macbook promacostrackpad
If I leave my mouse in one spot for several seconds with my finger on the touch pad, it interprets it as a downclick. So if I hover over a file while thinking about something and then move my cursor, it will try to drag the file, if I hover over text and then move the cursor it will select text, and so on.
I have gone into the System Settings and unchecked "Tap to Click" already, but that doesn't seem to do it. Is there another way to disable this feature?
Yep!
You double-tap and lift off to select the word. Then double-tap the selected word and start dragging immediately keeping your finger down. It's actually kind of tricky to get to work without dragging the word but once you get it a couple of times it gets easier.
Here's an explanation on how to do it also from macworld.com, same as above:
To select text (and this works in nearly any program that involves text) on a word-by-word basis, do a double-click-and-hold before you start dragging, instead of a single click. As you move the mouse along now, you’ll see that entire words are added to your selection as soon as the cursor touches their first character. So if you’ve got a fair bit of text to select, but still need precision, this is a pretty quick way to get it done.
Here are my trackpad settings
On my MacBook Pro 15", Mid 2012, there is a new option for dragging with three fingers in Mountain Lion. You place the pointer on the window title and use three fingers to move it around. As soon as you let go of the track pad it releases the window. To make the window stick to your pointer you tab twice with three fingers and tap again to release it.
Important is that activating three finger swipe gestures for Expose change to four finger swipes.
Best Answer
Did you put more than one finger on your pad ? Precisely, did you put exactly three fingers ? That may be your problem, and therefore your solution. In the preference menu, you can disable the "Three finger drag".