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Whoa, TIL. This feature seems to be hidden away in MacOS under Accessibility settings -- it's not available in the regular trackpad gestures settings menu. So f

Whoa, TIL. This feature seems to be hidden away in MacOS under Accessibility settings -- it's not available in the regular trackpad gestures settings menu. So for some reason Apple seems to not want to show it very prominently. But I just enabled it and at least initially it seems really useful, so I wonder why.

brirec 5y ago
I never liked the setting myself, but I'm glad to see it's still there. It used to be in the top level Trackpad preference pane
mmmpop 5y ago
This is my first time hearing about this too. I cannot believe I hadn't heard of this; it's amazing.
- jtbayly 5y ago
  Help me understand what I'm missing. It sounds like what I do with one finger and my thumb. I move the cursor over what I want to move, then click with my thumb and keep it pressed down. That initiates the drag. Meanwhile I can use my pointer finger to move the cursor wherever I want, dragging the whole time. Once I've moved the cursor to where I want, I remove my pointer finger so it stops moving and then release my thumb to drop. Is it another way to do the same thing? Why would I use three fingers instead of just using a normal mouse click with my thumb?
  - vladvasiliu 5y ago
    Because you don't have to click, and you can drag over a longer distance. With your approach, you are limited by how much you can pivot your wrist around your fixed thumb. I personally don't like this and very much prefer the "tap-hold with a small delay" for my dragging needs. I'm very happy to see this has been implemented on Linux, too.
    - jtbayly 5y ago
      You might be interested to learn that there is no requirement to leave your navigating finger on the track pad. No need to pivot your wrist at all. Pick it up and move it around as much as you want only comfortable distances. You are obviously used to the three finger way, and to each his own. But for me, having it described as “it's the equivalent of clicking-and-dragging with a mouse” makes me wonder why not just click and drag? But who knows? I’ll have to try it and see if I like it.
      - vladvasiliu 5y ago
        > You might be interested to learn... Good to know. However, my post may have been unclear, I don't like the three-finger drag, so I'm not used to it, I'm just trying to find a reason why some people may like it, so I may not have the best ones. The thing is that you don't "click" anything, you just put your three fingers on the touchpad and slide them around. Exactly the way you would scroll with two fingers: no clicking involved.
      - frostwarrior 5y ago
        It makes more sense when you consider how enormous apple trackpads are.
Toutouxc 5y ago
I believe three-finger drag used to be a first-class citizen before the introduction of Force Touch trackpads. Those made click-and-drag much easier than the older springboard design.
harrygeez 5y ago
I'm not sure if it was default but it was definitely prominently present in pre-Force Touch trackpads. I never liked the new click and drag gesture because I don't like to exert force when using the touchpad. The gesture is very well implemented actually. It's surprisingly precise and feels really natural in the sense you could release and resume dragging even after all your fingers leave the touchpad. Nothing else comes close

brirec 5y ago

I never liked the setting myself, but I'm glad to see it's still there. It used to be in the top level Trackpad preference pane

mmmpop 5y ago

This is my first time hearing about this too. I cannot believe I hadn't heard of this; it's amazing.

jtbayly 5y ago
Help me understand what I'm missing. It sounds like what I do with one finger and my thumb. I move the cursor over what I want to move, then click with my thumb and keep it pressed down. That initiates the drag. Meanwhile I can use my pointer finger to move the cursor wherever I want, dragging the whole time. Once I've moved the cursor to where I want, I remove my pointer finger so it stops moving and then release my thumb to drop. Is it another way to do the same thing? Why would I use three fingers instead of just using a normal mouse click with my thumb?
- vladvasiliu 5y ago
  Because you don't have to click, and you can drag over a longer distance. With your approach, you are limited by how much you can pivot your wrist around your fixed thumb. I personally don't like this and very much prefer the "tap-hold with a small delay" for my dragging needs. I'm very happy to see this has been implemented on Linux, too.
  - jtbayly 5y ago
    You might be interested to learn that there is no requirement to leave your navigating finger on the track pad. No need to pivot your wrist at all. Pick it up and move it around as much as you want only comfortable distances. You are obviously used to the three finger way, and to each his own. But for me, having it described as “it's the equivalent of clicking-and-dragging with a mouse” makes me wonder why not just click and drag? But who knows? I’ll have to try it and see if I like it.
    - vladvasiliu 5y ago
      > You might be interested to learn... Good to know. However, my post may have been unclear, I don't like the three-finger drag, so I'm not used to it, I'm just trying to find a reason why some people may like it, so I may not have the best ones. The thing is that you don't "click" anything, you just put your three fingers on the touchpad and slide them around. Exactly the way you would scroll with two fingers: no clicking involved.
    - frostwarrior 5y ago
      It makes more sense when you consider how enormous apple trackpads are.

Toutouxc 5y ago

I believe three-finger drag used to be a first-class citizen before the introduction of Force Touch trackpads. Those made click-and-drag much easier than the older springboard design.

harrygeez 5y ago

I'm not sure if it was default but it was definitely prominently present in pre-Force Touch trackpads. I never liked the new click and drag gesture because I don't like to exert force when using the touchpad. The gesture is very well implemented actually. It's surprisingly precise and feels really natural in the sense you could release and resume dragging even after all your fingers leave the touchpad. Nothing else comes close