Customizing Your Trackpad Settings

If you use a Trackpad with your Mac you should check out all of the customization settings. Even if you don't change anything, there are probably gestures you aren't aware of that you could be using.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let's take a look at your Mac's Trackpad settings.
MacMost is brought to you thanks to a great group of more than 1000 supporters. Go to MacMost.com/patreon. There you can read more about the Patreon Campaign. Join us and get exclusive content and course discounts.
 
Most Mac users use a trackpad. Not just any trackpad. But Apple's excellent trackpad. If you on a MacBook, of course, it's built-in. That's why most Mac users use a trackpad. But even on a Desktop Mac you have a choice between a mouse or a trackpad. You can have the same functionality with Apple's Magic Trackpad. In addition, there are tons of ways to customize how the trackpad works. 
Go to System Settings and then scroll down to find Trackpad. Here you'll find all the trackpad settings divided into three categories. At the top you'll see a demonstration of whatever setting it is that you're currently looking at. So, for instance, right now it just showing you a simple click on the trackpad. Now one thing to know is you may see slightly different settings here depending upon which model MacBook you have or which Magic Trackpad you have. So I'm using the most recent Magic Trackpad from Apple. But on my M2 MacBook Air I, for instance, don't see Silent Clicking there. Some of these are going to be different for you.
Now the first setting here is Tracking Speed. So as you move your finger across the trackpad this is how fast the pointer moves. So if I set it all the way over here to Fast the same movement moves it pretty quickly across the screen. If I go to Slow I can move quite a bit to get across. So if you find you're doing this a lot then try increasing the Speed to get it to what you want. It accelerates so moving slowly will move with precision and moving quickly will jump a larger distance. For switching from an older trackpad or a Windows trackpad this may take some getting used to. But it is fantastic for quickly getting to wherever you want on the screen without having to continuously swipe like that and also for choosing the exact spot you want to click with precision. 
Now for clicking you can set how hard you need to click on the trackpad surface for it to be considered an actual click. So you can do Light and then you barely have to touch the trackpad for it to be a click or you can do Firm if you find you're always accidentally clicking. Then you really have to be more intentional when you click. Now Silent clicking is an option I have on my trackpad and with it Off you can hear an audible sound whenever I click. But turn it On I still hear a little bit of sound but definitely not that snap that you hear with this turned Off. 
Now there are actually two levels of Click. One is a simple click to click down somewhere. The other is a click and continue to click passed that. That's called a Forced Click and this can be used for various things. For instance if I click here it will move the cursor there. But if I click and then click passed that it will actually bring up the dictionary for that word. Likewise, if I were to click on a file here I just select that file. If I go to the icon for it though and I click and then I click passed that it will actually bring up Quick Look. Now you can change this to instead of Force click with one finger, to tap with 3 fingers instead. Note that if I turn off Force click and have to FeedBack then my only option here is tap with 3 fingers. 
Now this next setting here is the very important one. It is Secondary Click. Windows users know this as a right click. This is what brings up Context Menus. You can do this by holding the Control Key down on the keyboard and just doing a regular click. That brings up a Context Menu like the one for the Desktop here. But you can also do whatever is listed here. So Click with 2 fingers will actually bring up the Context Menu. But you can switch that to click in the bottom right corner or the bottom left corner of the trackpad. Or you can turn it Off so none of these will work but you can still hold the Control Key down and click to bring up the Context Menu. 
 Finally the last setting here is Tap to Click. So if you turn that On you can actually just tap the surface of the trackpad to click. You don't have to press down although that  still works as well. This allows you to almost completely silently click and it is effortless. If you've had this turned Off or you just had it turned On and you haven't tried just Tapping to Click give it a try for a day or two because you may find you prefer this.
Now let's go over to Scroll & Zoom. There are some settings here as well. The first one is very controversial. It is Natural Scrolling. Many years ago Apple switched to this so that scrolling on your trackpad on your Mac matches how you scroll, say, on an iPad or iPhone with a Touchscreen. You can see here in the demonstration at the top that if you just move a few fingers up the content moves with your fingers. But you could switch that to the opposite and then you could see how scrolling down will actually scroll the page down moving the content in the opposite direction from how you're moving your fingers. Whichever one you prefer you can be sure there is somebody who believes the opposite one is the only correct way to do it. 
Now the great thing about using the trackpad is you can Pinch with 2 fingers in or out to Zoom. You can be in an app, say here like Preview with an image, and if I pinch apart, spread 2 fingers apart like that, then you can see how I zoom in and 2 fingers together and I zoom out. This works on webpages too. I can zoom in and zoom out. There's also the ability to double tap with 2 fingers to zoom in. So here in Preview I just take 2 fingers and I double tap and you can see it zooms in like that. Not quite as useful as using 2 fingers and pinching. You can also use 2 fingers to Rotate. So here in Preview you can't rotate less than 90 degrees. But you could use 2 fingers to do that 90 degree rotation like that. In another app, like in Pixelmator Pro here, you could use this to easily rotate at any angle. 
Under More Gestures you've got a whole bunch of different things here. You've got Swipe Between Pages. If you go and turn that on you'd have to choose one of three options. Scroll left right with 2 fingers, Swipe with 3 fingers, or Swipe with 2 or 3  fingers. So whichever one you prefer. Scroll left right with 2 fingers. Say you're in Safari here. I could use 2 fingers and go back to the previous page. I could use 2 fingers to go forward again. For Mission Control you can use Control Left Arrow and Right Arrow to go between screens. But you can also use swipe left or right with 3 fingers or 4 fingers to do it. 
Notification Center you can bring up by simply clicking on the there or setting a keyboard shortcut. But you could also turn this on and then you can swipe from the right edge with 2 fingers. This is a little different than some gestures because you actually have to move your fingers kind of so they are off the sides like this and then drag. Then you drag back to the edge like that. 
You can also access Mission Control with swiping up with 3 fingers or 4 fingers. So instead of Control Up Arrow to get to Mission Control you just do that and you can see I've entered it there. Now I can do 3 fingers down to exit it. App Expose allows you to see all the windows in the current app and you could do the same thing here. So swipe down and there's App Expose. I just have the one window open there for the Settings App. 
You can use your thumb and 3 fingers to bring up Launchpad. Like this. Then you can do the opposite to dismiss it. It works if you do 4 fingers as well. So your entire hand. If you're not in Launchpad you can use 3 fingers out to temporarily show the Desktop to access icons on that. Then back in again, like that. So if you have these two turned On they basically work together with one extreme being Launchpad and the other extreme being Show Desktop.
So if you use your Trackpad with your Mac take the time to go through these. Set them up as you like. You can see it is easy to turn them On and Off and change them. So don't feel afraid to maybe try something out for awhile to see if you like it and then change it or switch it Off if you don't. I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 11 Responses to “Customizing Your Trackpad Settings”

