A method for enabling a touchpad, a relative position device, to operate as if it were a tablet, or absolute position device, so as to provide the same type of input that can be provided by a tablet, wherein a surface of the touchpad is mapped to a surface of the display screen, a finger is detected by the touchpad before it makes contact, the finger may move over the surface of the touchpad causing some visual feedback to occur on the display that indicates the absolute position of the finger as it moves over the touchpad, and making contact with the touchpad to thereby cause selection of an object.