Update, May 24, 2010: Comments on this post keep trickling in, but Apple has long since fixed this issue. If you have a look at the screenshot of the Trackpad preference pane below, you’ll notice that, curiously, there are no checkboxes next to most of the “options.” This has been resolved with a software update. The current version of the preference pane looks like this. Note that now each of the items listed includes a checkbox to turn that feature on or off. Also note that in my settings, I have unchecked “Pinch Open & Close” and “Screen Zoom.” Problem solved.
If you don’t make a habit of running Software Update regularly, you really should. Click on System Preferences in your Dock, then click on Software Update. I recommend checking the boxes for automatic updates, and be sure to click Check Now and follow the on-screen instructions to grab any available updates you haven’t yet installed.
Don’t get too excited by the title of this post: I don’t have an answer. But it’s annoying the hell out of me in Safari and I want a resolution. I’m hoping that once again a post here might be a beacon in the darkness and someone will come along with an answer.
I’ve already looked here and on other similar forums, and all of the responses seem to be one of the following:
- Download this shareware app you’ve never heard of and it will fix it.
- In addition to being an idiot and a major d-bag, I’ve never touched one of the new MacBooks in my life, but I won’t let that stop me from cluelessly suggesting that you check under System Preferences > Trackpad in an obnoxiously smug way.
- How on Earth can you possibly be accidentally zooming when you’re trying to scroll or whatever it is you’re trying to do instead of zooming? Clearly you are a moron who just can’t figure out how to use a trackpad properly.
Thanks, assholes. But seriously, thanks, assholes.
I know Apple has a history of introducing “innovative” features that their users may not be entirely willing to embrace. Some have been prescient (dumping the floppy disk drive) and others have been folly (the infamous “hockey puck” mouse). Obviously the company is trying to transform the way our fingers interact with electronic devices. The multi-touch trackpad is an impressive innovation and it’s also a logical extension of the touch control of the iPhone and the iPod touch. But it’s also radically different from a traditional trackpad in ways that are not at all apparent, upon initial introduction, to the user. I love some of these features, such as the two-finger scrolling and the four-finger swipe to switch apps.
Others, not so much, especially since there’s no forced education on how they work, so it’s easy to do them accidentally. Case in point, as I was just writing about the four-finger swipe, I decided to test it to make sure I was describing it accurately. Unfortunately I absent-mindedly swiped with only three fingers, an action which unbeknownst to me is the equivalent, in Safari anyway, of clicking the Back button. I never would have expected this, nor would I ever want it to do this.
I think the fundamental disconnect I’m struggling with here is that the interface metaphor is incomplete. With an iPhone, there is no cursor, and your fingers interact directly with what you’re looking at on the screen. With the MacBook, you still have a traditional, non-touch screen and a mouse- or trackpad-controlled cursor moving about on that screen. Putting iPhone-style touch gestures onto a non-screen trackpad, and mixing those gestures awkwardly with traditional mouse-style movement of an on-screen cursor just isn’t intuitive and it came with no advance warning.
So, boo on Apple for the half-baked multi-touch interface in general, but for the most part the only place where it’s really giving me trouble is in Safari. I almost never resize the text in Safari, but I scroll constantly in Safari. It makes sense to provide a convenient multi-touch gesture for scrolling, but how often does the average user resize the text on a web page? I suppose those whose sight is diminished may do it more than I do, but that still doesn’t justify making it such an easy-to-accidentally-trigger gesture, especially since there’s (apparently) no way to turn it off.
The problem is further exacerbated by the integration of the trackpad button into the trackpad itself. You always have at least two fingers on the trackpad — the one moving the cursor and the thumb resting at the bottom on the “button.” But where exactly is the boundary between the “button” and the rest of the trackpad? That seems to be the key flaw that is causing me to frequently resize my text in Safari accidentally.
That, ultimately, is what bothers me most about the new multi-touch gestures: most of them appear to be mandatory, like it or lump it. The new trackpad is obviously capable of performing all of the functions of a traditional, non-multi-touch trackpad. So how hard would it have been to provide the user with the option to turn off the new gestures if they don’t want to use them?
