Explained Optimize your mouse, keyboard, or trackpad

Power up with BetterTouchTool

BetterTouchTool (from $2.99, is a single utility designed to enhance all of your input devices. Using this app, you can define all manner of triggers to perform your choice of actions.

Get advanced trackpad gestures

Your Mac’s Magic Mouse or trackpad knows more gestures than System Preferences provides options for. With BetterTouchTool, you can create gestures that use up to five fingers or a firm press on a trackpad corner.

Use Spotlight

Sure, you can launch apps on your Mac by clicking icons in the Applications folder or Dock. But it’s often faster to press Cmd+Space to fire up Spotlight, type the first few letters of an app’s name, and use the arrow keys and Return to open what’s selected.

Adjust your keyboard

System Preferences’ Keyboard pane has options for fine-tuning how your keyboard works, including defining new keyboard shortcuts and creating text replacements, so that when you type “omw,” for example, it automatically inserts “on my way.”

Explore your mouse options

Whatever mouse you’re using, the Mouse pane provides settings to adjust how it works. Tracking speed will make the most difference to your Mac experience — ramp it up to what you’re comfortable with.

Understand your trackpad

The Trackpad pane offers three tabs full of options. Again, tracking speed is worth increasing, but also turn on “Tap to click,” so you tap lightly to select items on your Mac, instead of having to press.