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How to activate the 4 finger gestures not last generation MBP- Instructions

Did you find this trick to be useful?

  • Yes

    Votes: 9 50.0%

  • No

    Votes: 6 33.3%

  • I didn't manage to configure it

    Votes: 3 16.7%
  • Total voters
    18
  • Poll closed .
R

raffinux

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2007
23
0
Hi Mac fans,

since a couple of weeks I've figured out a way to use a sort of "4 finger gesture" to activate Expose' and Spaces on my MBP.
I mention a "sort of" because instead of 4 fingers you need only 3 but I swear that the result is the very same ;)
I must say it is really handy, at least for me, so I decided to share it with you.

This method obviously requires at least a MBP with multi-touch trackpad.
Many of you probably know the cool app "MultiClutch".
Among the different gestures that you can define there are a couple of extra possibilities "Swipe Up" and "Swipe Down". I see already your eyes blinking because you got the point.

Steps:
1. Download and install MultiClutch
2. Go to the System Preferences and click on MultiClutch
3. Define the "swipe up" and "swipe down" operation in the Global section by using the plus (+) button in the bottom right.
4. Now you need to figure out which actions you want to associate to the gestures. I've choosed Spaces (F8) for Swipe Up and Expose' (F9) for Swipe Down.
5. Before you can assign this keys to MultiClutch you need to disable these keys in the Spaces and Expose' preference panes otherwise they will activate when you will try to assign them.
6. Once disabled or changed the keys that trigger Spaces and Expose', go back to MultiClutch and assign F8 to Swipe Up and F9 to Swipe Down.
7. To conclude go back to Spaces and Expose' prefs panes and set back the original keys (F8 and F9) to activate them.

Enjoy!
 
Unfortunately, I like to keep my play and next track buttons... So this doesn't really work well for me...
 
Wow thank you! I have an early '08 MBP, and now I can use 3-finger gestures to go back and forth in firefox, switch between tabs and pinch zoom on the trackpad to zoom in it too!

From what I understand, you only need 3 fingers to activate the multiclutch gestures.
 
DAAAAAAAVE said:
did this and for some reason it doesnt only works when i am actually in a system preferences window and nothing else. any ideas?
Click to expand...

The software itself is just part of the system preferences. On the left, you can add an app to the prefs list (say, Safari), and on the right, you can add/edit gesture actions. It took me a few minutes to figure out, but if I can do it, anyone can!
 
cool now i can swipe down to reveal desktop and swipe up to rearrange all open windows!
 
Why don't you just set the trackpad to perform Expose' and Spaces like this?
 

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steamed.hams said:
The software itself is just part of the system preferences. On the left, you can add an app to the prefs list (say, Safari), and on the right, you can add/edit gesture actions. It took me a few minutes to figure out, but if I can do it, anyone can!
Click to expand...

I used multiclutch and just set it up global. Dont really want to sit there and add every single app into there. Is there anything really simple im doing wrong?
 
DjAmTraX said:
Why don't you just set the trackpad to perform Expose' and Spaces like this?
Click to expand...

that's what i've been doing before i found out about multiclutch, and i found it a little troublesome to have to move my cursor to a certain corner to activate expose. Also it won't work unless the cursor is exactly at the corner. I just find the 3 finger swipe up/down to be more convenient for me.. dunno just personal preference i guess.
 
got it to work and it is awesome. looks like i needed the comp needed to restart for it to take effect. lol all my friends at school are like "omg it is hax"
haha
thanks for the help
 
i can´t get it to work, I´m sure I´m just doing something silly though.
I unchecked the f keys and then set swipe up to f9, but I only get a sound indicating I´m doing something wrong.
Any sugestions?

EDIT:
Ahh, lazy me, if I just had bother to read the instructions all the way to step 7 I wouldn´t have to make this post in the first place.
Works great, thanks for posting this
 
I can't get it to work. I restarted the system, but no luck. Can someone help?

See screen shots.
 

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Did you follow everything on the list?
I forgot to re-activate the keys after setting up the gustures.
Step 7
 
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