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Why a Mac Does not Need a Second Mouse Button

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I get so tired of people saying that you cannot right click or scroll with a Mac. That is absolutely false, and I’m going to show you how to enable these functions.

On your Mac, open your System Preferences. This is basically the same thing as the Windows Control Panel. Once in System Preferences, open Keyboard and Mouse area. Click on the “Trackpad” tab.

Once in the Trackpad tab, look down under “Gestures”. Wow… what do you know? You can place a check in the box next to “use two fingers to scroll”, as well as next to “tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click”. That is your right click function. I don’t know why they called it a ’secondary click’, but it’s the basic right click.

You can, of course, hold down Control and click the trackpad, but why would you do that? It’s so fast, easy and convenient to use two fingers to tap. Once you do, I promise you’ll never think twice about it again.

If you have any other Mac Myths you’d like me to bust on video, be sure to leave a follow-up comment or send me an email to chris@pirillo.com.

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130 Comments

you dont really need to activate the clicking in order to get the secondary mouse click thing.

This hand guesture vid is GREAT!

hehehe — If you hit any “Thing” solid with that
fist … You’d have a broken thumb and maybe in
two places as well.

Love the video.

dude, don’t tuck you thumb under your fingers when making a fist. you’ll break your thumb punching like that.

Chris sold his soul to Apple! ;)

Having a two-button mouse makes even more sense if you’re running a Windows virtual machine on a macbook.

You can also right click in some cases by holding down the mouse button for a second.

I got used to the scrolling on the Mac too. Once you go Mac you don’t go back.

You guys seem awfully desperate to explain away why a right mouse button isn’t necessary. Give me a break. All these stupid little tricks are just not as easy as actually HAVING a second button. And, yes, I just bought a Mac Pro so I am dealing with this from experience.

I have a Microsoft Wheel Mouse plugged into my Mac. No drivers required. I right-click by… uh… right-clicking.

I have Exposé mapped to the wheel button, and feel crippled when I’m without it.

How do you laptop users get used to F9 ?

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The Mac way of doing things is designing for graphics work. If you use Photoshop, one of the most frustrating things that can happen is for you to be ten minutes into a complex operation that requires you to keep the mouse button held down (which involves many different possible tools like the stamp, burning/dodging, selection, etc.) only to accidentally right-click (which is very easy to do when you have constant pressure on the left button) thereby creating a glitch and forcing you to undo a lot of work! In the old days, the standard Mac one-button mouse was perfect for this kind of operation, and if you wanted two button functionality, you could always get a third party mouse. The modern Apple solution, with the single touch-sensitive button that can be programmed to either act as one-button or two, is genius. I get to turn on the second button when I want, or to turn it off when I’m in Photoshop. As far as I know, only Apple in the industry puts the kind of thought into these details necessary to achieve ease of use and overcome the limitations of manipulating things with a big plastic brick. Everybody else is just all about more features at any cost.

People like Logitech and Kensington sell you a feature list. Apple sells you a well-thought out tool. You wouldn’t want a screwdriver hanging off the side of your hammer, would you? For some reason people get stupid and forget common tool-making sense when it comes to computers, and demand that everything do everything.

I like the Apple mousing option of reversing right-left clicks. The traditional one button mouse allowed Mac users to rest their index finger just off the right side of the mouse, moving it slightly to the left for clicking. NOT resting the finger is a major cause or strain on the arm muscles right up into your shoulder. With multibutton mice, we can still have left button functions on the right to avoid RSI/OOS.
Plus the center button/scrollwheel click for opening links in tabs.
You’ve also gotta love the way the laptop Trackpad Preference acquires a menu option for Mouse if you happen to plug one in. Very smooth.

I love my Mac, but all that work when they could just include a secondary click device, er, right mouse button (Me thinks someone at Apple still has a hair up their butt about being wrong on this one and doesn’t have the guts to admit it). Thanks for info, looking forward to giving up my control click when I upgrade notebooks in a little while. (I don’t see that option on my PowerPC Macbook)

the people doing the live chatting are funny

Maddox was right, he can’t talk without using his hands!

Sure you can do anything with a Mac that you can do in a PC…cept you need to configure massively just to make it MORE LIKE A PC. IDIOTS. ALL mac users want their computers to be more like a PC. Fools.

you cant right click on a mac …

Pirillo thanks for showing them.

haha u make a fist like a sissy !!!
u will get beaten up sooo badly if u use this fist in a fight.

but nice vid.

your wrong. All these 3rd party apps for pc’s to get expose features or a dock at teh bottom etc etc. All i see i spc users wanting mac features, Need to configure massively? this tells me you never use OSX. i have not configured my leopard once. just installed and let it go. I dont need to, like you do on a pc. your the fool

You cant right click on ma mac? WRONG!!! Yes you can. The mighty mouse has 4 buttons. why cant people just research before talking.

chris isnt a fighter dude, chris is a lover..LOL…

Thanks! I knew about the scroll but not about the click. Woo!

