Pinch to zoom, did it ever return?

[Peter Franks]

I've only ever got experience of the unrivalled Snow Leopard, and have updated to El Capitan, which I'm not a fan of, generally. Mostly small things, but still enough to warrant dismay at removal of. The biggest bug the pinch to zoom in everything, Finder, Folders to enlarge thumbs, as well as 'Mail', but can't fathom for the life of me why they'd remove it. And why all the coloured tags when I'm looking for 'Today' 'Yesterday' etc. in the Finder window which was really helpful!

Anyway, to cut a long boring story short, has the pinch to zoom returned in Sierra, before I moan about that?

 

[ApolloBoy]

It never left, do you have it enabled in your trackpad settings? I'm on High Sierra and I can do everything you just described with pinch to zoom.

 

[Peter Franks]

It never left, do you have it enabled in your trackpad settings? I'm on High Sierra and I can do everything you just described with pinch to zoom.

I was going to update to Sierra possibly. But it won't do it anywhere other than preview for pics, and Safari. Not in Finder or Downloads for thumbs etc. A Google search shows many moaning about it. I messed with the trackpad settings. It didn't help. But there is a few buggy things on this OS I've mentioned before.

When I open an image from downloads folder, it opens and the folder slides off to the right giving me the desktop. I don’t want it to move, I want it to stay so I can open the next jpeg if I have to without always having to slide back to the folder. Can you turn off all these sliding pages, and just leave my desktop where it is?

I want to swipe back a page on the web browsing too, but when I use the old gesture to do that, it doesn’t give me the previous web page but it slides to another window… desktop or whatever.

I noticed there is a tick box when you log off to say do or do not open the programmes on start up, I’ve tried ticking and unticking but it STILL boots up and loads Word and Photoshop. Don’t want that either!

Finder window 'yesterday' and 'last week' etc were really useful, but can only see all the coloured tags now.

Just a few observes that make me really miss Snow Leopard. If they're all fixable, then great, but I've not seen anything obvious yet.

 

[Peter Franks]

Please tell. Just come out of Apple store who were not willing to answer any of my questions but insisted I come in for a training session where they would answer questions. Having asked about pinch and zoom in finder and mail 3 people said it’s now gone. Despite trying to set it up. Then said it’s not there anymore. So if it is still available, bear in mind it was all HS OS, 3 ‘geniuses’ said it’s not possible anymore. Having said all that, I’ve never met more unhelpful people in an Apple store in all the years I’ve been buying their stuff. Shocking attitudes for an empty store. All I wanted to know was how to pinch and zoom. That was it.

 

[MSastre]

Trackpad gestures work for me on El Capitan, Sierra, and High Sierra on 3 different computers.

 

[Peter Franks]

Yet nobody in Apple could do this. Honestly. 3 Apple staff, no 4, they called someone else over, confirmed it doesn’t exist anymore.

Works for you in Finder, Mail, Desktop etc to enlarge folders, text, in all? Any particular setting? In the zoom setting in sys pref trackpad, all was ticked

 

[chown33]

A while ago, some settings that were previously in System Preferences > Trackpad were moved into System Preferences > Accessibility. When I don't find what I'm looking for in the Trackpad pane, I always look next in Accessibility.

Another thing to try: create a new user account, then login to it, and go directly to System Preferences and the Trackpad and Accessibility panes. It's possible that some setting is damaged and may be preventing your normal user account from doing what you want. Trying it with a "sacrificial virgin" account might be informative. When your done with the new account, just delete it.

 

[Peter Franks]

If it's something that works, then surely someone, anyone on here would say, yes this is what you do. Do this that and the other, but nobody has. And 4 people in Apple store say it's not there anymore. And only MSastre has said 'Trackpad gestures still work for me'. So, I'm really confused. All the trackpad options and accessibility were looked at, but what am I looking for if 4 Apple store 'geniuses' say it's not there anymore?

 

[MSastre]

If it's something that works, then surely someone, anyone on here would say, yes this is what you do. Do this that and the other, but nobody has. And 4 people in Apple store say it's not there anymore. And only MSastre has said 'Trackpad gestures still work for me'. So, I'm really confused. All the trackpad options and accessibility were looked at, but what am I looking for if 4 Apple store 'geniuses' say it's not there anymore?

Really not a problem. System Preferences > Trackpad. Here's screenshots rom High Sierra and El Capitan. Sierra is exactly the same.

 

[Peter Franks]

They had those all ticked and nobody could make any pinch and zoom. Are the people who work at Apple really this clueless? I can't believe this. They ticked all of them and were adamant it's something that doesn't exist anymore other than in Safari. But not in Finder or Mail which I use all day every day. It's driving me nuts and I will probably go back to SL as this was something I really can't do without.

You're saying it works for you in Finder, Folders and Mail and desktop etc? Just surprised a load haven't chimed in and said it all works for them and what am I talking about if it's a given? I also tried on 4 MacBook Pro/Airs too in store.

