The trackpad in the MacBook is rightfully considered one of the most convenient: its area is noticeably larger than that of Windows laptops, and the coating is more durable. The advantage of the touchpad in the MacBook is also that it has gestures for control: if you remember them, you can significantly simplify the interaction with the MacBook without having to use the keyboard or mouse once again, and at the same time reduce the strain on your hands. In addition, you will reduce the number of accidental trackpad taps that interfere with your MacBook experience. It will only take you a few minutes to figure out how to use them.
Recently opened apps on Macbook
How to minimize apps on Mac
If you use a three-finger gesture, you can minimize all the applications that you have open. Let’s say you have several windows running at the same time, but you can only show the desktop with one touch. Just put your thumb together, as well as your index and middle fingers, and then swipe in different directions.
If you do the opposite – pinch your fingers together – you will see the Launchpad mode , and the programs will be shown in a grid.
How to View Running Applications on Mac
At the same time, with a convenient gesture, you can launch Mission Control to view all open windows on your MacBook: just three fingers (four on some models) swipe up on the trackpad, after which the programs will be displayed as thumbnails. To add a new space on your MacBook , you need to click on the “+” in the upper right corner of the screen: you can also switch between spaces with a left or right swipe gesture on the trackpad.
At the same time, you can swipe down with three fingers to launch the Expose function : it is needed in order to temporarily move interfering windows, removing them from the screen. This feature was adopted by Microsoft, so Windows 10 laptops with trackpad gestures perform similar functions: using this gesture or pressing Win + Tab opens Task View.
How to work with files on Mac
How to highlight a word on a Mac
Single- tap the MacBook trackpad with two fingers to highlight a word, and double-tap to open a document. But instead of pressing Control or the right button, you can double-click by tapping the trackpad with two fingers.
This will allow you to call the context menu, and also reduce the load on the hand – the area between the thumb and forefinger, which are always in a tense state when using a mouse or keyboard.
How to Enlarge a Document on a Mac
You can also use Smart Gesture Zoom instead of pressing Option, Command and the “=” sign: just tap with your index and middle fingers. This will make the document scale optimal.
You can also use another zoom gesture: just pinch or spread two fingers until the size of the text on the MacBook screen is acceptable. Don’t confuse it with the similar Rotate Image gesture: place two fingers in it and rotate them clockwise or counterclockwise. Works in applications for viewing and editing photos.
How to control macbook
There are a few other cool features on the MacBook trackpad that will definitely make your life better: turning pages and switching apps. First, enable this gesture in the macOS settings.
- Go to System Preferences.
- Select Trackpad and click the Advanced Gestures tab.
- Turn on “Swipe between pages” and select the option “Swipe left or right with two fingers.”
This gesture allows you to page backward or forward when you are reading a book or using Safari. Agree, it’s quite convenient, because otherwise you will have to hover over the “Back” button or use the macOS keyboard shortcut !
Using the trackpad, you can even launch the Macbook Notification Center . To do this, in the trackpad settings, you need to check the box next to this item. You can then swipe left with two fingers from the right edge of your MacBook’s trackpad and the Action Center will appear on the screen. If you swipe your fingers from left to right, it will close. The function is enabled, but has no additional settings.
It may seem that the Windows developers have adopted almost all gestures from macOS , but this is not so: yes, some of them really work in a similar way. But not all are supported. In addition, the area of the trackpad on laptops is different, so the conditional image rotation gesture is sometimes more convenient to perform on the MacBook Air 13 than on a 16-inch ultrabook on Windows.
