drag and drop with no buttons on touchpad

[lighthugger]

Hello, my company has provided me with a Pavilion laptop running Win8.1, it has no buttons on the touchpad.  How do you draw around an object when using the snipping tool, or how do you drag and drop a file?  Is an external mouse required?  Thanks.

[visruth]

Hi


See if this helps you:
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/hardware-and-drivers/touchpad-a-builtin-mouse

I'm not in favor of it, but it is worth a try.,

If that does not help, try this: “Tap, then tap and slide one finger in any direction" gesture to perform a “left-click and drag”


Regards

[lighthugger]

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately the resolution seems to be to use an external mouse.  If you launch the 'snipping tool" and ask for "new" (snip), you can move the cursor to the top left of the image you wish to capture but I cannot fix that point and drag the rectangle over the rest of the image, all that happens is the snipping tool menu blinks.  An external mouse works correctly.

[visruth · Accepted solution]

I think Microsoft is yet to come with a fix for this in 8.1 OS.

[visruth]

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@lighthugger wrote:

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately the resolution seems to be to use an external mouse.  If you launch the 'snipping tool" and ask for "new" (snip), you can move the cursor to the top left of the image you wish to capture but I cannot fix that point and drag the rectangle over the rest of the image, all that happens is the snipping tool menu blinks.  An external mouse works correctly.

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Have you updated Win 8.1 to Win 8.1 Update 1?

In Surface Pro 2 , the problem has been solved with the update.

Related:

Click & drag info

Using a precision touchpad

Regards,

[lighthugger]

Thank you for pursuing the issue.  I'll check my Win 8.1 laptop to see if it has the latest update.  One thing I did note in the information was that the M/sft Surface does have buttons, some models do not have a tactile response (no click when pressed) whilst others do have buttons that click.  My HP Pavilion does not have any buttons - to get the equivalent of a right click (for example) you have to tap with two fingers simultaneously.  On my Toshiba Satellite if I want to drag something I left click using the button and drag to wherever, without a button I don't see a way around this unless there's a function where you can somehow tap, lock and pick up a point to drag it.

[lighthugger]

OK, I'm an idiot.  The touchpad does not have separate buttons but if you press the bottom left (or right) the whole pad rocks and clicks.  The buttons are not visible nor are they mentioned in the setup instructions where the various gestures are described.  Thanks for your help.

[visruth]

You're welcome,
So your lap had invisible buttons it seems, right?
Could you drag by tapping and moving left one?

[lighthugger]

Yes, if you push down the bottom left of the touchpad with your left finger and then slide your right finger across the touch pad you will drag the object/file etc.  Equally, if you push down on the bottom right (it clicks) you will get the mouse right click functions.  Seems so obvious now (duh!)

[visruth]

That's it, glad it's working now for you 🙂