Hello All, 

There are some MacBook users who prefer, for whatever reason, to disable the
built-in Trackpad on Their MacBook computers.

The following article describes how to accomplish this.  The first method
requires that you attach a mouse or other pointing device, to your Mac.
However, the second method merely requires the quick toggling of the Mouse
Keys feature.  

Even though the article was written back in 2008, the methods described work
just fine in the latest version of Yosemite.  I have tested them.

Just keep in mind that the options, described in the article, are located in
the Accessibility Preferences area of Yosemite.

The link to the original article is located at the bottom of the text.

Enjoy,

Mark

Disable trackpad for extended typing sessions
By Rob Griffiths, MacworldOct 21, 2008 11:07 AM

If you use a Mac laptop with a trackpad, and spend quite a bit of time
typing on it-perhaps you're a writer for a Mac-related Web site or
something-you're probably well aware of what I consider to be one of the
most-important settings in OS X: the "Ignore accidental trackpad input"
checkbox on the Trackpad tab of the Keyboard & Mouse System Preferences
panel. If you have your trackpad set up to click when tapped-which I do, as
I find it much easier than tapping the button-and you do not enable the
"ignore trackpad" option, you'll find that your cursor (and hence, where
your typing appears) jumps around your document any time your finger or palm
accidentally taps your Mac's trackpad.

With this feature enabled, I've found that the cursor usually remains where
it's supposed to be, even if I accidentally brush the trackpad. That's
usually, not always-sometimes I'll accidentally tap-click after a typing
pause for instance, not notice that I've done so, then resume typing. I
usually only figure out what's happened after I've merged two sentences
together into one jumbled mess.

For those times when you'll be typing a lot of text, and don't want to worry
about the trackpad at all, here are two solutions. The first solution is to
keep a mouse with you, and plug it in when you're ready to start an extended
typing session. Then, in the Trackpad tab of the Keyboard & Mouse System
Preferences panel, check the "Ignore trackpad when mouse is present" box,
and start typing. As long as the mouse is plugged in, that's the only way
you'll be able to move the mouse cursor. (Note that you can still move the
cursor's position within your text editor by using the arrow keys. You just
can't move the onscreen cursor via the trackpad.)

The second solution, and the one I prefer as it doesn't require any extra
hardware to lug around, relies on the Universal Access System Preferences
panel. Open that panel, and switch to the Mouse & Trackpad tab. Check the
box next to "Press the Option key five times to turn Mouse Keys on or off"
to enable Option-key control over the Mouse Keys feature. Next, check the
box next to "Ignore trackpad when Mouse Keys is on." So what have you done?
First, you set the system up so that pressing Option five times in a row
will turn on Mouse Keys, which allows for full cursor control with the
numeric keypad (which is embedded on the 789-UIO-JKL-M keys on a laptop).
Next, you told the system to completely disable the trackpad when Mouse Keys
is enabled. Using these two features together, you can put an end to all
accidental cursor movement while typing.

Try it out by opening TextEdit, and then pressing Option five times in a
row. Just like that, your trackpad will no longer work-you can click and
drag on it at will, but the cursor won't move an inch. Once you've finished
transcribing War & Peace, press the Option key five times in a row again,
and everything will be back to normal. There are two minor downsides to this
technique. First, you won't be able to use the embedded numeric keypad when
in Mouse Keys mode, because those keys are reserved for moving the cursor
around. As with the hardware solution, you can still use the arrow keys to
move the cursor within your document in either normal or trackpad-off modes.
Second, you may forget you've enabled this mode, and wonder why the trackpad
on your laptop no longer works-so remember to try pressing the Option key
five times in a row before resorting to a restart to fix the problem!

Original Article at:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1136275/trackpadoff.html


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