Over the years, I've grown so fond of OSX trackpad gestures that I couldn't bear the thought of going back to a mouse when I bought my Freestyle2 keyboard. The solution was to buy a Magic Trackpad, which works exactly as expected. However, Jony Ive's people clearly ignored ergonomics when designing this product: in the default configuration, it's just a wrist killer.
I wonder if somebody knew about this, because OSX has a very easy way to turn the trackpad around, in what becomes a much better stance; a negative slope is much kinder on your wrists and hands. So, without further ado, here's how you revert your trackpad:
- Disconnect your trackpad, by pressing the power button until the green light goes off.
- Type the following command in your Terminal, all on one line:
sudo defaults write com.apple.MultitouchSupport ForceAutoOrientation YES
- invert your trackpad, turn it on, then place five fingers on it, stretched enough that the device can recognise a hand shape. Congratulations, your trackpad is now inverted.
- If you want to go back to the previous orientation, just switch the trackpad off, turn it around, and again place five fingers on it on reconnect.
Caveat: the trackpad has a significant inactive area where the battery is stored. This means that you have to keep your hand a bit further from the edge than before. It might take a few minutes to adapt, especially if you drag&drop with your thumb as I do. One alternative is to use three-fingers dragging instead, which also works very well.
17 comments:
Is this possible with the Magic Trackpad 2 & El Capitan?
I still have the same trackpad from January and I can say that it works fine with El Capitan.
Thanks for the quick response. Having a bit of trouble with the Magic Trackpad 2 unfortunately...
It's mad expensive...the whole hope was such that it would be easier on my wrists given less sloping...but arg...
This doesn't work for the Magic Trackpad 2. So wish it would ...
Any updates for magic trackpad 2?
Thank you! Unlike other sites, these directions actually worked.
I wasn't turning off the Trackpad while typing command.
Does this work with Sierra? I got it to work with El Capitan, but can't get it to work now that I've installed Sierra. Does anyone else have luck with this with Sierra?
Hey @Andrew Beckman, I've not installed Sierra yet, and your comment just scared me in holding out for a bit :) It does look "natural" that Sierra would have been developed with the Magic Trackpad 2 in mind, which does not seem to have this feature at all, so they could have ripped it out from OSX. Sad :(
I too got it to work in El Capitan. Now I install Sierra and can't ge it to work anymore!
Man this almost saved things for me, but just like Andrew Beckman I can't get it to work on Sierra.
I imagine Apple feels that if they make this setting more obvious an accessible that would be tantamount to admitting that their accessory is badly designed. I just took mine out of the closet and have been using it for only a few minutes and I was already looking for a way to invert this thing so that it's not uncomfortable as hell.
Please tell me someone can find a way to invert it on Sierra. Otherwise is back to a mouse for me.
Just installed Sierra and the inversion doesn't work anymore. Boooo. Hoping that somebody finds a fix... any thoughts?
ya no luck with sierra
NOOOOOO.... i hang the battery compartment off the edge of my desk with the keyboard right above it.. it perfectly mimics the setup of the laptop, so I don't need to make any cognitive change to how I work at my desk with monitor and how I work on my laptop alone... It's such a simple thing but insanely useful
There is a solution.
You can try (free 45 days, $6 permanent) BetterTouchTools. To invert, go to Advanced Settings -> Trackpad (upper right hand side) -> 'Mirror complete Magic Trackpad orientation for "upside-down" usage' (lowest option on screen). I also selected "Launch BetterTouchTools on startup" from the "Simple" -> "Basic Settings" in the app... works as described!
I'm pissed at Apple over this.. but bettertouchtools seems to work smoothly, and I can swing $6 if the integration is seamless. So far it seems to be!
My configuration, specifically:
- MBP (retina) 15" 2014
- 1st gen. magic trackpad (inverted, FTW!)
- MacOS Sierra (10.12.2)
I tried it first, in El Capitan, just to be sure - inversion button worked as described, so I updated. Same functionality in OS Sierra!
Ha, nice! I already use BTT (for window-snapping and custom gestures), I didn't know it had this option, will check it out and update the post.
I have the same problem occasionally, which I put down to the OS still being busy loading stuff behind the scenes when BTT starts. I have to click on the BTT icon and select "Restart BetterTouchTool" and then it works; so it's not the option getting lost, is just that somehow it does not "get in" when BTT starts.
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