Once you download BetterTouchTool and start to explore what this powerful Mac utility offers, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
The app lives up to its name. It greatly enhances your experience of using a Mac by letting you add your own custom trackpad gestures. But despite the name, it works beyond your Mac’s trackpad or Magic Mouse. You can use it for keyboard shortcuts too, or with a standard USB mouse. Even an Apple Remote.
BetterTouchTool adds custom gestures for your Mac
Most of the time, there’s not much to see except a Menu Bar icon. BetterTouchTool works behind the scenes, monitoring which application you’re using and what your fingers are doing on the trackpad.
You can easily set up gestures and assign them to shortcuts. You want the Application Switcher to appear when you do a three-finger downward swipe? Sure. You want to open a particular folder, file or URL when you do a single tap in the bottom-right corner? No problem.
And there are so many gestures to choose from — way more than the basic ones Apple offers in System Preferences. Ever heard of a “Two Finger TipTap Left”? Or tried a four-finger click? You can do those.
What’s so impressive about BetterTouchTool — aside from the price — is that it lets the wonderful touch surfaces on our computers work to their full potential. With this software on your Mac, you can really make your trackpad work for you.
It’s possible to set up dozens, even hundreds of actions and gestures, but I suspect most people will only need a handful. BetterTouchTool can streamline the tiny tasks you perform frequently, making them much better and easier to pull off with a custom gesture.
For instance, I suffer from wrist strain from using the Command+Tab Application Switcher so much. So I set up a BetterTouchTool gesture to get to it another way (four-finger click, since you asked).
Amazingly, BetterTouchTool costs nothing. Donations are accepted, mind you, so don’t be shy. It is, without a doubt, an essential extra for your Mac. Go get it now.
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Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He also writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. You can find out more at his website, and follow him on Twitter @gilest.
