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But Macs don't have a 'right click'

S

ss957916

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 17, 2009
861
0
I'm always reading/hearing people say/telling people to right click. But Macs only have one button. And "Control click" or "Two-finger click" sounds really wanky.

So what do you call it?
 
I've got left, right, center, thumb, forward, backward, thumb aft, thumb fore and spotlight as all unique clicks. (ala MX Revolution)

Before that, I had 4 unique clicks.
 
What??

On my MBP I have one massive button.

To contextual click (or whatever) I have to either use two fingers or hold down 'ctrl'. There is no 'right' or 'left'.
 
considering that many people probably use external mice made by companies that cater to Mac and PC, they have a mouse w/ two buttons and the right mouse button does what the two finger click/ ctrl click gestures do...so in short, right click :D
 
The new Unibody MacBook Pro's have no obvious button. The trackpad itself is the button. You can program it so that the right hand side acts as the secondary click. Both the Apple Mouse (Mighty Mouse) and the Magic Mouse can be set up for right click.

I just two finger tap, much easier.
 
See that shiny little thing that says "secondary click"? Enable it, and the bottom right of your "one massive button" will be right click. When you connect a 2 button mouse, this will be enabled by default. Macs have right click. But you have to enable it on the touchpad.:apple:
 

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Jason Beck said:
See that shiny little thing that says "secondary click"? Enable it, and the bottom right of your "one massive button" will be right click. When you connect a 2 button mouse, this will be enabled by default. Macs have right click. But you have to enable it on the touchpad.:apple:
Click to expand...

I disabled that. Most annoying thing ever.
 
Apple has shipped mice with right-clicks since the Mighty Mouse in 2005 (not sure when the "secondary click" function was added to their laptops), and before that right-click was supported if you used a 2-or-more button mouse since at least the introduction of OS X and I think OS 9 too. Not sure about earlier than that but that's at least a decade of right-click support. One could argue that before that, Mac apps weren't really designed with much right-click functionality since it wasn't standard.
 
I rarely use my MBP as a 'pure laptop' per se, it's almost always on a desk/table, just at all the various places I take it to.

So, I've gotten a bluetooth Mighty Mouse and right click any time I want.....
 
I find it amusing that in the tackpad demo video on the apple site they say "right click, or what we call 'secondary click'" then they go on to reference it as right click for the rest of the video and in the little text blurb below the video. So i guess apple calls it 'right click' even though they claim its not right click :confused:
 
ss957916 said:
I disabled that. Most annoying thing ever.
Click to expand...
Just because you don't use it doesn't mean others don't. I have a two button mouse and I have the additional secondary click function turned on so the bottom right side of my trackpad is a right click. This means the description right click describes what I do.

Having used laptops with two buttons for several years it is just more natural for me to pretend the bottom left and right sides are still buttons. The giant trackpad from the unibodies also seem to be less stiff to me near the bottom anyway so I keep with the habit because it's more comfortable this way. I rarely use the whole trackpad as a single button mainly because of the stiffness near the top. It also gets too confusing switching back and forth between the two ways so I just...right click. ;)
 
Secondary click, as above.

Since owning my MBP (about 4 months now) I have used a mouse about twice. The trackpad is genius! Whenever I use a PC laptop I get frustrated about the lack of swiping.

Edit: Whenever I use a PC in general I get frustrated
 
ricof said:
Since owning my MBP (about 4 months now) I have used a mouse about twice. The trackpad is genius! Whenever I use a PC laptop I get frustrated about the lack of swiping.
Click to expand...
I do love the trackpad gestures and do use them a lot myself. When I'm at a desk with my MBP I have my mouse connected but I go back and forth between using my mouse and trackpad. The mouse is better for fine precision movements, wide fast sweeping motion going back and forth across the screen, and for games. Everything else I can pretty much use my trackpad for and I like to because of the gestures.
 
"I disabled that. Most annoying thing ever."

Well, then, OF COURSE you don't have a "right click".
You disabled it.

Simple solution to your problem:
If you want the right click back, turn the option for "secondary click" BACK ON.

Otherwise, hold down the control key as you click.
 
alphaod said:
... for left handed uses, the right click is the primary click and then the term left click would serve a different meaning.
Click to expand...

Good luck shifting the paradigm! But, you are correct. The left/right descriptions should be replaced with primary/secondary. Somehow, I don't think that's gonna happen.
 
I just like the fact that Apple even included it as choice for its users.
Those of you that don't use it, I am sure you can see its functionality.
Some people need every shortcut, swipe, extra display, they can get.
Its a good move to include that support for "secondary click", an even
better move on Apple's part to do the whole "swipe" thing. I love
the swiping motion. Reminds me of wiping my ass, except more handy.
bahahah
Or swiping other things...
LOL
 
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