Comprehensive Guide to Mac Trackpad Gestures and Force Touch

Mac Trackpad Gestures

Page 2 – Gestures for Scrolling and Zooming Around

On the next tab, you’ll find some other great options for Mac trackpad gestures. For example, this is the first place I go when I set up a new Mac, to turn off my personal pet peeve – Scroll direction: Natural. To me, there’s nothing natural about moving my finger down on a page and having said page move upwards.

Mac Gestures Scroll and Zoom System Preferences
In the Scroll & Zoom tab, you can turn off Scroll Direction: Natural, and do other fun stuff

Now, what if you want to zoom in or out on a page or document? Just put two fingers on your trackpad, and pinch inwards or outwards to zoom in or out.

Mac Gestures - pinch to zoom
Pinch in with two fingers to zoom in
Mac Gestures - Zoom Out
Spread your fingers outwards to zoom out

If you’re in a web page or PDF, you can also use a Mac trackpad gesture for smart zooming. If you double-tap with two fingers, you’ll zoom in and back out of that page or document.

Mac Gestures - Smart Zoom
Double-tap with two fingers to smart zoom

Need to rotate a photo or something else in Preview? Just move two fingers around each other in the Preview app with your image loaded. This also works with PDF documents, or just about anything else you can view in Preview.

Mac Trackpad Gestures - Rotate
Move your fingers around each other to rotate objects in Preview

Up Next: Navigating Web Pages and Full-Screen Apps

2 thoughts on “Comprehensive Guide to Mac Trackpad Gestures and Force Touch

  • Yes, that’s true. Hence this statement:

    Speaking of which, this guide assumes you are running macOS Sierra on a MacBook or MacBook Pro with a Force Touch trackpad, or any Mac with a Magic Trackpad 2.

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