Wow, thanks for clearing that up for me Chris! I always thought that you have to use Ctrl + the touch pad to right click, but I didn’t know you can do that.

must I be told that this or that user can’t use a Mac because they don’t have a second button? Check out an Apple Mighty mouse and if that’s no to your liking well there are other options such as the Microsoft Intellimouse. Chris Pirillo as written ainteresting article about this mouse myth. 

I like that it keeps showing that AMD symbol on the video, something Mac douche bags don’t have the privilege of having. This video by the way is stupid. Why the **** do you even have to turn it on. With PC it is always just on and you can do just about anything without ever touching the keyboard. And what is with this Zoom ****, are you like 80? There is a way to make it permanent, just turn down your resolution and never zoom again.

lol, i just said that to be irretating (:

i dnt hav those opptions in my mac tracking prefrences. any reason

thanks for the info!!!

mac si so dumb..windows owns all

biggest. geek. ever.

I find this very interesting — I was always one to think you couldn’t right-click using a Macbook. I’ve never owned a Macbook, but my friend who did said that myth was true. I guess I never thought he could be wrong — as he owned a Mac… Weird, eh? Thank you for correction my ignorance, Chris :P

lol * I saw it on the internet so it must be true* lol thats sooooo funy lol

You can right click on linux too ;)
how? locate your mouse figure out where the buttons are… there will be 2, click the one on >this side>>>(right), press down, or hold if more convenient. you will get the hang of it. no setting changes needed. you can zoom in too.

Simply right click the picture in Windows, and choose “Set as Background”. Voila. That picture is now on your desktop. In Safari for OS X, right click the picture and choose “Use image as desktop picture”. Oh, wait. You say you don’t have aright mouse button on your Mac? You don’t need one. Simply hold down the Ctrl key and click your mouse button. This does the same thing as a right click on a standard Windows mouse. Some people may want to choose to use a picture already on their computer, and switch to it as

Sure miss the trackpad scroll and click when I’m on a laptop that doesn’t support it.

It’s SOO true:
My cousin’s husband has a MacBook Pro, and he uses the EXACT SAME MICROSOFT WIRELESS MINI MOUSE that I use on my GATEWAY MICROSOFT WINDOWS VISTA PC (Which by the way SUCKS)
And his recognizes it like 5x faster than mine, and right click/scrolling works perfectly.
I love Apple! :)
Recently I have changed. After 20+ BSODs in Vista :P
iMac, here I come!

lets play checkers xDD

Thanks for the tips, I’ve just bought my first mac and am learning my way around it slowly. Great to see that advice so easy to follow on the web.
Cheers!

Chris your *** and an idiot. Macs suck, what is the point of setting a setting for double click?? easier to have two buttons.
what a waste of time this video was

man you rock, honestly awesome vids. made me laugh so much. anyway i just switched to mac and honestly im not going back to mean old windows lol.

I had a mac and holy **** did it suck 80% of the time the freaking thing wouldnt even cut on got rid of that ***** and i dont plan on going back

holy **** shut the ^^^^ up! we get it! Mac is good for some people, PC is good for most…

“ball up your fingers and make a fist…. you can use that fist to uh, uh. I don’t condone violence” wtf?

genious. just brillant!

perfect Views: 14,000

and your a waste of time, air, and space.

Wow Halogenetor your an idiot.Macs do not suck at all. Im a windows user and OSx is much better than the shite incompatable **** that is Vista.

And its not easiar to have two buttons you moron.

i heard you cant right click on a mac!

I hate this guy’s voice…and I disagree that its super easy to just use 2 fingers on the touch pad…I like control click way more. Plus, I have a mac mini.

very good video. I love my mac. I hate those dumb *** pc users that think macs dont right click

You can’t right click. . it’s secondary click. . . says it right there >.>

oh. . try doing that with a traditional map . . . you have to purchase the mini mouse. And it’s not cheap.

So I have to use TWO HANDS (hold ctrl+click) or THREE FINGERS (two fingers on touchpad) to perform the operation that PCs have done with a single dedicated button?

nope you can just fine.

thats the one thing i like about macs. hold control and scroll to zoom in seemlessly. anyone know how to do that on windows?

