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How do OS X Lion gestures differ on the Magic Mouse?
Are all the gestures supported? It seems it would be very difficult, if even possible, to do three or four finger gestures on the Magic Mouse. Anyone have any experience with this? Do I need to get a Magic Trackpad to take full advantage of Lion?
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chrismurphy's pick
Because you're interested in the Magic Mouse, I'll say this:
Currently they are a little confounded as the different Preview builds come out, but it seems that the mouse is a little less feature-filled than the trackpad.
Current gestures are double-tapping the surface of the mouse with two fingers (not clicking, just a quick double-two-finger-touch) to get Mission Control, and you can swipe two fingers to a side in order to switch between full screen apps and other desktops.
They also have a "swipe between pages" gesture which currently doesn't seem to do very much, except maybe in a couple of apps that specifically are supporting it, like Preview and Quicklook. It's just a sideways scroll motion which will change an entire page at a time.
Finally, there's a "smart zoom" where you double tap the mouse surface with just one finger. It seems to work in Preview for things like PDFs, where you might have used the pinch-zoom trackpad gesture. It's pretty much taking the iOS Safari zoom tap to the mouse.
Short story: there doesn't seem to be any gestures in the settings which have more than two fingers, so they're keeping it relatively simple. Disadvantage is, of course, that fewer gestures are possible with just the mouse. I have enjoyed using an external tool like Jitouch to augment the mouse's abilities, so that I can get a three-finger swipe down to get LaunchPad, for example.
Currently they are a little confounded as the different Preview builds come out, but it seems that the mouse is a little less feature-filled than the trackpad.
Current gestures are double-tapping the surface of the mouse with two fingers (not clicking, just a quick double-two-finger-touch) to get Mission Control, and you can swipe two fingers to a side in order to switch between full screen apps and other desktops.
They also have a "swipe between pages" gesture which currently doesn't seem to do very much, except maybe in a couple of apps that specifically are supporting it, like Preview and Quicklook. It's just a sideways scroll motion which will change an entire page at a time.
Finally, there's a "smart zoom" where you double tap the mouse surface with just one finger. It seems to work in Preview for things like PDFs, where you might have used the pinch-zoom trackpad gesture. It's pretty much taking the iOS Safari zoom tap to the mouse.
Short story: there doesn't seem to be any gestures in the settings which have more than two fingers, so they're keeping it relatively simple. Disadvantage is, of course, that fewer gestures are possible with just the mouse. I have enjoyed using an external tool like Jitouch to augment the mouse's abilities, so that I can get a three-finger swipe down to get LaunchPad, for example.
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Short answer, they are more iOS like. Here is more info from a Macworld article which gives the details. (Link to full article www.macworld.com/article/160434/2011/06/lion_faq.h.... )
"There are many, and they’re configurable. (That is, you can turn specific gestures off, and you can often adjust the number of fingers a gesture requires.) You can double-tap on a word with three fingers to look it up in Lion’s built-in dictionary, scroll with two fingers, and zoom in and out by pinching or double-tapping with two fingers. You can swipe between pages (in Safari, iPhoto, and other apps) with left or right two-finger swipes, and you can swipe between apps with three or four fingers. Trigger Mission Control—Lion’s new take on Exposé—with a three-finger swipe up, and reveal the desktop by spreading your thumb and three fingers apart, as if you’re flicking all your windows away."
Four finger gestures on the Magic Mouse are tricky. The trackpad is better for sure. The 2009 Plus MacBook Pros have a large trackpad that seem big enough for the new gestures.
"There are many, and they’re configurable. (That is, you can turn specific gestures off, and you can often adjust the number of fingers a gesture requires.) You can double-tap on a word with three fingers to look it up in Lion’s built-in dictionary, scroll with two fingers, and zoom in and out by pinching or double-tapping with two fingers. You can swipe between pages (in Safari, iPhoto, and other apps) with left or right two-finger swipes, and you can swipe between apps with three or four fingers. Trigger Mission Control—Lion’s new take on Exposé—with a three-finger swipe up, and reveal the desktop by spreading your thumb and three fingers apart, as if you’re flicking all your windows away."
Four finger gestures on the Magic Mouse are tricky. The trackpad is better for sure. The 2009 Plus MacBook Pros have a large trackpad that seem big enough for the new gestures.
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