Apple has multiple MacBook options available today, from the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros to the M1 MacBook Air. Although they didn’t make an appearance at Apple’s “Peek Performance” event, more Apple laptops are expected to hit shelves later this year — like the 13-inch MacBook Pro and redesigned, possibly M2-equipped MacBook Air. But having unboxed and set up many MacBooks over the past 15 years, there’s one settings choice that drives me absolutely crazy.
If you’re buying a new MacBook or want to make your current one a little more useful, you should try clicking a few boxes in the System Preferences menu that always make these machines much more useful.
One of the best things about MacBooks has always been the huge glass trackpad, which always felt more responsive and offered more surface area than the touchpad on any Windows laptop. The difference has narrowed over the years, but it’s still hard to beat a Mac trackpad. However, it makes me nuts to see (and hear) people clicking down on their touchpads to do anything. Guess what? These touchpads haven’t physically depressed when clicked on for years. Instead a clever bit of haptic feedback makes it feel like you’ve clicked down.
Turn this on, even if you’re not going to use it all the time.
Dan Ackerman/CNET
Windows laptops have long been set up for tap-to-click, which means a simple tap of your finger works the same way as a left mouse button (or ancient touchpad button) click would. A two-finger tap is the equivalent of a right mouse button click.
Read more: Make the Most of iOS 15’s Hidden Tricks
But every time I set up a new Mac, I spend several minutes vainly tapping on things with no effect, because MacOS has tap-to-click turned off by default. Why? I’m assuming it’s just to make my life more difficult. Fortunately, it’s easy to fix. And if you’re a determined clicker and have no intention of becoming a tapper, that’s OK — change these settings and you can still click away, but now the tapping will work, too.
The super secret hidden tap-and-drag settings menu.
Dan Ackerman/CNET
As a bonus, while we’re doing this we’re going to turn on both Exposé, which is a very useful multifinger gesture, and tap-and-drag, which is a much easier way to move things like folders around on the screen.
Fix Apple’s dumb default touchpad settings:
- System Preferences > Trackpad > Point & Click > Check the checkbox for Tap to click (which is unchecked by default).
- System Preferences > Trackpad > More Gestures > Check the checkbox for App Exposé (fifth checkbox from the top).
- System Preferences > Accessibility > Pointer Control > Trackpad Options > Check the checkbox for Enable dragging (without drag lock).
That’s it, your MacBook is now set up in a logical way.
The Mac Studio (and its accompanying Studio Display) may have been the only Mac to debut at Apple’s March event, but more Macs could be coming later this year — like the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro and 27-inch iMac. While we wait for more Apple computers, you should check out CNET’s recap of Tuesday’s event.
Watch this:
Get the Most Out of Multitouch on Your Trackpad
1:32
