Mac Multi-Touch Gestures
Multitouch gestures let you use several fingers to do cool stuff on Mac Laptops. Not all Macs can perform these gestures, so if it doesn’t work, your laptop may not be new enough to support the gestures.
Basic (Have been supported for quite some time. If they don’t work, you must enable them in System Preferences.)
| Gesture |
Action |
| 2-Finger Drag Up/Down/Left/Right |
Scroll Up/Down/Left/Right |
| 2-Finger Click |
Equivalent to a Right-Click or Ctrl-Click |
| Hold Control while 2-Finger Dragging Up/Down |
Zoom In/Out on the Screen |
The Multi-touch Gestures below are supported on newer laptops such as the MacBook Air as well as Unibody MacBook and MacBook Pros (and the previous generation of MacBook Pros). Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard adds 4 finger gestures to older Macs that previously had only supported the 3 finger gestures.
Finder & Quick Look
| Gesture |
Action |
| 3-Finger Swipe Left/Right |
Go Back/Forward in Folder History |
| Pinch/Expand In Cover Flow |
Increase/Decrease Thumbnail Size |
| Pinch In Quick Look |
Exit Fullscreen |
| Expand (Reverse Pinch) In Quick Look |
Enter Fullscreen |
Exposé and App Swicher (Work Everywhere)
| Gesture |
Action |
| 4-Finger Swipe Up |
Hide Windows and Show Desktop (Exposé) |
| 4-Finger Swipe Down |
Show All Windows (Exposé) |
| 4-Finger Swipe Left/Right |
Open Application Switcher (You can use a Trackpad or Mouse to select the desired app, or use a 2-Finger scroll to switch apps, with a 4-Finger Click to choose it.) |
Safari
| Gesture |
Action |
| 3-Finger Swipe Left/Right |
Go Back/Forward |
| Pinch |
Increase Font Size |
| Expand (Reverse Pinch) |
Decrease Font Size |
Apple’s Mail.app
| Gesture |
Action |
| 3-Finger Swipe Up or Left |
Go to Previous Message |
| 3-Finger Swipe Down or Right |
Go to Next Message |
| Pinch |
Reduce Font Size |
| Expand (Reverse Pinch) |
Increase Font size |
Apple’s Preview.app
| Gesture |
Action |
| Rotate (Clockwise or Counter Clockwise) |
Rotate Image |
| Pinch Over Image |
Zoom Out (Reduce Image Size) |
| Expand (Reverse Pinch) Over Image |
Zoom In (Increase Image Size) |
| 3-Finger Swipe Up/Down/Left/Right |
Flip through Multiple Images/Pages |
| Pinch Over Thumbnails |
Reduce Thumbnail Size |
| Expand (Reverse Pinch) Over Thumbnails |
Increase Thumbnail Size |
Apple’s iCal
| Gesture |
Action |
| 3-Finger Swipe Left/Right |
Go to Previous/Next Day, Week or Month (Works like Cmd-Left/Right Arrow) |
Quicktime
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