Just face it, you need a right click button, we don’t need the nerdiest sounding guy in history to waste five minutes of our time telling us they don’t, but thats why Apple can’t sell these things.

Calm down…. Oh and by the way you made a fist wrong…youll break your thumb that way lol…

Calm down…. Oh and by the way you made a fist wrong…youll break your thumb that way lol…

Well The TRUTH IS THAT YOU CANNOT RIGHT CLICK WITH A Mini Mouse. Thats it. Face it. And when a professional needs a mouse to WORK for hours in front of the computer (lets say photoshop) he cannot PLAY with the track pad.

Well The TRUTH IS THAT YOU CANNOT RIGHT CLICK WITH A Mini Mouse. Thats it. Face it. And when a professional needs a mouse to WORK for hours in front of the computer (lets say photoshop) he cannot PLAY with the track pad.

Well The TRUTH IS THAT YOU CANNOT RIGHT CLICK WITH A Mini Mouse. Thats it. Face it. And when a professional needs a mouse to WORK for hours in front of the computer (lets say photoshop) he cannot PLAY with the track pad.

Well The TRUTH IS THAT YOU CANNOT RIGHT CLICK WITH A Mini Mouse. Thats it. Face it. And when a professional needs a mouse to WORK for hours in front of the computer (lets say photoshop) he cannot PLAY with the track pad.

I am Just kidding. Macbook Pro is perfect

I am Just kidding. Macbook Pro is perfect

you can’t play cod4 on a mac 0.o

you can’t play cod4 on a mac 0.o

Apple Mighty Mouse has right click!

what size macbook do you have?

what size macbook do you have?

what size macbook do you have?

what size macbook do you have?

what size macbook do you have?

he has a 17″ macbook pro if you didn’t know that it was a macbook pro because the screen was so big then your a tard:) no not really but there’s your answer..but i said that because the macbook only goes up to 13″ screen anything above that is a macbook pro

i know he has i macbook, but i didnt know what size. theyre 15″ and 17″

i know he has i macbook, but i didnt know what size. theyre 15″ and 17″

i know he has i macbook, but i didnt know what size. theyre 15″ and 17″

i know he has i macbook, but i didnt know what size. theyre 15″ and 17″

i know he has i macbook, but i didnt know what size. theyre 15″ and 17″

**** YOU, YOU SUCK

**** YOU, YOU SUCK

**** YOU, YOU SUCK

**** YOU, YOU SUCK

i like how he says “any”

i like how he says “any”

i like how he says “any”

ok.. let me make this simple… Mac is like using a stick to dig and windows is like using a bulldozer… now tell me what would you take?

The stick, hands down.

The stick, hands down.

The stick, hands down.

I can’t play COD4 on my toaster either…

I can’t play COD4 on my toaster either…

I can’t play COD4 on my toaster either…

I can’t play COD4 on my toaster either…

What’s a Mini Mouse? You mean the Mighty Mouse? In which case, it CAN right-click.

What’s a Mini Mouse? You mean the Mighty Mouse? In which case, it CAN right-click.

What’s a Mini Mouse? You mean the Mighty Mouse? In which case, it CAN right-click.

What’s a Mini Mouse? You mean the Mighty Mouse? In which case, it CAN right-click.

What’s a Mini Mouse? You mean the Mighty Mouse? In which case, it CAN right-click.

Sssh, Don’t tell him just yet…. :)

you are quite the little ****.

oh and your backgroud SUCKS!

I can for some reason…

the macbook can’t right click there’s no right button

you sound like such a stuck up little ******

Listen you! i watched a video, and this guy showed me how big of a dueche bag and ****** sounding little boys can be!

MightySandwich

June 6th, 2008
at 2:06am

I actually prefer placing two fingers on the trackpad and then clicking the button. You can do this if you don’t check the box next to “Clicking” under Trackpad Gestures. If the box remains unchecked, the trackpad will not register a “click” when you touch it, which I find helpful due to my habit of resting/moving my fingers on the trackpad. I can’t tell you how many times I have accidentally clicked on something on another laptop while trying to do something else. The feeling of deliberately pressing a button simply feels natural to me.

Wow thanks for making my life a lot easier.
I am now free of having to use the control track pad option.

Thanks to all you spammers for showing your intelligence (says sarcastically) even if a Mac has or had no second mouse button function it still would be fun to click in my point of view. I am not a Mac user but still believe a right mouse button is the addicting one to click. Now would you please have some respect for the blogs/forums and stop spamming.

Stupidest article ever, ummm by a mouse with a right click and it acts like Control click, lol, dumbass.

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