Your computer - friend or foe?
Reconfiguring can prevent headaches
Vina Cera
Issue date: 10/5/06 Last update: 10/5/06 at 2:00 PM PST
Section: Technology
- Page 1 of 1
Before that twinge in your shoulder blossoms into a genuine pain in the neck, take a closer look at your computer habits.
Do you often find yourself scrunching up, squinting at the screen, tapping away repeatedly to get that layout right? Though our personal computers are our portal to the world, they can be seriously injurious to our health and general well being.
That's not earth shattering news of course, with the spate of repetitive strain syndromes like carpal tunnel, severe tendonitis, etc,, becoming commonplace. And we all know about the wonderful, ergometric furniture that we can't afford. What we can do though without spending a penny, is take advantage of the many useful tools that come embedded in the Macintosh OS, to prevent that crick in your neck (and other such twinges) from turning into a debilitating injury.
The Mac is such a user friendly machine, but few of us even know about the wealth of controls that exist underneath all those lovely colored buttons and backgrounds. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," is a motto we all live by. But it's a very simple matter to change the appearance of your display to make it easier on your eyes and screen posture, or to control the actions of your keyboard and mouse to ease the strain on your fingers, wrists and elbows. Most of these changes are implemented from the Systems Preferences which you'll find under the Apple on the left-hand corner of the menu.
Display Preferences
One nice thing about appearance preferences, is that they're made immediately. You don't have to save your settings first and close the window before you can see them, so they're very quick to try out to see what changes are best for you.
To access the display preferences, choose Apple > System Preferences, then from the icons shown, click 'Displays.' In the pane that appears, you have the option to make the screen items look bigger so you don't have to squint, change the brightness and contrast that's suitable for your environment, make the colors more natural or pleasing. The choices available always depend on the model of machine being used.
By default, your monitor comes with the highest resolution (its native resolution), which actually translates into items like text being smaller. So, if you're constantly struggling to make out 12-pt. on your screen, you can lower the resolution by one or two steps. Suddenly, you can see - comfortably. As you experiment with trying different resolutions by clicking on them and checking out the example display, be aware of this caveat: since you're changing the native display, items on your screen can be repositioned because of size variation, so you might have to make some adjustments.
There is a button for 'Refresh Rate' if you are using the more old fashioned CRT monitor. This refers to the number of times per second that the screen is redrawn electronically. If this rate has been set too low, (below 75 Hertz), it can appear to flicker, causing eyestrain after long viewing. The default value is usually fine, but if your screen flickers irritatingly, up the refresh rate a notch if your monitor allows this.
Keyboard/Mouse Preferences
To access keyboard/mouse preferences, choose Apple > System Preferences, then the icon for keyboard and mouse. Here you'll find controls for how fast the mouse repeats a letter when held down (Key Repeat Rate Slider), and other controls. If you find your Mac sluggish, so that it's faster to quickly tap your mouse to repeat letters, then you can slide the rate up so you don't have to be unnecessarily tapping away.
If you're a good touch typist, but your keyboard is laid out a little differently than you're used to, then you can alter the actions of the modifier keys (Control, Command, Option, Caps Lock). For instance, if you find yourself too often tapping the Caps Lock key when you're really aiming for the Tab key, then you can choose a different action from the pop-up menu that appears with this preference pane.
If you have a mouse with more than one button, are a 'lefty,' or just need to reposition it to the other side of the keyboard, , there's a set of radio buttons that allows you to specify which mouse button is primary. (Usually, the left button is the main selection button, while the right is used contextually)
For laptop users there's a Trackpad control which is very useful. It contains a Tracking Speed Slider, which controls how fast the cursor moves across the screen relative to the motion of your fingers across the trackpad. The slower the tracking, the more subtle the control of the cursor movement. But when tracking is set too slow, moving across a larger screen would necessitate repeated repositioning of your finger. Faster settings make the cursor whiz along, but you lose some control. You have to chose the right balance for your needs.
There's also a Double-Click Speed Slider, controlling how fast you need to tap the pad button to register a double click. If you have problems opening documents by double clicking because you can't click fast enough, then here's where you can choose a slower setting.
There's an Options button at the bottom of the Trackpad pane that helps those of us who are always accidently hitting the pad with our palms when we're typing. The controls here allow you to ignore trackpad while typing, or ignore accidental trackpad input. To reactivate the pad after you've finished typing, you press firmly down in the middle of the trackpad. You can turn off the trackpad completely in favor of a mouse plugged into a USB port, by selecting 'ignore trackpad when mouse is present.'
Universal Access
We usually associate Universal Access with preferences devoted to people with physical disabilities, but on closer look, there are several useful items there for all Mac users. For access, choose Apple > System Preferences, then the icon labeled Universal Access at the bottom, right hand corner. There are three main areas here, dealing with seeing, hearing and display.
The Zoom choices deal with seeing. By toggling Command+Option+8, the area under your cursor is immediately zoomed into to the tune of 10 times. This is very useful for making a small item jump out at you, or displayed to a class. Of course, you then get to see only a smaller portion of the screen, but in much greater detail. In order for any of the Zoom features to work, you must first turn them on by checking their boxes in the pane.
Another feature is the Reverse control, which reverses black and white, making the screen look like a negative. This not only nostalgically harkens those of us old enough to remember the 'Lisa,' but could help those eyes that have problems with brightness. You could remove color by choosing Gray Scale, which could help with color blindness. Thee are also Brightness and Contrast Sliders, which help decrease eyestrain by choosing levels appropriate to your computer environment. For those of us who tend to sometimes lose the cursor, because it can appear too small, there's a Cursor Size Slider, that makes any cursor increase in size.