 

[Wondercow]

They had those all ticked and nobody could make any pinch and zoom. Are the people who work at Apple really this clueless? I can't believe this. They ticked all of them and were adamant it's something that doesn't exist anymore other than in Safari. But not in Finder or Mail which I use all day every day. It's driving me nuts and I will probably go back to SL as this was something I really can't do without.

You're saying it works for you in Finder, Folders and Mail and desktop etc? Just surprised a load haven't chimed in and said it all works for them and what am I talking about if it's a given? I also tried on 4 MacBook Pro/Airs too in store.

A search of "mac pinch to zoom finder" gives the answer that the feature was removed in Lion (10.7) and doesn’t seem to have returned. So, I second this question: does it still work for others in Finder?

 

[Peter Franks]

Yep, I've searched till I'm blue in the face everywhere online to get info on this as it makes no sense why something that useful would be removed. Especially in 'Finder' and text in the body of 'Mail'. I'm going to a different Apple Store tomorrow as my iPhone screen has decided to half come out, and will report back if I hear any different.

EDIT: Nothing doing. Apple and the Apple 'expert' in a well known department store. Pinch and zoom in Finder, Folders, Desktop, and Mail, doesn't exist anymore. The 'Zoom' just blows up something that goes off the screen and is not the same, not even close, and it needs more work to use, option keys etc.

 

[Peter Franks]

For those of you still reading this who aren't as bored of it as I am, the simple answer is no, it's not there. Surprised a lot more people haven't complained about it if I'm honest or chimed in here to say either way. Two stores say no, and then tell me to call Apple Support who also confirm it's not been used for a time that they can't even remember. Presume, Snow Leopard time. However, it still works in Safari and Maps. The ease of use that I loved with Mac OS has now become a huge mystery, because I don't see any good reason why something so simple would be removed. Surely, a lot of people used it as much as I do, and assume there is a Terminal command somewhere?

 

[MC6800]

Its removal was complained about in 2011. The apparent reason was widespread unintentional zooming. I actually keep pinch-zoom off in MacOS for that reason, and have always used the slider. But then I use Aperture for photos. Now about Apple removing Aperture...

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks for clearing it up, I had no idea some saw it as a negative. I've never unintentionally zoomed using it in 8 years. But good to know why, Although for something like that, it should be a switch it on or off type thing, Same with the sliding windows that i really don't like. What does the 'slider' do?

 

[MC6800]

The slider is in the lower-right corner in Icon view, and changes icon size. Is that not what you were trying to do?

 

[Peter Franks]

The slider is in the lower-right corner in Icon view, and changes icon size. Is that not what you were trying to do?

Which OS are you on now, Didn't think that was on all the subsequent OS, the slider doesn't cover all the problems, especially in 'Mail' and it's not as convenient as pinch to zoom. If people were moaning about it, then they should have just switched it off, as it shows in the thread you linked to earlier.

But still intrigued by MSastre and ApolloBoy, who said.....

It never left, do you have it enabled in your trackpad settings? I'm on High Sierra and I can do everything you just described with pinch to zoom.

 

[chrono1081]

Just an FYI, to enable the slider others mentioned do this:

With finder open, click View -> Show Status Bar and you will see a slider appear at the bottom right of the finder window that you can use to zoom in and out of icons.

There's also an option there too to enable the path bar which gives you breadcrumbs to the folder you're in. (Not part of your original question but many people like that feature).

 

[Peter Franks]

Yep, thanks. Do you mean the path to the folder when you say 'breadcrumbs'?

 

[MC6800]

Which OS are you on now, Didn't think that was on all the subsequent OS, the slider doesn't cover all the problems, especially in 'Mail' and it's not as convenient as pinch to zoom. If people were moaning about it, then they should have just switched it off, as it shows in the thread you linked to earlier.

Sorry I had forgotten the slider can be hidden-- yes, show status bar, and while you're at it, go through the menus and turn on every "show" to see what they do. And yes, 'breadcrumbs' is the path (I also keep that one showing).

 

[Peter Franks]

Out of interest, how hard is it to partition a SSD running Snow Leopard and run El Cap on the partition for the times I need the more up to date stuff? Do you have to start a completely separate iTunes, ie loading all the albums again?

 

[Peter Franks]

Out of interest, how hard is it to partition a SSD running Snow Leopard and run El Cap on the partition for the times I need the more up to date stuff? Do you have to start a completely separate iTunes, ie loading all the albums again?

Since I started this thread, I've been into 3 different Apple stores, and asked about 4 or 5 different Apple staff about pinch and zoom. The thing that surprised me the most about this was that each and everyone of them all went over to a laptop and tried to do it for themselves. Now, I'm no expert, as many of you will gather just by reading my posts, but shouldn't they just know the answer to that. Yes/No it's been removed from OS after Snow Leopard or whenever they got rid of it? I'm not slagging them off, I'm just making an observation that really surprised me. After all, it's something that I'm sure a lot of people used. Not a hidden feature on OS. And not one 'genius' knew the answer and all went and messed with the System Pref/Trackpad settings.