Force Touch Trackpad Drag and Drop Behavior

[rywen]

Has anyone noticed the drag-and-drop behavior working differently on the new force touch trackpad? The way I got in the habit of dragging files around with the original trackpad, was to click anywhere on the pad with one finger, and then move a second finger repeatedly to do the 'dragging'. Ususally, clicking in the center with my index finger and dragging with my middle.

I find now that if I try this same method to drag files, as soon as i start dragging my index finger, it highlights the text in the file name instead of dragging. The only way I can drag and drop now is to click on the bottom edge of the trackpad with my thumb, then move another finger in the middle to do the dragging. (the same way you would use a standard trackpad with buttons) -OR- click with one finger and move that finger around to drag too (which is difficult on a large monitor).

Does anyone know how to correct this behavior?

 

[DesertSilver]

Has anyone noticed the drag-and-drop behavior working differently on the new force touch trackpad? The way I got in the habit of dragging files around with the original trackpad, was to click anywhere on the pad with one finger, and then move a second finger repeatedly to do the 'dragging'. Ususally, clicking in the center with my index finger and dragging with my middle.

I find now that if I try this same method to drag files, as soon as i start dragging my index finger, it highlights the text in the file name instead of dragging. The only way I can drag and drop now is to click on the bottom edge of the trackpad with my thumb, then move another finger in the middle to do the dragging. (the same way you would use a standard trackpad with buttons) -OR- click with one finger and move that finger around to drag too (which is difficult on a large monitor).

Does anyone know how to correct this behavior?

You seem to be "force clicking" on the filename, which allows you to immediately edit the filename. If you do the regular, non-deep pressing click (not sure what to call all these clicks), then you should be able to click&drag the file. You can also turn off Force Click in the trackpad settings if you have no use for the "deep press".

 

[rywen]

You seem to be "force clicking" on the filename, which allows you to immediately edit the filename. If you do the regular, non-deep pressing click (not sure what to call all these clicks), then you should be able to click&drag the file. You can also turn off Force Click in the trackpad settings if you have no use for the "deep press".

the force press (deep press / two clicks) and the regular click (one click) were both doing the same behavior essentially, however the force press would bring up the text edit cursor for name editing right away, and the regular click wouldn't switch to the text edit cursor until I started moving another finger.

I was just playing around in the trackpad settings and seemed to have fixed it. I switched "look up & data detectors" (which I realize shouldn't be related to my problem) from 'force click' to 'three fingers' and the problem went away. Then I switched it back to 'force click' and the problem seems to have remained resolved.

 

[dyn]

You can also enable the 3-finger drag option in the accessibility > mouse option in system prefs. I find that this works nicer (less strain).

 

[DesertSilver]

You can also enable the 3-finger drag option in the accessibility > mouse option in system prefs. I find that this works nicer (less strain).

Holy crap, thanks for that information!! I think this feature was available in OS X a few years back since I remember using it in the past but didn't know what happened to it lately. Didn't realize it was an available (hidden) feature.

 

[auero]

I'm currently deciding which of the new magic devices stay (if not both) and I noticed this behavior when I was moving files around. I just couldn't get it to work so I jumped back to the magic mouse.

The three finger trick is nice, but it's not useful when you have to drag across a huge screen.

 

[rhsauer]

I'm currently deciding which of the new magic devices stay (if not both) and I noticed this behavior when I was moving files around. I just couldn't get it to work so I jumped back to the magic mouse.

The three finger trick is nice, but it's not useful when you have to drag across a huge screen.

This is a terrific tip - and I notice that as long as you start dragging with three fingers, you only need one finger to continue dragging. That should help with the big screen concern.

 

[dyn]

You don't need anything but 3 fingers, it works similar to using 1 finger with drag lock enabled just much easier as you don't have to tap to enable the drag lock. Drag lock is instantly enabled once you start moving the window with 3 fingers. This works great with any large display (27" and up), especially since it automatically enables drag lock.

If you have a large display you may want to tinker a bit with the speed of the cursor because the larger the display the slower the cursor will be (which is quite obvious: it is quicker to go from one side to the other on a small display than on a large display: smaller distance).

BTW, the 3 finger drag doesn't only work on windows, it also works on files, dirs, etc. which makes moving files/folders very easy.