Macbook Trackpad

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The Macbook trackpad which I have is one of my favourite parts of this new laptop I got. Before, I could not do anything without a mouse. Now, I can even Photoshop without one.

But when you first stare at this new trackpad...It's just one solid thing that moves up and down when you click. How the hell do you navigate with this thing?!

Although the trackpad customizing thing in System Preferences shows you how to use this multi-touch gem, I will give you my opinion and advice on it. I found it so confusing in the beginning.

Open your System Preferences and click Trackpad under Hardware.

Here,it'll show you what your trackpad can do. My trackpad is the Solid-State scrolling Trackpad. It allows me to do 1, 2, 3 and 4 finger scrolling.

1 finger is simply moving your mouse around.

2 fingers allows you to:
+ Scroll up and down when you move your finger up and down.
+ Scroll left and right when you move our finger left and right.
+ Right click when you place two fingers on the trackpad and click.
+ Zoom in and out when you are viewing photos in iPhoto or Photoshop. (Check your own settings for this. I do the same thing as iPhones/touches)

3 fingers allows you to:
+ Move through pictures in your photo albums by swiping your fingers left and right to do so.

4 fingers (my love!) allows you to:
+ Show all of your open windows (not including those you have hid with Command - H) when you scroll down so you can click on any. Go back to normal by swiping up
+ Hide all of your open windows and reveal your desktop when you scroll up. Go back to normal by swiping down
+ Switch between applications by swiping left and right. Then, you can simply use the arrow keys and the enter key on your keyboard to go that application

I love my trackpad and it makes my life on a new OS so much easier. I hope this helped you too. Good luck and have fun experimenting with your own trackpad!