There’s a secret gesture you can use with Mac multitouch trackpads that lets you double-tap with four fingers to switch back to the most recently used desktop space in OS X Lion (although not previous versions of OS X).
To activate the gesture, you’ll need to use a hidden setting. Open a Terminal window (Finder->Applications->Utilities->Terminal) and type the following:
defaults write com.apple.dock double-tap-jump-back -bool TRUE;killall Dock
The changes should take effect right away, so give it a try. Like all gestures, it takes a little practice. Note that it appears that after a minute or two, OS X “forgets” the previous desktop space, so double-tapping to switch a space will no longer work until you again switch to a different space.
To turn off this new gesture, open a Terminal window and type the following:
defaults delete com.apple.dock double-tap-jump-back;killall Dock
Keir Thomas (http://keirthomas.com) is the author of Mac Kung Fu, which contains over 300 tips, tricks, hints and hacks for Mac OS X Lion. He’s also the author of over 10 other computing titles.
9 responses to “Use A Secret Gesture To Switch To The Previous Space [OS X Tips]”
does this work on older MacBooks? (~2008 ideally)
Is it running Lion? That’s your key issue. Because that’s when all these gestures came into the game.
It depends if your computer has a multitouch trackpad and, as lucas says, whether it’s running Lion. However, I’d advise you just to try entering the command. It will do no harm if it doesn’t work because it just writes a command string that will be ignored. If it doesn’t work be sure to run the second command to delete the entry, though.
_______
Keir Thomas
Author of Mac Kung Fu
Over 300 tips, tricks, hints and hacks for OS X Lion
http://pragprog.com/book/ktmac…
Yet another tip which doesn’t seem to work on Lion running on a early 2011 MBP 13″.
Really? Works fine on my mid-2009 MacBook Pro 13in, and the design is essentially the same (same glass trackpad, for example).
Are you doing it correctly?
1. Switch to a different space by swiping three/four fingers left or right.
2. Four finger double-tap to switch back to the previous space.
Works?
_______
Keir Thomas
Author of Mac Kung Fu
Over 300 tips, tricks, hints and hacks for OS X Lion
http://pragprog.com/book/ktmac…
this is the best thing ever. it makes desktops 100 times more useful. thanks a million.
F-ing sweet. Thanks.
If you have it set so that you use 3 fingers to swap between spaces make it four and then put it back to three… thats how I got it to work. It is still four finger double after that not three (as three is taken by the ‘look up’ feature.
yep, my terminal window (under lion and 2011 MBP 13”) show this:
There is no (double-tap-jump-back) default for the (com.apple.dock) domain.Defaults have not been changed.