Connected Addendum

Apples

David's Newspaper Columns  (updated weekly)

Getting More From Apple's TrackPad

The TrackPad is the touch pad that comes on the MacBook Air.  (Don’t you wish companies would stop capitalizing letters in the middle of words?)  Apple has moved some of the interesting “Multitouch gestures” from the iPhone to make them available to MacBook Air users.

 

1. Use one finger to move the cursor, as you would on any touch pad
2. Use two fingers to “pinch” the TrackPad to zoom out; or use a reverse pinch to zoom in.  In some screens, this will change the size of the text displayed.
3. Use 3 fingers to swipe a webpage to visit previously visited pages.  Swiping left goes back; swiping right goes forward.
4. The 3 finger swipe works the same way to browse through your photos in iPhoto.
5. To rotate a photo, rotate two fingers over the photo.
6. Use two fingers in an up and down swipe to scroll through long documents or web pages.

 

Using the TrackPad takes some getting used-to for MS-Windows users -- because you have to remember whether to use one, two or three fingers -- and you have to remove your finger from the TrackPad to make sure it doesn’t get in the way of using the button.  But once you get the hang of it, you can do it 90% of the time without a hiccup.