Filed under: Portables, Mac 101
Mac 101: Right-click on a laptop
Oh, the one-button mouse. You either love it or you hate it. Veteran Mac users adore the elegance and simplicity; switchers bemoan the loss of a second (or third) mouse button. Of course, the problem is easily fixed by either holding down the Control button or -- wait for it -- buying a two-button mouse.On a laptop, you've got another option. MacSupport points out this simple method of using a "two-finger tap" in place of a right click. To set things up, follow these steps.
In the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane, select "Trackpad Gestures" under the Trackpad section. From there, select "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click" and you're all set. Now, tapping the trackpad with two fingers will execute a right click.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mingistech said 9:14AM on 5-28-2008
...and if you don't like to use the TrackPad for clicking... you can just rest two fingers on the pad and click the botton to "right click"
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wOMo said 9:26AM on 5-28-2008
Or....you could use the Mighty Mouse that came with your mac :) You know the one Dave! The one you referred to as having only one button..
Well... it's actually got four buttons. Go to Systems Preferences > Hardware > Keyboard & Mouse > Mouse tab.
There you will see all the different choices for programming your Might Mouse and the corresponding four buttons.
"Next I'd like to introduce you the Macintosh.... it does a lot of great things like Graphics, but it's can't open word docs." /sarcasm
You write for the unofficial apple weblog and you don't know about the mighty mouse!?!?!?!
What the heck went wrong here????
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nr said 9:31AM on 5-28-2008
Your laptop came with a mighty mouse? Mine didn't come with one, what the heck went wrong here!!!!!!
.taft said 9:31AM on 5-28-2008
...or you could notice that this is filed under "portables" and realize that laptops don't come with mice
thethirdmoose said 9:39AM on 5-28-2008
I hate the mighty mouse. I want to right click *without* bizarrely contorting my hand and pulling my index finger off the mouse.
Karen LH said 9:52AM on 5-28-2008
"I hate the mighty mouse. I want to right click *without* bizarrely contorting my hand and pulling my index finger off the mouse."
I guess I don't understand this comment. I use the mighty mouse, and hold my hand exactly as for a regular 2-button mouse: index finger for left-click (and scroll ball) and middle finger for right-click. (I don't use the side buttons at all, as those *do* seem to require hand contortions.)
blatz said 9:43AM on 5-28-2008
...or you could get a clue, and realize how stupid it is to be giving tips on how to use a mouse with a laptop when there's a perfectly good trackpad built in to it (not to mention the fact that the article is specifically about using the trackpad, NOT "how to right click on a Mac").
Your smarmy sarcasm about Dave not knowing about the Mighty Mouse is just as dumb as it would have been had he had written an article about using Spaces on a Macbook Pro, and you had chimed in with an idiotic comment saying "...or, you could just plug in a second monitor so you dont need to use Spaces"
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Tim said 9:46AM on 5-28-2008
Lay off wOMo. The first paragraph is a poorly written generalization about all Macs so the Mighty Mouse crack is deserved.
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Alan said 9:50AM on 5-28-2008
I miss the old click-n-hold...
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mingistech said 10:02AM on 5-28-2008
you don't have to miss it... it still works.
Alan said 10:10AM on 5-28-2008
Not everywhere. Well, only on the dock.
len said 10:01AM on 5-28-2008
"Of course, the problem is easily fixed by either holding down the Control button or -- wait for it -- buying a two-button mouse."
So, what you're saying is, the problem is solved by employing an inelegant work-around, or avoiding Apple altogether.
On the laptop you have little choice without a desk, and the two-finger tap is as equally (and often) annoying when it goes off by accident as it is convenient.
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ill trooper said 10:05AM on 5-28-2008
I just taught this technique to a friend the other day and laid to rest one more bit of anxiety she was feeling about switching away from Windows.
Another great "101 Tip" is navigating through a folder-nesting in the finder by holding the command (formerly 'apple') key while clicking on a window's name at the top of the window - a pop-up menu will appear allowing you to climb back through the folder's hierarchy. Great for figuring out where a file is if you got to it via a search. This also works in Safari, by the way.
And for the record (and back on topic), I try to use a two-button mouse whenever I can - I get sore from the angle the trackpad puts on my wrist during long sessions.
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Simon said 10:20AM on 5-28-2008
Just waiting for a three-finger click for middle click now :)
(One can hope)
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Brendan West said 10:37AM on 5-28-2008
Actually, with the MacBook Air's gesture track pad, three fingers swipes through Cover Flow, doesn't it?
Also, this tech has been around since 2004, as my MacBook Pro worked like this out of the box. Come on people, explore your preference panes a little more...
STL said 10:57AM on 5-28-2008
Navigating Folder Nesting in Leopard - In addition to the Command-LeftClick, Leopard provides navigation by "right clicking" on the window title.
I think either technique will work in almost all Mac apps, not just the Finder.
Mike said 10:35AM on 5-28-2008
"Veteran Mac users adore the elegance and simplicity"
Very un-true and biased. I've owned nothing but Apple since the Apple II+ and think the one-button mouse/trackpad is just about the most stupid thing that Apple clings to.
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SpinThis! said 11:02AM on 5-28-2008
Hear, hear! After using the second button, it's pretty hard to go back to using a 1-button mouse—though I'm not sure adding a second button to a laptop's trackpad is really the answer. I've seen less computer savvy people really struggle with the trackpad and adding another button might be confusing to them. Then again, usually these people end up adding a mouse anyway.
However, on the desktops, Apple should enable the contextual menu by default these days. Go hit up an Apple store and within 10 minutes, you'll probably hear someone ask a genius "My right click doesn't work... " Genius: "Oh, you can turn that on in your preferences. I'll show you on the iMac over here..." Even Mac users know what "right click" means (even if they're left-handd and they've set up their mouse to be opposite.).
Mark P said 10:40AM on 5-28-2008
This is by far the best way to right click on a laptop. I wonder why this option is not enabled by default. The same accounts for enabling tabs in Safari. Why would they disable this by default??
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Ed said 9:48PM on 5-28-2008
Tabs are disabled by default?