I was wondering if anyone had any strong feelings (pro or con) about a mouse or trackball that they are using. I need to buy one soon before the trackpad on my laptop turns my temporary wrist pains into long term wrist pains.

I would consider a trackball or mouse, optical or laser.

my standard optical USB logitech mouse works great and is cheap.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/produ ... ENTID=8145

only 10 bucks.

also: dont ever buy a trackball unless you want every other person that will use your computer to hate you forever.

My favorite ever:

http://www.epinions.com/Logitech_Trackm ... 04334_0403

Sadly, they don't make it anymore. They sell a revised version that sucks it.

Fortunately, I have about 4 of the old kind. I hope they never die.

Kensington Expert Mouse.

I blew out my right wrist doing schematics with a regular mouse. These Expert Mice are all I use now (with my left hand).

They're great.

If you are starting to have pain, stop using a mouse or trackpad now. It will not get better.

Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 4.0

Optical USB mouse with the normal left and right buttons, plus a wheel (which is also a 3rd button), plus two thumb buttons, for a grand total of 5 buttons. Plus a wheel. The older version of the mouse only had a normal wheel, but a newer one that I got has a wheel that in addition to rolling up or down, can also be pushed a little to the left or right, giving a 2-dimensional control instead of just 1.

I'm a huge fan of this mouse, and own 2. 3 if you count the one that was stolen and I replaced.

If you're looking for something cheaper than the Intellimouse, I like my MS Wireless Optical mouse. It's got only two buttons but also has the scroll wheel that you can tilt to scroll horizontally, and you can also press the wheel down to toggle through all the apps you have open. It's proved very durable (I decided to upgrade after destroying <$15 mice every several months) and I like the ergonomics (YMMV of course). My only complaints are that the horizontal scrolling feature is actually kinda useless as it moves very slow, and you can't take it apart to clean out the scroll wheel (I have three cats who shed copiously, so this is an issue for me.)

I am also a trackball hater like the above. If I wanted that, I'd turn a regular mouse upside down. And I'm absolutely incapable of using laptop trackpads.

tmidgett wrote:Kensington Expert Mouse.

i agree. it was the best $100 i ever spent. programable quick keys! 6 of um! it's amazing with the protools...

The Evoluent Vertical Mouse. My wrist pain is finally gone.

Takes a bit of getting used to, though.

this thing:

http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/store ... 5:CL141987

the logitech marble trackball. I have the earlier version without the little teeny buttons on top of the big buttons. I have 5 of them.

I hate mouses. I have to chase them all over the fucking desk. and they bump into shit, and shit.

Trackballs stay in one place.

I use Microsoft Basic Optical mice. I have like seven of them, they're usually $11 or so.
http://www.directron.com/msftmouse.html

I had wrist problems a while ago, and what helped for me was switching hands on the mouse from time to time. At the beginning it was difficult with my left hand, but now I'm totally comfortable using a mouse/ trackpad/ whatever with either hand. I am a bit slower with my left hand than with my right, but that's only if I'm doing something really position-intensive, like cutting up tracks in the DAW or tracing a border in Photoshop.