MASTER INPUT DEVICES

Control keyboard, mouse and trackpad preferences

Keyboard, mouse and trackpad preferences

In macOS Sierra, it is possible to dictate into any application you’d normally type into and even control your Mac using spoken commands. Most of the time (if not all of it) though, you’ll tend to use input devices: keyboards, mice and trackpads. These devices might not work precisely as you want them to though – and that can be very frustrating.

You may find that tracking, which maps physical movement to the pointer, may be absurdly slow, forcing multiple swipes to get the pointer across the screen; or you may prod the trackpad only to accidentally click; the lack of keyboard shortcuts for useful actions in certain apps may drive you nuts.

Here’s how to alter the settings for these things (and more) in the separate Keyboard, Mouse and Trackpad settings in System Preferences.

1 Keyboard options

In the Keyboard pane’s Keyboard tab, Key Repeat and Delay Until Repeat, respectively, define how quickly held keys repeat and how long it takes before this happens. Use the values Fast and Short and on subsequently holding Delete, characters will rapidly be erased.

2 Adjust function keys

Modern Mac keyboards use function keys for special features, such as brightness and playback controls. In Keyboards, the Use all… checkbox can switch them to being standard function keys. To then access the special features, you hold Fn and a function key.

3 Edit shortcuts

Click the Shortcuts tab to edit keyboard shortcuts. Can’t get your fingers around the keys that take a screen grab, for example? Select Screen Shots, then the first item, then click the shortcut ( Use the separate Keyboard, Mouse and Trackpad system preferences panes to customise your input devices. and press a new one. Try to avoid clashing with common shortcuts.

4 Trackpad options

options are in the Trackpad system preferences pane. Under ‘Point & Click’, you can enable and configure secondary-click (otherwise known as right-click), ‘Look up & data detectors’ (for dictionary definitions), and Tracking Speed. You can disable Tap to Click if you keep clicking by mistake when you are navigating the trackpad. Additional options can be found under the More Gestures tab.

5 Scrolling and zooming

Under Scroll & Zoom, the first option defines scroll direction: Natural means content follows the direction of your fingers, rather like on a touchscreen device. You can also enable Zoom in or out, Smart Zoom (which zooms around what’s under the pointer) and Rotate.

6 Advanced gestures

The More Gestures tab offers advanced gestures for moving between apps and pages and activating features. Hover over any option to see a video of how it works. Click the arrow for extra options for gestures.

7 Basic mouse controls

In the Mouse pane you can configure buttons, and adjust tracking speed (how fast the pointer moves) and double-click speed (how quickly you have to click a second time for it to be counted as a double-click). In Accessibility’s Display section, there’s a setting to shake the pointer, which temporarily makes it grow.

8 Toggle mouse gestures

Magic Mouse users get two tabs: Point & Click and More Gestures. In the former, you can disable ‘natural scrolling’, change right-click to the left, and turn off Smart Zoom. Under More Gestures you can enable swipe actions and a shortcut to Mission Control.

9 Custom shortcuts

To create your own shortcut for any macOS application, open the Keyboard preferences pane, go to Shortcuts > App Shortcuts, click on the ‘+’ sign and then select an app. Type in the exact menu command you wish to use, then press your desired key combination. Finally, click Add to finish.