Enable Right Click on Mac Book Pro or Powerbook


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Missing a right click on your Mac Book Pro?  Here’s a simple setting that can allow your Mac Book Pro to right click by using two fingers on the trackpad.  Here’s what to do.

  1. Open System Preferences.
  2. Select Keyboard & Mouse in the second row.
  3. Click the Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click check box
  4. Close the dialog box.
  5. Using two fingers, tap the trackpad and a right-click (or context) menu opens.

For owners of Powerbooks you can try Sidetrack, which replaces the Apple Driver on your Powerbook.  Here’s just a few functions Sidetrack allows. 

  • Vertical scrolling at left or right edge of pad.
  • Horizontal scrolling at top or bottom edge of pad.
  • Map hardware button to left or right click.
  • Map trackpad taps to no action, left click, left click drag (with or without drag lock), or right click.
  • Map trackpad corner taps to mouse buttons 1-6 or simulated keystrokes.
  • Extensive control over accidental input filtering.

Check it out

Read more posts by Christopher Carey

June 19, 2007 | Filed Under Apple, Mac 

Comments

11 Responses to “Enable Right Click on Mac Book Pro or Powerbook”

  1. vaibhav on MyAvatars 0.2 June 20th, 2007 2:18 pm

    thats a real good piece of information. Just bought a mac, and was not much used to it. but now i will be :)

  2. Green Home Improvements on MyAvatars 0.2 March 17th, 2008 12:02 am

    I bookmarked this page, hopefully I will make my mind up on which Mac to buy over the next few days.

  3. Green Home Improvements on MyAvatars 0.2 April 23rd, 2008 5:32 am

    I ended up with a regular Mac Book. Since it’s been 15+ years since I used a Mac these tips help out!

    I sort of miss having both a delete and backspace key.

  4. Sharon on MyAvatars 0.2 July 8th, 2008 2:53 pm

    thanks for this - just bought my mac and you’ve made my life much easier!!thanks :)

  5. pkanth on MyAvatars 0.2 September 8th, 2008 4:17 pm

    Thank you, saved me a lot of pain, bought a macbook pro recently after years of windows it felt a little crippling not to have right click.

    Thanks

  6. spiritplumber on MyAvatars 0.2 January 23rd, 2009 10:59 am

    http://www.instructables.com/id/Adding_a_right_mouse_button_to_a_Macbook/

    Here’s how else you can do it.

  7. Anna Kai on MyAvatars 0.2 January 25th, 2009 8:31 pm

    I did as it says- though not without a considerable amount of angst and anxiety. when I finally figured out a way around NOT having a trackball page, Ifollowed the directions shown above. I STILL CAN’T CORRECT SELLING ERRORS W/O A MOUSE!!!
    Please, SOMEONE tell me whAt I’m missing!!!!

  8. Anna Kai on MyAvatars 0.2 January 25th, 2009 8:32 pm

    Sorry, I meant to write “spelling” but couldn’t correct it!!!

  9. Anna Kai on MyAvatars 0.2 January 25th, 2009 8:38 pm

    I GOT IT!!! Please feel free to offer this newbie advice and suggestions, but I finally got the two finger tap down to the point of working!!
    Tah Da!!!

  10. Steve on MyAvatars 0.2 April 8th, 2009 7:47 pm

    What if your MacBook System Preferences Keyboard & Mouse doesn’t HAVE a Trackpad option? The screen shots, etc. you show are awesome, but my MacBook (which is thisclose to being thrown through a wall at this point) does not HAVE a Trackpad option listed. Where your image shows Keyboard, Trackpad, Bluetooth & Keyboard Shortcuts, mine only displays Keyboard, Bluetooth and Keyboard Shortcuts.

    I’ve spent over an hour trying to figure out how to delete ONE ROW in an excel spreadsheet. On a PC, I could have done it 1,000 times by now! To say I am frustrated with my Apple experience is an understatement. I’m trying and trying to drink the Apple KoolAid, and it’s beginning to taste more & more like poison!

  11. Eduvigis on MyAvatars 0.2 April 11th, 2009 1:58 pm

    Steve: I think the last Mac OS update has eliminated the option of right-clicking with two fingers on the trackpad. My System Preferences window was the same as the screenshot until more or less one week ago, now it must be just like yours. I HOPE it will be fixed with the next update, because I was used to right-clicking this way and right-clicking with ctrl is really annoying.

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