How to Customize Trackpad Settings on Mac

The Trackpad is a fundamental element for many users, especially for those who work with an Apple laptop on a daily basis, be it the MacBook Air or the MacBook Pro. But beware, there are also many users who choose it to your iMac or Mac mini. For this reason, in this post we want to tell you how you can configure the Trackpad of your Mac to your liking.

How to Customize Trackpad Settings on Mac

Is there a difference between the Magic Trackpad and the MacBook Trackpad?

The first thing we want to tell you is if there really is a substantial difference between the Trackpad that is present in all the laptops of the Cupertino company and the one that users can choose or purchase separately to use it both with any MacBook and with another desktop computer from Apple, whether it’s an iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, or Mac Pro.

Magic Trackpad 2

Obviously, as soon as you compare one and the other, you can see a clear difference, mainly and exclusively in its size . In fact, this difference can not only be evidenced between the Trackpad of Apple laptops and the Magic Trackpad, but between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro themselves there is a difference in size in them.

MacBook Pro

Therefore, the only difference between the different Trackpads is that, the size, since at a functional level they are exactly the same, providing the same possibilities to all users. Of course, you have to take into account that some older MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, their Trackpad does not have Force Touch , since it was a technology that Apple began to implement from the year 2015.

Available configurations

Once you are clear that at a functional level, practically all Trackpads are the same, it is time to fully talk about all the possibilities offered to users to be able to adapt their use according to the preferences and needs of each one of them. they. In addition, as you can see, to access this configuration, you will just have to perform a few small steps that will take a few seconds, we leave them below.

  1. On your Mac, open the System Preferences app .
  2. Click Trackpad .
  3. Select the menu you want to display.
  4. Modify the parameters you want.

Ajustes trackpad

Once you are inside the Trackpad menu, you will be able to check how it has up to three sections where you can find different settings to fully customize the way you are going to use your trackpad, since this, as we will see later, is one of the the main advantages that users can take advantage of when using this element to control their computer.

point and click

Let’s go with the first of the available options, which encompasses the most basic navigation actions and what you can do with the Trackpad. However, despite being very basic, within each of them you can choose different ways of doing it, which can undoubtedly be very well adapted to any of the needs that users have. Below we will talk about each of them.

  • Query and data detectors . With this feature you can choose a gesture to quickly look up a word or perform tasks with certain types of data. The options you have to configure it are the following two.
    • Strong click with one finger.
    • Touch with three fingers.
  • Secondary click . This is one of the most used actions by all users, both on the Trackpad and on any traditional mouse. In this setting you can choose the gesture you prefer to secondary click on any of the elements that are present on the screen. The options are as follows.
    • Click or tap with two fingers.
    • Click in the lower right corner.
    • Click in the lower left corner.
  • Touch to click . In this case you can activate or deactivate this function so that with a simple touch on the Trackpad you can click, without having to press it.
  • Click . In this case you can choose the pressure that you will have to do so that the Trackpad itself recognizes the action.
  • Cursor speed . With this setting you can set the scrolling speed of the pointer when you move it across your computer screen.
  • Strong click and haptic feedback . On Trackpads that have Force Touch, you can click and then press hard to manipulate the variable speed media controls, “Quick Look” and See.

Trackpad Señalar y hacer clic

pan and zoom

Once you know what are the different basic settings that you can make to use your Apple computer. We go with those that serve to move throughout the entire system and also to zoom. They may not be used as often as the ones mentioned above, but at specific times they will be very helpful.

  • Displacement direction . By activating this option you will be able to move the content from one window to another in the same direction in which you move your fingers.
  • Zoom in or out . In this case, you just have to pinch with two fingers to increase the zoom, that is, to get closer. If, on the other hand, what you want is to reduce the zoom, that is, to move away, you only have to separate with two fingers.
  • Smart zoom . In case you want to zoom quickly and also the computer itself is in charge of doing it intelligently, you only have to tap twice with two fingers to increase or reduce it.
  • rotate . With this option activated, you only have to use two fingers to rotate the elements on the screen.

Trackpad Desplazar y hacer zoom

As you have seen, these settings are probably not going to be used continuously on a day-to-day basis, but without a doubt they are really useful at certain times when you have to perform different actions such as turning a page to another quickly or doing the zoom you need to consult any information in the best possible way.

more gestures

Finally, we come to the section where you have the opportunity to configure and adjust more gestures that will surely come in handy at some point or another. Obviously, you will not only be able to activate or deactivate them according to your preferences, but you will also be able to customize the way you do it in some of them.

  • Turn page . In this case you can choose the gesture you want to perform to change the page within a document. The options provided by Apple are as follows.
    • Go left or right with 2 fingers.
    • Pass with 3 fingers.
    • Move 2 or 3 fingers.
  • Switch between full screen apps . You can choose the gesture that will be accepted to be able to switch between different applications that are in full screen. The available gestures are as follows.
    • Go left or right with 4 fingers.
    • Go left or right with 5 fingers.
  • Notification Center . With a simple gesture you can also have access to the entire notification center. To do this you just have to go left from the right edge with 2 fingers.
  • Mission Control . If you want to access Mission Control by making a gesture, you just have to activate this function and choose the gesture you want to make. The following are the ones you have available.
    • Go up with 3 fingers.
    • Go up with 4 fingers.
  • App Expose . Here you can choose the gesture you want to make to open Exposé. The options are as follows.
    • Go down with 3 fingers.
    • Go down with 4 fingers.
  • launchpad . If you want to access the Launchpad with a single gesture, you just have to activate this option and join your thumb with 3 fingers.
  • Show desktop . To show the desktop, you have to activate this function and separate your thumb and 3 fingers.

Trackpad Más gestos