A few weeks ago I shared on social media how I haven’t used a mouse in years. Ever since I got my MacBook Pro laptop I’ve used my trackpad for everything–including designing–and can’t even remember the last time I touched a mouse for anything.

The response was such a mixed bag of yays and nays. People either loved using their trackpad or hated it.

I thought perhaps I might share the best-ever setting for your trackpad to sway those from a ‘nay’ to a ‘yay’. And why this isn’t a default is beyond me.

I detest having to depress and click the trackpad. Therefore my settings make it so I don’t have to do that–just a light tap or holding of the fingers. I think the biggest ‘clicking’ time under the default setting is when you click and drag. It wasn’t until my husband got a MacBook Air that I realized that I had to make a switch in the settings. I must have known to switch it and forgot it because I had to set it that way on mine.

And this setting isn’t where you’d think it would be.

 

 

I have no idea why this isn’t found in the Trackpad settings. To use three fingers to do all these wonderful things, go to System Preferences/Accessibility/Mouse+Trackpad/Trackpad Options and change Enable Dragging to Three Finger Drag.

If you aren’t using this, it will be a game changer for you!

I tap or hold three fingers to click and drag everything, from moving a window, to pulling points or moving elements in Illustrator, to highlighting or selecting text that needs to be copied or deleted, to a plethora of other things!

As with anything new, it will take time to adjust. But once your muscle memory is in place, you’re never gonna wanna use a mouse again. Or I would think, anyway. ;)

Another tip I have is to use two fingers to ‘right-click’ as if using a mouse. This may be something you are already doing, but if not, give it a try.

If I have any additional tips on customizing your Mac’s trackpad, I’ll try to remember to put them here. In the meantime, go change that setting because it’s pretty darn awesome!