I hope you've been enticed to open your System Preferences and play around with the controls and features found there. More importantly, be aware that you don't have to put up with your computer's default set-up, especially since little annoyances can result in serious physical injury over the long haul.
Do you often find yourself scrunching up, squinting at the screen, tapping away repeatedly to get that layout right? Though our personal computers are our portal to the world, they can be seriously injurious to our health and general well being.
That's not earth shattering news of course, with the spate of repetitive strain syndromes like carpal tunnel, severe tendonitis, etc,, becoming commonplace. And we all know about the wonderful, ergometric furniture that we can't afford. What we can do though without spending a penny, is take advantage of the many useful tools that come embedded in the Macintosh OS, to prevent that crick in your neck (and other such twinges) from turning into a debilitating injury.
The Mac is such a user friendly machine, but few of us even know about the wealth of controls that exist underneath all those lovely colored buttons and backgrounds. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," is a motto we all live by. But it's a very simple matter to change the appearance of your display to make it easier on your eyes and screen posture, or to control the actions of your keyboard and mouse to ease the strain on your fingers, wrists and elbows. Most of these changes are implemented from the Systems Preferences which you'll find under the Apple on the left-hand corner of the menu.
Display Preferences
One nice thing about appearance preferences, is that they're made immediately. You don't have to save your settings first and close the window before you can see them, so they're very quick to try out to see what changes are best for you.
To access the display preferences, choose Apple > System Preferences, then from the icons shown, click 'Displays.' In the pane that appears, you have the option to make the screen items look bigger so you don't have to squint, change the brightness and contrast that's suitable for your environment, make the colors more natural or pleasing. The choices available always depend on the model of machine being used.
By default, your monitor comes with the highest resolution (its native resolution), which actually translates into items like text being smaller. So, if you're constantly struggling to make out 12-pt. on your screen, you can lower the resolution by one or two steps. Suddenly, you can see - comfortably. As you experiment with trying different resolutions by clicking on them and checking out the example display, be aware of this caveat: since you're changing the native display, items on your screen can be repositioned because of size variation, so you might have to make some adjustments.
There is a button for 'Refresh Rate' if you are using the more old fashioned CRT monitor. This refers to the number of times per second that the screen is redrawn electronically. If this rate has been set too low, (below 75 Hertz), it can appear to flicker, causing eyestrain after long viewing. The default value is usually fine, but if your screen flickers irritatingly, up the refresh rate a notch if your monitor allows this.
Keyboard/Mouse Preferences
To access keyboard/mouse preferences, choose Apple > System Preferences, then the icon for keyboard and mouse. Here you'll find controls for how fast the mouse repeats a letter when held down (Key Repeat Rate Slider), and other controls. If you find your Mac sluggish, so that it's faster to quickly tap your mouse to repeat letters, then you can slide the rate up so you don't have to be unnecessarily tapping away.
If you're a good touch typist, but your keyboard is laid out a little differently than you're used to, then you can alter the actions of the modifier keys (Control, Command, Option, Caps Lock). For instance, if you find yourself too often tapping the Caps Lock key when you're really aiming for the Tab key, then you can choose a different action from the pop-up menu that appears with this preference pane.
If you have a mouse with more than one button, are a 'lefty,' or just need to reposition it to the other side of the keyboard, , there's a set of radio buttons that allows you to specify which mouse button is primary. (Usually, the left button is the main selection button, while the right is used contextually)
For laptop users there's a Trackpad control which is very useful. It contains a Tracking Speed Slider, which controls how fast the cursor moves across the screen relative to the motion of your fingers across the trackpad. The slower the tracking, the more subtle the control of the cursor movement. But when tracking is set too slow, moving across a larger screen would necessitate repeated repositioning of your finger. Faster settings make the cursor whiz along, but you lose some control. You have to chose the right balance for your needs.
There's also a Double-Click Speed Slider, controlling how fast you need to tap the pad button to register a double click. If you have problems opening documents by double clicking because you can't click fast enough, then here's where you can choose a slower setting.
There's an Options button at the bottom of the Trackpad pane that helps those of us who are always accidently hitting the pad with our palms when we're typing. The controls here allow you to ignore trackpad while typing, or ignore accidental trackpad input. To reactivate the pad after you've finished typing, you press firmly down in the middle of the trackpad. You can turn off the trackpad completely in favor of a mouse plugged into a USB port, by selecting 'ignore trackpad when mouse is present.'
Universal Access
We usually associate Universal Access with preferences devoted to people with physical disabilities, but on closer look, there are several useful items there for all Mac users. For access, choose Apple > System Preferences, then the icon labeled Universal Access at the bottom, right hand corner. There are three main areas here, dealing with seeing, hearing and display.
The Zoom choices deal with seeing. By toggling Command+Option+8, the area under your cursor is immediately zoomed into to the tune of 10 times. This is very useful for making a small item jump out at you, or displayed to a class. Of course, you then get to see only a smaller portion of the screen, but in much greater detail. In order for any of the Zoom features to work, you must first turn them on by checking their boxes in the pane.
Another feature is the Reverse control, which reverses black and white, making the screen look like a negative. This not only nostalgically harkens those of us old enough to remember the 'Lisa,' but could help those eyes that have problems with brightness. You could remove color by choosing Gray Scale, which could help with color blindness. Thee are also Brightness and Contrast Sliders, which help decrease eyestrain by choosing levels appropriate to your computer environment. For those of us who tend to sometimes lose the cursor, because it can appear too small, there's a Cursor Size Slider, that makes any cursor increase in size.
I hope you've been enticed to open your System Preferences and play around with the controls and features found there. More importantly, be aware that you don't have to put up with your computer's default set-up, especially since little annoyances can result in serious physical injury over the long haul.
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