Come on, Apple. You’re better than that. Aren’t you?
Comments
25 responses to “Disabling the pinch-zoom feature on the new MacBook”
For what it’s worth, here’s someone else complaining about the same thing. It had not occurred to me until I read this that perhaps Apple’s intention was to have you click with your index finger instead of your thumb, but given that the trackpad clicks more easily at the bottom, and does still appear to have a “zone” at the bottom where it behaves differently, like there’s a button there (multi-touch gestures are not activated by your thumb if it’s near the bottom), I think they still expect users to click down there with their thumbs.
I’m still training myself to use the two-finger scrolling technique instead of click-and-hold on the scrollbar. Two-finger scroll is nice. I like it. This is an appropriate use of multi-touch. The pinch zoom on the other hand is unnecessary and counterintuitive.
Actually, the two-finger scrolling was available way before multi-touch. My first Macbook had this feature, hence the reason I am so used to scrolling with this technique.
While we wait for a permanent solution, I find the fastest alternative to be hitting “command + 0” every time you zoom. Its still obnoxious, but this keyboard shortcut makes it a lot less stressful for me. It just returns Safari’s view to its actual size. Same as clicking “View -> Actual Size”.
my macbook trackpad’s two-finger pinching is useless. A tiny movement maximises the size, and then when i bring my fingers together a fraction, the size of the screen minimizes to the smallest. Back and forth it goes, but it is impossible to find the right size. A useless function I can’t switch off. It keeps happening. I may sell the +++ing thing.
I tried multiclutch it is free!
http://wcrawford.org/2008/02/28/everytime-i-think-about-you-i-touch-my-cell/
After installing you go to System Preferences and liook for Multiclutch in the bottom row.
Add Safari in the application pane on the left.
You add a command key to the gesture zoom in/ouy or out/in (eg Command Z) but only to safari and it will effectively disable the font enlarge/shrink which we all find so unecessary!
It worked with me on Safari 4 beta – read the recommendations as it’s only a beta app itself so I make no promises that it won’t jack your whole OS but it seems to work fine for me.
Good Luck.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1919505&tstart=150
This fixed it. Go to View-> and click Zoom Text Only
no more psycho mac
Well, that sort of fixes it, but not really. The pinch zoom still happens just as easily, the effect is just slightly subdued.
This fixed the problem with the pinching in Safari and Firefox. I am amazed, it works great.
http://cubeyellow.blogspot.com/2009/01/mac-book-pro-trackpad-zooming-and.html
Zoom text only is brilliant. That was driving me just a little bit crazy. I like three finger back and forward though. It makes interneting faster.
sorry – that multiclutch thing makes no difference at all whatsoever!!!! Iv been trying to implement the
‘cubeyellow.blogspot’ technique but its too hard to do and although I managed to get it to say ;process completed’ nothing happened
This problem is terrible! I saw a thread on Apple support discussion, but it’s been “archived” and you can’t respond. I’m sick of this damned “feature”! What a mess! It’s not just Safari and Mail, it’s also other apps like MacJournal. One false move and your page is 300%. Then you often have to find the fiddly setting in your app to restore 100% view. But of course, then it happens again! I don’t know what the hell Apple were thinking when they implemented this TERRIBLE feature. I’m ready to throw my damned MBP out of the &*^%$ window.
I seriously hope that Apple updates the Trackpad control panel so that I can turn off the various aspects of multitouch. The pinch and zoom is especially horrible. Every 2 seconds in apps like NeoOffice I’m at 200% or 10% and have to readjust the View. Picture rotating is also way too sensitive.
I would also really like a way to make the bottom third or fourth of the trackpad behave simply as the mouse button. My thumb rests on it in preparation to click. Yet an awful lot of the time that’s interpreted as one finger in a multitouch gesture.
It’s making me hate my lovely new computer. Help!
