Touchpad configurationTo configure the behaviour of your touchpad, please open the synaptiks module in System Settings and move to the Touchpad configuration page.
The General tab configures some general touchpad settings.
By default synaptiks does not change the touchpad state, when the service starts during the logon phase. If the touchpad is switched on (which is the default), it is left on, if the touchpad was switched off (by some system-wide setting for instance), it is left off. The Touchpad state at startup setting configures this behaviour. Changing it to Switch on or Switch off forces the touchpad on or off at startup.
Tip
Set Touchpad state at startup to Switch off and disable the automatic control features (see the section called “Automatic touchpad control”) to permanently switch off your touchpad.
Some systems have a circular touchpad. Unfortunately the touchpad driver does not detect circular touchpad automatically, so if you have a circular touchpad, please enable The touchpad is circular to let the driver know, that your touchpad is circular.
To configure the cursor motion, please activate the Cursor motion tab.
The Minimum speed and Maximum speed controls configure the speed, at which the cursors moves, if you move your finger. The higher the speed is, the more the cursor moves, if you move your finger across the touchpad. When moving the finger very slowly, the Minimum speed is used, when moving very fast, the Maximum speed is used by the touchpad driver. When moving at moderate speed, a value somewhere in between is used. The Acceleration factor defines, how fast the driver increases the speed as you move your finger faster.
If you do not want cursor acceleration, set Minimum speed and Maximum speed to the same value. Acceleration is then disabled, the cursor always moves at the same speed.
If you drag something and hit the edge of the touchpad with your finger, the touchpad driver automatically continues the cursor movements. After all, you can't release the touchpad without interrupting the drag action. If you want to enable this feature for all movements, not only drags, enable For all movements, not only dragging in the Continue cursor motion when hitting the touchpad edge group.
To configure scrolling, please activate the Scrolling tab.
In the upper half of the dialog you can configure Horizontal scrolling and Vertical scrolling. Scrolling with two fingers is only possible, if your touchpad can detect two fingers separately. In the screenshot above, this is not the case, and therefore the corresponding items are disabled.
The setting Move distance to scroll a single line defines, how much the finger must move to scroll a single line. The larger this value, the slower scrolling gets.
Scrolling at the edge of a touchpad can automatically continue:
If Continue edge scrolling, while the finger stays in an edge corner is checked, edge scrolling will continue automatically as long as your finger stays in the touchpad corner.
Alternatively, you can check Continue edge scrolling, if the finger is lifted while scrolling. In this case, edge scrolling will automatically continue, if you lift your finger from the touchpad, while your scrolling speed is above the Scrolling speed threshold to continue scrolling. Scrolling will stop, if you touch the touchpad again.
An alternative approach to scrolling is Circular
scrolling, which allows you to scroll up and down by moving your
fingers in circles across the touchpad. Circular scrolling starts, if you
move your finger into the Area, which triggers circular
scrolling. This avoids interference with normal moves on the
touchpads. If you move your finger in this “trigger” area, the
circular scrolling mode is activated. Now you can move in clockwise or
counter-clockwise circles to scroll downwards or upwards, moving your finger
by a certain angle scrolls by a single line. The speed is configured by
Angle by which to move the finger to scroll a single
line. The higher this angle, the more you need to move your
finger to scroll a single line. For instance, if you set it to
90°, you need to move your finger a quarter of the
touchpad perimeter to scroll a single line. Obviously, circular scrolling
gets slower as you increase the angle.
To configure tapping, please activate the Tapping tab.
You will notice slight delays between the tap on the touchpad and actual mouse click. The touchpad driver needs this delay to distinguish between single clicks and double clicks. If you are mainly using single clicks, you can check Make single taps faster and double taps slower (fast taps). The touchpad driver will then react faster to a single tap, at the cost of making double clicks caused by double tapping slower.
To configure, which mouse clicks are actually triggered by tapping, refer to the group Mouse clicks triggered by tapping. In the center of this group, multi-finger tapping is configured. If your touchpad doesn't support multi-finger taps (see the section called “Getting information about the touchpad”), the corresponding items are grayed out. In the screenshot above, tapping the touchpad with one finger is like pressing the mouse button, which is, what most users want. Taps with two and three fingers are obviously not supported by the touchpad.
The four boxes in the corner configure taps in the touchpad corners. In the screenshot above, special corner taps are all disabled. In this case, tapping the corners works just like tapping the rest of the touchpad. If however the Top right corner was set to Right mouse button for instance, tapping the top right corner with one finger would be like pressing the mouse button.
Tapping can also be used to perform drag and drop operations, just check Drag items by tapping the touchpad and then immediately touching it again. To drag something, tap the touchpad, and then immediately touch the touchpad again and move your finger on the touchpad. The item will be dragged along with your finger's movements.
A drag operation started this way can continue, if you release the finger. This gives you more freedom to move the item around, but may interfere with other actions. Check Continue dragging when releasing the finger until the touchpad is touched again to enable this feature. If you now release your finger, the drag operation simply continues until you tap the touchpad again or the Timeout to automatically stop dragging expires.