Control your Mac by touch from your Android tablet

A finger grabs fast, a pointer aims well

When researchers at MERL and the University of Toronto compared fingers and a mouse on a touch table (CHI 2007, 12 people), one-handed tasks came out even: fingers picked things up just as fast, but missed about twice as often. With both hands at work, touch clearly won.

So touch isn't a better mouse, it's a different tool: great for grabbing a window, scrolling or zooming a photo, less good for a tiny close button. Keep the trackpad for those.

Mac buttons were drawn for a pointer

Apple's own design guidelines give iPad controls a default size of 44 by 44 points, and Mac controls 28 by 28, because a Mac expects a cursor. And it's not that fingers are "fat": a study at the Hasso Plattner Institute found people aim with the top of the finger, while screens assume the middle of the pad.

The easy fix: in System Settings → Displays, give the tablet's display a larger-text resolution. Everything on it grows under your finger.

Touch low, not upright

Touching an upright monitor all day is tiring. In a 2011 study in the journal Ergonomics, 24 people using a touchscreen on a desk reported more shoulder, neck and finger discomfort than with a keyboard and mouse, and pulled the screen closer and lower. A tablet already lives there: flat or tilted on the desk, right beside your keyboard.

What your fingers do Pro

• Tap to click; tap twice for a double-click.
• Touch and slide to drag a window, a file or a selection.
• Hold still to right-click; the tablet ticks when it fires.
• Two fingers scroll, and a flick keeps coasting, like a trackpad.
• Pinch to zoom in apps that zoom with a trackpad pinch.

Swipe in from the left edge for Wing Display's controls, where you can turn touch off. Typing stays on your Mac's keyboard: the tablet sends touches and the pen, not keys.

Set it up

1. Connect

   Download Wing Display for Mac, click Start, then install the tablet app and tap Connect.

2. Turn on Pro

   Subscribe in the tablet app. Without it, the tablet tells you "Touch and pen control are part of Pro."

3. Allow Accessibility

   Allow Wing Display in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility; the Mac app's Open Accessibility Settings… button goes straight there.

What it costs

Touch comes with Pro, along with the pen and the USB connection: $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year in US dollars, through Google Play, with 14 days free for first-time subscribers. The second screen itself is free to use over Wi-Fi. Compare the plans.

Questions