How to Use a Mac Trackpad

Macs use gestures on their trackpads for standard computer commands.

For first-time Mac users, Apple's trackpad may be confusing. Unlike other laptop trackpads that generally have the left and right click buttons at the bottom, Apple's entire trackpad is a button. Further, there's no hard-wired method of right-clicking. Instead, Apple has designed the trackpad to work with multi-touch gestures, a technology that recognizes specific finger movements on the trackpad that correspond to common computer commands, such as scrolling, right-clicking and zooming. While it may be confusing at first, practice makes perfect. Learning just a few gestures will make computing on a Mac much more enjoyable.

Instructions

1. Press down on the trackpad to click a link or icon. Quickly press down on the trackpad twice to double-click.

2. Tap the trackpad lightly with two fingers simultaneously to access the standard right-click menus.

3. Place two fingers on the trackpad and move them quickly to the left to access the previous Web page or folder you've viewed.

4. Place three fingers on the trackpad and move them quickly to the right or left to access full screen applications or Spaces to the right and left of your desktop, respectively.

5. Place two fingers on the trackpad and gently move them vertically up and down the trackpad to scroll through Web pages, PDFs and other documents.

6. Place three fingers on the trackpad and quickly move them down the trackpad to access your Expose dashboard, which displays all applications currently open on your Mac.

7. Move your mouse cursor over a word and tap the trackpad twice with three fingers to look up the definition of that word with Apple's built-in dictionary.

8. Move your cursor over a column of text on a Web page or a face on a photo and tap the trackpad twice with two fingers to zoom into that area.

9. Place two fingers on the trackpad and move them together at a diagonal angle to zoom out of a photo or document. Move them apart at a diagonal angle to zoom in.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't want to press the trackpad all the way down to single- or double-click a link or icon, you can turn on "Tap to Click," which allows you to tap the trackpad with one finger to click. Simply click the "Apple" logo in the upper left corner of your screen and click "System Preferences." Click the "Trackpad" option in the "View" section, and check the box next to Tap to Click under the One Finger heading.

References

• Apple; OS X Lion: About Multi-Touch Gestures; July 2011
• Apple; Magic Trackpad: About the Tap to Click Feature; October 2010