Unlock Swipe Features for Your macOS Mouse: Detailed Tutorial Inspired by ZDNet's Techniques

Unlock Swipe Features for Your macOS Mouse: Detailed Tutorial Inspired by ZDNet’s Techniques

Photo by Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images

I use my iMac for video editing. While working with Final Cut Pro, I can swipe left or right on my Magic Mouse to move the timeline one way or another. It’s very handy because it gives me multiple methods of navigating through the timeline.

If only that feature translated to apps like Safari , where I could pull off a simple one-finger-swipe to navigate forward or backward within a website.

Also: How to enable automatic app updates on MacOS

Guess what? That feature does exist, only it’s disabled by default. Actually, the Magic Mouse can do more than that. You can configure it such that going backward or forward between pages can be done with one finger, two fingers, or both. Once enabled, any app that moves backward and forward (right to left) will work with a one- or two-finger swipe to the left or right.

The feature is built in and ready to enable.

Let me show you how.

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How to enable finger swiping on the Magic Mouse

What you’ll need: To make this work, you’ll need a device running an updated version of MacOS and a connected Magic Mouse. I’ll demonstrate this on an iMac running MacOS version 13.4.1. Now, let’s give your mouse a new trick.

1. Open System Settings

This feature is enabled via the System Settings app.

Also: How to get true window snapping in MacOS

To access this tool, click the Apple icon on the far left edge of the Menu Bar and then click System Settings.

Accessing System Settings from the Apple menu.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

2. Navigate to Mouse Settings

From within the System Settings window, scroll to the bottom of the left sidebar and locate the Mouse entry.

The Mouse section is located at the bottom of the left sidebar.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

3. Open More Gestures

Click on the More Gestures tab, where you’ll find an entry labeled Swipe between pages.

Also: 4 ways Windows people get MacOS wrong

That entry has a drop-down that defaults to Off.

Enabling the Swipe between pages option in MacOS.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

Click here

4. Enable Swipe between pages

Click the Swipe between pages drop-down and select one of the options. I prefer Scroll Left or Right with One Finger.

Once you’ve made your selection, I would suggest opening your web browser, going to ZDNET.com, clicking on an article, and then using the one-finger swipe on the Magic Mouse to test the feature. If it works to your liking, you can close System Settings and enjoy the more efficient method of interacting with apps that allows you to move back and forth between pages.

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If the one-finger-swipe method isn’t to your liking, switch it to either two-fingers, and see if that isn’t preferable.

Either way you go, adding this feature makes interacting with MacOS considerably more efficient. Give it a try and I think you’ll agree.