Dan Wieder

2 years ago

I have the same settings but I can't get the Force Click and haptic feedback option to automatically open Quick look or open a photo. I must have something else set someplace but haven't found it yet.

So I have looked on my M1 Macbook Air and I can't make the "Look Up and Data Detectors" work with the Force Click with One finger. It does work with the "Tap with three fingers". I'm wondering if yours works as you show on your macbook or is there a difference with using the Magic Keypad.

Gary Rosenzweig

Dan: Not sure. Could be a setting, or just the model you have.

Margaret Parkes

Hi Gary, I have a problem with the sensitivity of my external trackpad. If my fingers are on it and I accidentaly brush it lightly while looking at a page it highlights large areas.

Margaret: Have you turned off Tap to Click? That's probably the only adjustment that would make a difference. Other than that it is just training yourself to not touch the Trackpad unless you want to move the pointer or click.

Shelah

Hi Gary, I lost the haptic on a macbook air trackpad after updating to Ventura 13.2
We've done all the diagnostics, reset the entire system and even wiped and reloaded it. Still no haptic control. Have you heard of or know a fix for it other than having the entire trackpad replaced?
Thanks!

Shelah: Sorry, I don't know anything about that. Have you called Apple Support? Taken it to the Genius Bar?

Shari

Hi Gary,
Thank you for these tutorials!
I updated to Ventura and am having trouble rotating in preview or anything else. Have you noticed any issues?

Shari: rotating what exactly? An image? A page of a PDF? A markup item?

Zee Truth

New Macbook Pro M2 running Ventura 14.4. Gary,
I simply can not use a mouse and my built-in trackpad at the same time or interchangeably. Please help me locate these settings.

Zee: Not sure what you are running into. What happens when you try to connect a mouse? Does the Trackpad stop working?

Comments Closed.

Customizing Your Trackpad Settings

Comments: 11 Responses to “Customizing Your Trackpad Settings”

Welcome to MacMost

Free Weekly Newsletter

MacMost Online Courses

Keyboard Shortcuts PDF

Connect with MacMost

MacMost Sections

Popular Tutorials

Information