Apple released Mac OS 10.4.7 yesterday. Why do I write about a software update? One magical little fix: adding trackpad right-clicking1 to MacBook Pros and recent PowerBooks.
The whole “one-button mouse” thing is one of the topics that people like to trash Apple for. Really you don’t think much of it once you’re used to using a Mac (or, like most, you just get a two-button mouse). Most of the time, when you need to click something, it’s a normal click. The oft-repeated reason that Apple’s never caved and just started including two-buttons on all their Macs is that it forces software designers to think about how they design their programs. It’s easy to bury things in contextual menus, but maybe by making them think about it, they might come up with a better way. I buy that explanation, but being that I’m not a programmer. I’ll leave it at that.
So back to this software update. Mac laptops have one big mouse button below their trackpads. This is a good thing. Most people use their right hand to use their mouse. (I, a lefty, use my right for real mouses, and use either for trackpads.) Given the premise that most clicks are left clicks, that means that on a two-button laptop you’re always crossing your hand over the un-used right button to click the left one. This isn’t the worst ergonimc situation in history, but having an entire button that you’re free to click anywhere does make a difference. You don’t have to contort your hand to fit the design of the machine. But with only one button on a Mac laptop, how does one right-click? In the past, you held down the CMD key while clicking. This wasn’t a big deal. Usually you just keep your left hand on the keyboard, anyway, while moving your right hand off the keyboard to use the trackpad, so you just hit CMD with your thumb. Not too bad.
All Mac laptops released in the last year or so include a nice feature. If you drag two fingers across the trackpad, it will scroll whatever window has focus. (See it in the right column of Apple’s page about the MacBook Pro.) This is great when reading webpages. No using the mouse to drag down the window’s scroll bar, no having to press a tiny ↓ key. You just drag the page with two fingers and it scrolls. It might be one of those things you have to use to appreciate, but it really is great and you get used to it in minutes.
Now, with 10.4.7, any Mac that allows two-finger scrolling also allows two-finger right-clicking. Place two fingers on the trackpad and click, and you get a right-click. No more having to click CMD witih your left hand. Yes, I know, I just wrote five paragraphs describing how great a silly new software feature is that took Apple 30 years to come up with just to replace one button on a mouse, but man, once you use it for a few minutes, it really is an elegant, civilized solution.
- Enabled via the trackpad pane of the Keyboard and Mouse settings in System Prefences, off by default. ↩