The same hyper-sensitive zoom problem is triggered within in Open Office, and I hate it! The trackpad can be absolutely evil when trying to edit a document.
My best solution, which isn’t adequate, is to use a wireless mouse that’s connected to a USB.
I’ve found that if you tie your other arm down, this problem goes away but does making typing a bit slower.
@Chris Miller – at last some useful info! :-)
I’m sorry to see the thread on the forums has been archived. I did post on the Feedback page and I’d like to ask everyone here to do the same. I’m not sure it will do any good and they are upfront and say they won’t respond to the poster personally. Hopefully the message will get through to the right people eventually.
Thanks for pointing to the thread.
After downloading MultiCluch I was able to turn it off.
I never even new that my Macbook Pro had this ‘feature’. I just started using a new Macbook with the new trackpad and ended up zooming in and out all the time. Very annoying. Should be able to turn that off as part of the default options.
I’ve been using MultiClutch with much success.
I globally assigned Zoom In to an obscure keyboard shortcut (ctrl-shift-alt +). It overrides the trackpad Pinch to Zoom.
No more ZOOM! Very Happy
Yes, this is the stupidest thing ever. I can’t believe that there’s no way at all in the trackpad preference pane to disable the features. It just lists them all and taunts you as if you could disable them or configure them. Argh!
And I went ahead and took the risk and installed MultiClutch and it *does* do the trick! You just have to quit and re-run the applications to have it take effect.
I use Google Chrome and it (unlike Firefox) does not have a way to explicitly disable pinch-zoom gestures. So thank GOODNESS for MultiClutch. I just saved myself so much wasted time constantly hitting command-0 or manually resizing each time I screw up.
However, I can’t get the MultiClutch solution to work for Finder. I tried restarting Finder after configuring MultiClutch but it’s not working. :-( I *hate* pinch-to-zoom on the Finder. I’m constantly resizing my desktop which of course jumbles my icons all over the screen and is ridiculous. Just utterly and completely ridiculous. Who needs or wants a mouse gesture to resize the icons on their desktop? That should really only be doable in a preference pane or similar UI. Argh.
Anyway, thanks for ranting and giving us a thing to find to help solve the problem. Hopefully those good UX designers at Apple will gain a clue about how stupid it is that users can’t disable the gestures. The strongest argument against them is that some physically challenged users (e.g., with missing fingers or oddly-shaped hands) might accidentally invoke two-finger (or more) gestures and have a very difficult time undoing the actions they performed. For goodness’ sake, don’t abandon your users with special needs, Apple. It seems like in this case they just built something *they* wanted to use instead of what their users wanted/needed.
Thanks again.
I’m not exactly sure what release it was in, but I have OS 10.6.3 and you can disable the pinch-zoom and the three finger swipe in system preferences.=D
It really annoys me in Finder – constantly resizing my icons!
I want to disable it, but ONLY for resizing Finder icons. I’d like to leave the ability to pinch/zoom in other apps, but it seems it can only be fully off or fully on…
Folks, everyone needs to CALM DOWN. Apple updated the system preference at some point a long time ago, so you can now turn off the “pinch to zoom” feature.
Good point. I wrote this post over a year ago, and since then this is no longer an issue for me, but comments do keep trickling in. I’m going to update the post with the relevant info.
“Folks, everyone needs to CALM DOWN. Apple updated the system preference at some point a long time ago, so you can now turn off the “pinch to zoom” feature.”
You can only turn off Pinch to Zoom if you upgrade to Snow Leopard. If you’re still using Leopard you’re forced to use it.
So no, *you* calm down. An annoying feature that cannot be turned off is worth complaining about since it’s absolutely ridiculous you cannot change the settings.
Wow I see that this thread is almost closed but i do have a problem with that ‘pinch open & close’ feature and I haven’t seen anywhere online anyone with a similar problem. Even though I have the latest MacBook Pro on 10.6.8 and even though I keep it unticked every time I restart my computer the bloody thing is automatically ticked again! Does anyone know how to permanently stop this? It really is annoying when using Logic Pro, Safari etc