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Speed Up Your Workflow With Trackpad Gestures [Mac laptops]

macbook multitouch trackpad gesture list

Coming from Windows, I am accustomed to doing only the basics with my laptop’s trackpad – dragging my finger around to navigate, and clicking on links and other items. With the trackpad on Mac laptops, though, you can do much more. Here is a list of a few of the maneuvers you can perform with a trackpad on a newer Mac.

 

1. Secondary clicking with 2 fingers, or with a secondary zone

This has to be enabled in the options, but you can perform the equivalent of a right-click one of two ways. You can set your Trackpad preference so that tapping two fingers on the trackpad operates as a secondary click, or you can set your preferences to set up a secondary zone in the bottom left or right corner of the trackpad.

 

2. Two finger scrolling for fast scrolling

You can scroll with two fingers at a time to quickly scroll up, down, or sideways.

 

3.  Two finger rotating

In some situations, you can rotate photos, pages, and more by forming an open pinching gesture with your thumb and forefinger, and rotating your hand.

 

4. Two-finger pinching to zoom

By pinching your thumb and forefinger together, you can zoom in or out on PDFs, images, photos, and more.

 

5. Three-finger swiping to navigate quickly

Swiping with three fingers lets you rapidly page through documents, move to a previous or next photo, and more. Swiping left and right with three fingers als operates just like the forward and back buttons in your browser.

 

6. Four-finger swiping to switch and view applications

If you swipe left or right with four fingers, you can switch among open applications with a menu that pops up. You can navigate this menu with a two finger swipe left or right, and then make a selection with your finger.

if you swipe upward with four fingers, your desktop appears and your application disappears. If you swipe downward, the application returns. If you’re in an application, the downward swipe will show you tiles with your open apps.

 

7. Magnify with Control + a two-finger swipe

To zoom in on the screen, hold down the control key and perform a two-finger swipe.

 

Did we miss any?

 

Sources:

Apple support

The New York Times: Master the MacBook’s Trackpad

DanielMiessler.com: The List of Apple Trackpad Gestures

Image by D’Arcy Norman