The engineers were so focused on if they could, etc etc.

July 29, 2022 11:57 AM

My brand new laptop has a touch screen. What can I do with it?

I can understand the uses of a 2-in-1 laptop with touch screen, which can be converted into a tablet. You'd be able to write up notes or sketch easily, etc. But this isn't that. It's just a normal laptop, except that I can reach out at poke the screen to make it do things. This just seems silly. It seems like pointless technology bloat, and I can't imagine what actual uses this might have. But I want to be wrong about this!

If you have a laptop with a touch screen, what useful applications have you found for it? Are there any fun or useful things to do with it? Is it actually more valuable for note-taking than I'm imagining?

posted by meese to Technology (11 answers total)

I’ve had one for about a year and a half through work. In that time, I’ve signed some pdfs, and sometimes I use it to delete emails in Outlook. That’s it.
posted by skewed at 12:02 PM on July 29, 2022

I really like a touch screen for scrolling.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:14 PM on July 29, 2022

I love interacting with the screen directly instead of clicking a mouse like a chump.
Also, better for my rsi.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:29 PM on July 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

it lets you turn off the trackpad so that your wrist stops accidentally moving the #($(#! cursor when you're typing.
posted by noloveforned at 1:28 PM on July 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

My wife has a Microsoft laptop with a screen like this and my daughter has a Macbook. I don't know what I touch on my wife's laptop but when I'm on my daughter's I always try to touch the screen and then remember that Macs can't do that. Once my hands are off the keys they may as well be touching the screen directly instead of taking an establishing touch on a trackpad to then move the arrow where you want it to go.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:21 PM on July 29, 2022

It's a showoff piece.

If you're presenting a powerpoint, you can draw on your screen and gain 'ye olde timey overhead projector' functionality.

My (job's) shop uses it for input instead of typing. Mostly custom forms designed for purpose in-house.
posted by porpoise at 5:43 PM on July 29, 2022

You could use it with a drawing app, particularly if you also use an appropriate stylus.
posted by flug at 5:47 PM on July 29, 2022

I disabled that shit. Poke around in the settings and turn it off. (IMHO)
posted by intermod at 6:17 PM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

I disabled mine too. I actually had to google how to do it because it isn't in the normal settings stuff.
posted by kathrynm at 7:57 AM on July 30, 2022

Definitely see if there’s a stylus option. Unlike a phone or ipad, I’m not a big fan of using my laptop touchscreen with my fingers, but love working with a stylus. I regularly use a MS surface pen and like the option of drawing or notes. Charts, sketches, scientific notation, drawing on an existing diagram to emphasize key points… all of these are possible. If it’s running windows, check out the drawing options in OneNote or have a search in YouTube for videos to get ideas.

Plus on mine there was a while where right click wasn’t working via the trackpad, so if I didn’t have a mouse with me, I’d have to do that via touchscreen. So I guess that’s a redundancy option?
posted by ec2y at 2:33 PM on August 2, 2022

If you need to enter data when you are walking around with no place to actually set down the laptop, the touchscreen is much more convenient than awkwardly trying to use the touchpad while balancing the laptop on your other hand.

If you hand the laptop to someone else who doesn't use a touchscreen laptop they will end up clicking things unintentionally. If you are using their laptop you will poke the screen repeatedly with your finger out of habit.
posted by yohko at 10:08 AM on August 6, 2022