If you’re not already addicted to ‘Three Finger Drag’ on the Mac, put aside any stick-in-the-mud ways you might have and give it a try. After a few minutes (worst-case-scenario a few hours) of ‘this feels a bit unnatural’ you may well find moving things around on the screen starts to feel altogether more fluid than ever before*. Could actually pressing down on the trackpad be on its way to becoming a thing of the past?!
For all you Mac newbies, here’s a quick how-to on activating Three Finger Drag in Lion:
Go to ‘System Preferences‘ and click on ‘Trackpad‘. That should get you here:
Check the box by ‘Three finger drag‘** and away you go!
* No guarantees – it seems like ‘three finger drag’ is a bit like Marmite…
**Depending on your current settings, you may find it necessary to change a few other trackpad preferences (such as ‘Swipe between pages’) at the same time to ensure everything works in harmony.
Do you like Marmite?
So, I am not a mac user. Are there any other reasons why you think the Mac is particularly suited to translation? I read your two posts about the features but that is not really enough to make me switch platforms. Any other reasons why I should?
I’d say there aren’t any MAJOR advantages to using a mac for translation and wouldn’t advise anybody to switch. I myself never made the switch for any translation-related reasons – I began using a mac long before I became a translator. One regularly noted major DISADVANTAGE (for some) of using a mac is the that most of the best known CAT tools (Trados, MemoQ, Déjà Vu, etc.) aren’t compatible.
Thanks. I work in house so I don’t often use my own computer for translation. However, I will keep that in mind should I ever go freelance. (The macbook air is still a sexy machine though.)