Previously in Ubuntu Lucid (10.04) and Intrepid (9.10) getting Trackpoint scrolling working meant editing the X.Org pointer configuration manually – something just not within the grasp of the average user.

The great news for users of Ubuntu’s latest release Maverick Meerkat or 10.10 (released on 10/10/10) is that using GPointing Devices this can be configured with just a few clicks.

Simply:
- Search for and install “gpointing” in Ubuntu Software Centre
- Go to System > Preferences > Pointing devices
- Enable “Use wheel emulation”, choose button 2, and enable both vertical and horizontal scroll
- Click, OK – et Voila!

If you followed the previous instructions, you will want to remove the file created there:
rm /etc/hal/fdi/policy/thinkpad.fdi

Create the file /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf as root with the following content:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
MatchProduct "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint|ThinkPad USB Keyboard with TrackPoint"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Restart X/Ubuntu and test!

Note, the suggestions below assume you’ve either printed out notes or cue sheets to speak from or are using Presenter View to view your notes per slide on your screen while the slides themselves are displayed on the projector screen.  Also, these recommendations do not make for good re-distributable presentations; they are made purely for the live presentation.

“Powerpoint allows you to append notes to each slide viewable by the presenter. For the most part, the content of your current slides should become the notes and your slides should be limited to images, phrases, single words, graphs and other easy to digest details.

Too much detail per slide is what is referred to as “Death by Powerpoint” and people participating are either distracted by reading and not listening, or they give up as a result of the information overload.

Below are two images showing Powerpoint slides from a presentation I put together in 2008 during an exercise on using Powerpoint to enhance message delivery.  I got slated afterward for having too much information, but at least I got the first slides right!

The people you are presenting to are there to *listen* to what you have to say.   Tell them what they need to know and let Powerpoint illustrate, reinforce and prompt.”

I'd suggest this is too much text for any normal person to comfortably process per slide.

This graphic shows post-colonial leaders in Africa, and can be spoken to effectively.

I applied the above theory to the presentation I used to accompany my speech at INDIASOFT 2009 in Kolkata, India.

To prove that I still have geek left in me, this post celebrates me getting my Trackpoint scrolling working in Ubuntu 9.10, though using a Trackpoint instead of the Touchpad probably qualifies me anyway. For those who don’t know what a Trackpoint is, it’s that little “nipple” in the centre of your keyboard.

My Lenovo Thinkpad X301 uses an Alps instead of Synaptics trackpad and thus requires a slightly different configuration to that I found when I Googled this solution.

What is required is to create /etc/hal/fdi/policy/thinkpad.fdi with the following contents and then reboot:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
 <device>

 <!-- Trackpoint X301 -->
 <match key="info.product" string="DualPoint Stick">
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheel" type="string">true</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelButton" type="string">2</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelTimeout" type="string">200</merge>
 </match>

 <!-- Touchpad X301 -->
 <match key="input.product" string="AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad">
 <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">true</merge>
 </match>

 </device>
</deviceinfo>