How to master your Chromebook trackpad gestures [VIDEO]

Chromebooks are designed to be easy to understand and easy to navigate. Much of the navigation lies in the powerful, flexible trackpad that rests just below the keyboard of your Chromebook. This input method has a lot of power over Chrome OS, but just because Chromebooks are meant to be streamlined, simplified computers, does not mean that they come completely without a learning curve. With that in mind, we wanted to put together a simple, quick guide to all the things you can do with the built-in trackpad of your Chromebook.

Before we get started, a brief note on the settings. In the settings menu of your device, you can settings> device> touchpad (or mouse and touchpad if you paired a mouse) and you can decide to turn on tap-to-click, tap-and-drag and scroll reverse. For this post and video, you just need to know that a tap on the trackpad or a physical click on the trackpad means the same and that both work if the option is enabled. Reverse scrolling is also a bit of a choice, depending on what feels natural to you, but I leave it at that because I like the content on the screen to move in the same direction of my fingers when scrolling as we are used to on phones a tablet. Let’s dive in now.

Gestures with one finger

As you would expect, one-finger gestures are pretty simple. With one finger on the track, you can move your mouse pointer around the screen and select items such as programs, web links, and system settings. In addition, you can click to grab open windows and drag it around the screen with a physical click and drag or double tap and drag when the tap options are enabled.

Two-finger gestures

If we add another number, the gestures become a little more complicated. With two fingers on the track, the most useful gesture is definitely the sliding motion. Depending on your reverse browsing setting we mentioned earlier, the behavior of this gesture will vary. Either way, if you place two fingers on the trackpad and move in any direction, the content will move on your screen as long as the content can be browsed. Take, for example, this post you are reading. With two fingers on the trackpad, you can slide up and down to move the content around with ease.

Furthermore, with two fingers you can a pinch-zoom movement which will zoom in on web content and other app content where permitted. Once the content is zoomed in, the two-finger scroll is handy for moving you in any direction on the screen to see your now zoomed in content: up, down, left or right.

Finally, with two-finger clicks or taps, you can bring out a context menu similar to a Windows right-click or Android / iOS long press. The content in the context menu will differ from app to app, but if you are looking for extra options, it is always worthwhile to tap / click with two fingers to see if any extras are hidden beneath the surface.

One bonus move that still only works on Chrome and web apps (not Android apps) is a two-finger swipe left / right to go forward / backward in web content. This is a handy trick we left out of the video because it does not work system-wide.

Three-finger gestures

If you move with three fingers, things get even more complicated. These gestures are more about productivity with multitasking and feel more like additions than requirements. First, we have leaf scrub. The idea here is simple: if you have open tabs in Chrome, you can move three fingers left or right and move effortlessly through the tabs. It’s insanely useful and a feature you’ll definitely miss if you get used to it and move back to a Windows or Mac laptop.

Next is the overview mode. While there is a dedicated key on the Chromebooks for this, the three-finger swipe is faster in my opinion. With this gesture you can call your overview mode and see all open windows on your desktop at once. If you are very busy or just can not find one window you need, it is very handy and a gesture that I use countless daily.

Finally, with the same three fingers, you can perform a click that will close the tab you are hovering over. If you need to quickly close a handful of open tabs in Chrome, a three-finger click will close a tab you move, without having to get the cursor directly over the small X. It sounds small, but this gesture is very helpful.

Four-finger gestures

Finally we gave birth to our last four fingers. With the above overview mode, you can create virtual desktops that allow you to set up three additional workspaces. Think of it as having virtually three extra monitors on your Chromebook. If you have it active and ready to go from one to the next, there is a keyboard shortcut and the ability to click from the overview mode to the desktops, but by far the most satisfying method is to swipe left or right with four fingers to the trackpad.

With this quick gesture you can move seamlessly from one workspace to the next with a twist of the wrist. Work is even being done to speed up the animations and make the transitions between your desktops smoother. As it comes to Chrome OS in the next few updates, the four-finger gesture to switch from desktop is just as beneficial as ever before.

So, that’s it! If you download these gestures, you’ll soon be a master of the Chromebook trackpad. While much of this is fun to do, for the most part, it is also helpful. You will be much more productive and nimble as you go through the operating system if you know these shortcuts like the back of your hand. There are not many, so I would highly recommend devoting it to memory, using it regularly and doing more like you in less time.