawa; the SF writer who’s been rethinking her workspace environment, was using a trackball. Like anyone who takes on new challenges, she enthusiastically extolled the virtues of the trackball to me. “You won’t get tendinitis, you can use it on your lap, and with this type, you only move your thumb, so it’s less tiring”—she said all this in that gorgeous voice of hers.
Right, trackballs are excellent pointing devices. I know well.
The first computer I owned that ran a modern OS was a PowerBook 165c, and its pointing device was a trackball embedded below the keyboard. I used that same trackball to operate Photoshop 2.0, Illustrator 3.1, Mini CAD, Strata Vision 2.0 (where I first experienced 3D graphics), and Shade III Light—the 3DCG software that later fed me for the next twenty years. So, I know trackballs well.
At the printing company where I got my first job, I used the standard Macintosh mouse. But when I quit and became a freelancer in 1999, setting up a one-room office with friends, I bought a multi-button Kensington trackball for efficiency and space-saving. At the time, Microsoft was desperately pushing its new wheel mouse, but I resisted the hype and stuck with the trackball. “For page navigation, assigning Page Up/Down to trackball buttons is better,” I used to say. Still, the wheel was undeniably convenient. Once you used it, you couldn’t go back. I eventually gave in, bought Microsoft’s wheel mouse, and stopped using the trackball.
That was about twenty years ago. As I moved away from graphic production and into company life, I stopped using mice altogether and did most of my work on a trackpad. The MacBook’s multitouch trackpad was great—two fingers for scrolling, three for calling up Exposé-like window management. After moving and connecting to a large display, I started using a mouse again.
But Haruna Ikezawa’s proud “isn’t it great?” about her trackball was convincing. A trackball shaped like an ergonomic mouse, using your thumb for pointing, really did seem appealing.
However, there’s a problem—there are hardly any models for left-handers.
Most left-hand-friendly designs are ambidextrous types, with a large central ball operated by your index finger and thumb. I know they’re not bad to use, but such symmetrical trackballs rarely have multiple buttons. That means I can’t assign Exposé to extra buttons like I do on my mouse or trackpad. Still, after some searching, I found one multi-button model.
The design wasn’t bad. It wasn’t Bluetooth, but wireless, so I could place it freely. I bought it right away. It cost less than 5,000 yen on Amazon, but it was originally a 10,000-yen-class product, so the build quality was good.
Unfortunately, the multi-button clicks weren’t standard USB HID, so I couldn’t use Karabiner Elements. I had to use Elecom’s app to configure the buttons, assigning “Forward” and “Back” to Exposé and Application Exposé.
Next, I removed tilting wheel horizontal scrolling. The tilt wheel only moved at a fixed speed, and I was already used to holding Shift while scrolling, so I decided to assign the tilt action to desktop switching (moving between virtual screens). I set it so tilting right moved right, like arrow keys—but I kept instinctively doing the opposite. Strangely, tilting left to move right felt more natural, like swiping the screen. I guess smartphones have rewired my sense of motion; mouse wheels now mimic touchscreen scrolling, pulling the page. Amazing how much perception can change over twenty years.
So I started using it—but soon hit one major problem.
The ball stuck. Whenever I began moving it, the pointer jumped about ten pixels. I wondered if trackballs had always been like that, but when I tried Kensington and Logitech ones at Yodobashi Camera, they were smooth. It must be that the Elecom model’s support material and ball coating don’t suit my room’s conditions. I considered applying fluorine or silicone oil but didn’t want dust buildup, so I decided to try a matte-finished replacement ball. Fortunately, Elecom uses a standard-sized ball, so compatible ones are easy to find.
The new ball makes a faint sandy sound, but the feel is excellent. I can point with pixel-level precision. Thus, I’ve returned to trackballs after twenty years.
I’m still unsure what to assign to the sixth button under my ring finger. Gesture-based functions that draw traces on the screen are fun, but I haven’t found a good use for them yet. I’ll experiment with a few ideas for now.
