Advanced, not complicated
It’s a bit like explaining Brexit on the children’s news. Making quite complex material accessible and understandable. The Advance does that to some extent too. It’s quite an advanced little device, but you actually get the hang of it straight away.
The centric Advance is perhaps Mousetrapper’s most popular model. It’s comfortable to use, has plenty of extra (programmable) buttons and an extensive touchpad, which I’ll come back to later. Because it sits directly in front of you, between you and your keyboard, you maintain a compact working posture. Your arms operate the mouse and keyboard within shoulder width, which is particularly beneficial for relaxation in the shoulders.
Using the Advance 2.0
You control your cursor using the ‘pad’ on the trackpad. The pad measures approximately 8 x 5 cm and can be operated with 1 to 3 fingers at a time. This gives you a great deal of control and precision. It can be scrolled vertically and slid horizontally. There are no restrictions; the device still allows the cursor to move even when you’re at the far left or far right of the pad.
With 2000 DPI (dots per inch), your cursor flies across your screen at lightning speed. You can also reduce the sensitivity if you’d like to ‘train’ your way towards that light-speed gradually. You can increase the speed step by step.
The mouse has 6 buttons. In addition to the usual left and right mouse buttons, there are also buttons for double-clicking, copying, pasting, and scrolling up and down. You can also scroll using the mousepad, on the right-hand side.
Using the Mousetrapper driver, MTkeys, you can change button functions or switch scrolling with the scroll wheel on and off. You can even navigate forwards and backwards through folders and within browsers.
Shoulder-friendly
The Advance really comes into its own when you use both hands at the same time. I (Tim) often need to work with precision. In the back office of our webshop, but also in Photoshop. The left-click function on the Mousetrapper mat is slightly less precise because pressing it can accidentally move the cursor.
Using the Mousetrapper driver, I’ve replaced the double-click with a left-click, so I can now move the mouse with my right hand and click with my left. If that gets tedious, I could also place my favourite click on the right, allowing me to move the mouse with my left hand and click with my right. As you can see, the strain on your shoulders is nicely distributed, and you can choose which arm you use for the most work.
Raising the keyboard
This trackpad is quite low at 2 cm, but for taller and very flat keyboards, it also offers the option of raising it to the right level. There is a rubber mat underneath the Advance 2.0. If you leave it folded in, the Mousetrapper is slightly higher. When you fold it out, the Mousetrapper sits slightly lower and the keyboard on the mat is slightly higher.
An additional advantage of the mat is that the keyboard sits firmly on it and cannot simply slide away.
A trackpad or centric mouse, as the Mousetrapper is known, is primarily designed to centre your posture. Keyboard straight in front of you, mouse straight in front of you, shoulders as relaxed as possible, and you’re ready to go.
However, there are more benefits. For instance, you can distribute the strain across your hands and arms more evenly. A product like the Advance also features far more buttons and functions than a standard mouse, meaning you rely less on the keyboard and cursor.
Customise with MT keys
Mousetrapper’s intuitive driver, MTkeys, lets you easily change functions on the trackpad. With the help of an image of the Advance and clear instructions, changing functions is a piece of cake.
The Advance features as many as 6 buttons, each of which can perform a different function. It is even possible to create multiple profiles, allowing you, for example, to assign completely different functions to the buttons by switching between those profiles, or to adjust the cursor sensitivity.
An Excel profile with cut, copy and paste without formatting. Or a Photoshop profile with zoom in, zoom out and increased cursor precision. You’ll only get the most out of the Mousetrapper once you’ve installed MTkeys.
