An Extensive Look at the New MacBook Trackpad
One of the coolest things about the new MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air lines is the new multi-touch trackpad. The trackpad is now made of glass and uses the same technology that the iPhone does as far as multi-touch functionality goes. There is no longer a need for a button, as the trackpad itself is a giant button, giving you 39% more room for your fingers on the new trackpad. However, there are some really cool things that you can do with the new trackpad that go way behind just mouse clicks.
Most of the features that we will be discussing can be found in System Preferences > Trackpad. Unfortunately, out of the box, the new MacBooks come with a lot of the multi-touch features turned off. So unless you know to go to this preference pane right away, you might be a bit frustrated with the new trackpad. This would especially stand true for a new Mac user who is used to two buttons and the old style trackpad. However, when you fully enable all of the cool features on the new glass trackpad, you will never want to go back to the older version. In my case, I never want to use a mouse again (except for when gaming).
So, let’s navigate to the Trackpad Preference Pane and get to the screen pictured below:
Now you have the ability to turn your trackpad into something much more useful. First off, highlighting each feature selection will show a short video of each feature in action. The one-finger options are fairly self-explanatory. ’Tap to Click’ will allow you to simply tap on the track pad to click instead of having to push the button down. I use this feature a lot more than fully clicking the button down. ’Dragging’ and ‘Drag Lock’ allow you to tap once and then drag anything around your desktop.
My personal favorite option is ‘Secondary Tap’. This has been around on OS X for awhile, but some people I talk to do not know about it. This allows you to mimic a right mouse click by simply tapping two fingers on your trackpad at the same time.
The most powerful options come with the three- and four-finger options. Swiping three fingers left or right allows you to go forward or backward in any given application. This works wonderfully in your browser, as it can be used for previous page navigation. As for four-fingered options, you can swipe four fingers up to show your desktop, four fingers down to enter “show all windows” expose mode, or swipe left and right in order to switch applications. Some hidden gems include: allowing you to pinch in and out with two fingers while in an application in order to zoom in and out and being able to rotate images using two fingers.
While most Mac power users will already know about these features, many new Mac users can use nearly all of these new features to their advantage in making their MacBook experience more enjoyable.
This is a nice article, but if you’ve kept abreast with macbook news, this piece doesn’t tell you anything you don’t already know.
So, now that you’ve restated the tutorial in the preference panel, what about customization? Will there be a way for developers to create an app that will allow me to add more functionality to my trackpad with other types of clicks, or app specific assignments?
By the way, the forward and back 3 finger slides don’t work in Firefox. In Illustrator CS2 the scroll only seems to work up and down. i’ve only had my MBP for a few days now, so i haven’t yet discovered all of the nooks and crannies where there’s room for improvement…
Don’t get me wrong, i love the new track pad and i’m going around telling everyone how cool it is, but discovering that similar multi-touch functionality is in plenty of PC books, (they just don’t work as well), but customization is what will really set the MacBook trackpad apart if only we can really do some cool stuff. For example, why not an interface that “learns” a new multi touch pattern and then allows us to assign a behavior? Say i put all five of my fingers on the pad in a circle and that would allow me to, i don’t know bring up a new finder window in front of whatever i’m working on. Or WTF? Why can’t i switch spaces with it?
Coming from my Kensington Expert Mouse Pro (4+ button trackball) i am able to program six different click combos which can be application specific, plus it has six globally assignable buttons and a scrollwheel click which can be modified. I would also love to jettison the mouse in favor of the pad, but it isn’t quite there on the software end.
On that note, Apple needs to incorporate the new pad into the wireless keyboard, ideally detachable and swappable between left/right side attachability for both lefties and righties. i’d love to kick back in my chair with a keyboard on one knee and the pad on another instead of hunching over typing this over-long comment. And for that matter, as a power user, it’s awkward to add the keystroke modifiers on the built in keypad while i’m using the track pad. Also, what’s up with the sharp milled aluminum edges where my wrists rest while tying? You’ll be able to tell a MacBook user by by the impressions left in the skin on their arms!
All in all a great product with amazing potential for mind-blowing improvement, but this article is not.
EDIT: if i could edit my post i would change the last paragraph to:
Great design for the track pad with room for extensive third party improvement. Extensive, this article is not.
Thanks!
Download Multi-Clutch. It is a great free app that lets you set your trackpad to work in other programs (like Firefox) as well as setting global gestures (such as three finger swipe down minimizes the open window). I have it and trust me, it makes the trackpad 10x better.
Thanks! i’ll try that out. Much appreciated.
I’m a fairly competent user, but amidst all the other cool tricks on my new MBP (my first laptop Mac) I managed to miss the secondary click. Thanks for showing me!
One of my favorites is when watching a DVD. You can FF or REW with two fingers. Simply place them on the trackpad, move them a short distance (1″) in the direction you wish (R for FF/L for REW). Wait, keep your fingers down, because if you move an inch, stop, another inch & stop, another inch & stop, etc., it increases the FF/REW speed, just like hitting the button on a remote.
Using three fingers will skip forward & back as scene selection. I hate using a mouse or remote now. Enjoy!
Thanks!!!! I just bought my first Mac a few days ago and was literally hating this crazy touchpad – i thought it was clunky and useless, and thought i would “enter the 21st century” by buying a wireless mouse. little did i know that my trusty touchpad possesses technology of the future
You may say I’m naive to have not known, but I am lifelong (recovering) PC user and the Mac World is rather overwhelming 