Mac OS X Lion brought about changes to some of the gestures in Mac OS X. If you prefer the way the gestures worked in Mac OS X Snow Leopard you can bring some of them back. The trick to go back in time is just one key away.
Previously the three-finger swipe gesture on the trackpad would allow you to navigate in Safari and Finder when your Mac was running Snow Leopard. However, when Apple introduced Lion the default behavior of the three-finger swipe gesture was changed to allow you to switch between spaces.
If you want to temporarily use this gesture like you did before simply press and hold the Option key while you complete the gesture. If you are looking for something a bit more permanent than change the settings in the trackpad settings in the System Preferences app.
I’m happy with the default gestures, but I like the fact that when I need to I can get a bit more variety out of the available gestures when using the Option key in tandem with the gesture.
David W. Martin has more than 20 years of experience in the industry as a programmer, systems and business analyst, author, and consultant. David has written for CNET’s iPhoneatlas.com, MacLife.com, CultofMac.com, BYTE.com and recently for aNewDoman.net. He comes to Cult of Mac’s website with deep knowledge and passion for the all things Apple. Follow David on Twitter @david_w_martin or see what he’s up to now at davidwmartin.com.
12 responses to “Bring Back Snow Leopard Like Three-Finger Navigational Swipe [OS X Tips]”
That is awesome – had no idea.
Finally got Finder navigation back!
Just get BetterTouchTool and you can customize gestures to your heart’s content http://blog.boastr.net/
look up Better Touch Tool it will solve this problem.
This is too cumbersome. There’s a simple, system preferences way to bring the three finger swipe back. Just change “Swipe between Pages” to three fingers and “Swipe between Full-Screen apps” to four fingers.
Settings screen-shot: http://goo.gl/jFlfPThis brings three finger swipe to the Finder, Safari, Mail, System Preferences, Preview, iPhoto.
Jitouch will do the job, too. I have grown accustomed to the Lion gestures and have set One-Fix Left-Tab for “Back” and One-Fix Right-Tab for “Forward” instead. Works like magic.
Tap, not Tab, sorry.
THANK YOU!!! If there was one thing I really missed from that ice-covered-cat OS was navigating in Finder and Mac App Store. Now it’s back!!