News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

June 18, 2008

tips

Enable three-finger swiping in Firefox 3 (sorta)

Posted Jun. 18, ’08, 11:38 AM PT by Dan Pourhadi
Category | Tips

threeFingerFirefox.jpgIf you’ve got a MacBook Air or one of the newer MacBook Pros with the fancy Multi-Touch trackpad, you’ve probably tried three-finger page navigation in Safari—and there’s a good chance its insidious incorporation into your life has made it a natural, habitual Must-Have web browsing tool.

I downloaded Firefox 3 yesterday, eager to explore the hype, and maybe try some of those fancy Firefox extensions people have told me about for ages. I launched it, clicked around MacUser, then three-finger-swiped to go back.

Then my gut sank: swiping didn’t work. Dun dun dunnnn.

I quit Firefox on instinct, and hopped back into the warmth and familiarity of Safari, where my Multi-Touch gestures were waiting for me with flowers and a smile. But still: Bummer.

So I did some searching, trying to figure out how to remedy this crime against humanity, and the clever folks in this MacRumors thread offer a nifty solution: MultiClutch, an app (which we wrote about in March) that allows you to assign trackpad gestures to any keyboard shortcut in any app.

Install it, add Firefox to its application list, and configure the gestures: Left Swipe assigned to Cmd-[ (Firefox’s “back”) and Right Swipe assigned to Cmd-] (Firefox’s “forward”).

And voila! The trick, she is done.

Now I get to dig my teeth into the actual hardcore features of Firefox. Like themes.

Mmm, themes.

Update: If you’re interested in MultiClutch and want to learn more, the Mothership covered the app in great depth in this Mac Gems article, as well as this Macworld Video. Check ‘em out.


2 Comments

Edden said:

I use it for many things like rotate right to refresh. swipe down is minimize and up is close window. and zoom out is quit. zoom in is select all. but thats only for safari and firefox.

June 18, 2008 12:44 PM
Tonn said:

Tutorials:

http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72694

_it's not mine, i just found it and it had the perfect tutorial.

June 19, 2008 11:29 AM

Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: