The basics are tap once to click and tap with two fingers to simulate a right mouse-click. In macOS Big Sur, the MacBook recognizes fourteen trackpad gestures. This isn’t unique to Apple with many laptops having the same ability, but Apple may make better use of the capability than its competitors. Related: M1 Mac & MacBook Owners Can Now Download Their Very Own Chrome VersionĪpple’s MacBook laptops have multi-touch trackpads, allowing them to detect more than one finger at a time. With the first Macintosh computer in 1984, Apple brought this advanced technology to small businesses and professionals at a more affordable $2,500 price. In fact, the Xerox Alto, released in the early 1970s, was the first computer to implement this new type of computer interaction, but the price was exorbitant, costing over $30,000. The research led the company to Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, where the concept of mouse-based control, facilitated by a graphical user interface, was being tested. Beyond the aesthetic, Apple did the work, researching how to make computers easier to use. The ‘Happy Mac’ icon shows a curved human face connecting with a square computer face.

It’s worth mentioning that Apple makes multi-touch trackpads for Mac desktop computers and all of the trackpad gestures that work on the MacBook’s built-in trackpad will provide the same function on a Mac with an added trackpad.Īpple has a long history of focusing on the user interface and this is represented in the icon for the Finder file manager. For example, pinch to zoom works just like it does on an iPhone or iPad. There are fourteen shortcut actions possible with a touch or swipe of one or more fingers. Anyone new to a MacBook may not realize that Appledesigned special gestures in macOS that are only accessible with a multi-touch trackpad.

Mac trackpad gestures not working