Skip to Content

MacBook Air trackpad settings video included in System Preferences


Among the delightful tidbits taking up precious space on the MacBook Air's slender hard drive or SSD, you'll find this very handy video guide to stretching, zooming, scrolling and rotating using the power of human touch. It's tucked away in System Preferences under the Keyboard Trackpad tab.

It seems a little silly to animate a guide like this, but I'll admit that I found myself more likely to try the finger moves after watching the demo. No doubt the upcoming multitouch-equipped MacBook Pro machines will feature a similar guide for the perplexed.

Among the delightful tidbits taking up precious space on the MacBook Air's slender hard drive or SSD, you'll find this very handy video...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

15 Comments

Filter by:
Callipso

Guys does anyone know if the MacBook pro recieved the new multitouch trackpad, like the Air?
I've seen those news here:
http://www.maconair.com/next-gen_macbook_pros_to_gain_airs_multi-touch_trackpad

February 29 2008 at 7:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tmd

Anyone know if you can use this 3 finger swipe to navigate your Spaces?

February 28 2008 at 12:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to tmd's comment
jollyllama

@tmd:

As best I can tell, the swipe isn't assigned to anything in Finder. Unfortunately, it's not configurable at all, it does what it's set to and that's it. It goes forward and backward in iPhoto and Preview, as well as Safari. That's all I've found so far.

February 28 2008 at 2:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Marcos

How is it silly? It's a fantastic way to teach people that don't watch the Keynote nor the liveblogging for the Keynote nor read Apple websites everyday (i.e. most people).

Most of you probably don't remember, but the old old old Control Panel on System 1 through 6 (not sure about 7) had little pictures and little animations showing what a double click is. Macs used to come with a Mousing Basics program to teach you how to drag.

Some of these actions are a given now, but when they were introduced to the masses having those illustrations there was very valuable.

This videos are the same thing, only in 2008.

February 27 2008 at 11:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tendo

come on its The Unofficial Afterthefact Weblog

I kid, but really this is old old news.

February 27 2008 at 9:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Zinod

You can copy-paste this path into the Go To Folder dialog:

/System/Library/PreferencePanes/Keyboard.prefpane/Contents/Resources

This is where the videos are located. Some non-multitouch macs have the videos installed none the less.

February 27 2008 at 9:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
drewpurchacct

So...TUAW...Why have you been so, well, un-informing lately? This has been something that most people knew since the DAY it was debuted at Macworld. Steve talked about it, and Apple employees were quick to point it out. You've been so slow to produce new news lately, and now you're recapping OLD news? Why?

February 27 2008 at 9:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Elliot

I've got a brand new MBP w/ Multitouch right here, and I can confirm this is in the pref pane.

Multitouch is neat (I just blew away our IT guy showing it off) but it's a little janky in it's implementation. There are really only a few programs you can use it it, and sometimes it has wierd assignments, ie pinching/stretching zooms in Preview but not in iPhoto.

Anyway, I'm more excited about the future of this tech than it's current implementation.

February 27 2008 at 8:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Wartooth

You're right dewey. The other day I was playing with an iPod touch swiping the photos. When I tried out the three finger swipe on the Macbook Air it worked the opposite way for pictures in Preview. I can understand why they do this (as the scroll bar is actually scrolling down the list) but I thought conistency across the devices would be more important.
How does it behave in fullscreen on the Air?
I prefer the iPhone/Touch behaviour as it is closer to the expected and known physical behaviour of moving photos.

February 27 2008 at 8:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dewey

Is it just me or does it seem that the swipe is backwards in that video, or even in the MacBook Air in general. Swipe left to right and the picture comes in from right to left.

February 27 2008 at 7:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Dewey's comment
Shunnabunich

Absolutely! It would be much better (and more consistent with the already-established iPhone/iPod touch gestures) the other way around. Little things like this make me wonder how they could possibly slip by Apple with their level of attention to detail. This, and the wonky perspective of the Leopard dock's "Abbey Road" divider. :P

February 27 2008 at 11:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nick

Nothing silly about it.

I have an MBA, and without the video's it would be very difficult to describe a one finger drag, and a one finger drag lock.

A short paragraph might do it, but preference panes are not the place for help files. The videos show me both what I am setting, and how to use it in a simple and totally intelligible way.

February 27 2008 at 7:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.