Using Firefox 3.5’s multitouch gestures on the Mac

16 Jul 2009 3 Comments

Mozilla Firebox 3.5 has built-in support for the multitouch trackpads found in Apple’s MacBook line. All the gestures were available in the Firefox betas before Firefox 3.5 was released, but the Twist Right and Twist Left functionality was disabled in the final release.

firefox-multitouch-gestures-mac-os-x

Enabling Multitouch Twist Gestures in Firefox 3.5:

Open Firefox and enter “about:config” in the URL bar, then type “twist” in the filter field.

Double-click the “browser.gesture.twist.left” entry and set its value to “Browser:PrevTab“, then double-click on the “browser.gesture.twist.right” entry and set its value to “Browser:NextTab“.

To change the response rate of multitouch gestures, double-click the “browser.gesture.twist.threshold” entry and set its value lower to make gestures more responsive, or higher to make them more responsive.

Using Multitouch Gestures in Firefox 3.5:

Firefox 3.5 multitouch functionality is triggered by three- or two-finger gestures:

Swipe – Slide three fingers across the trackpad.
Pinch – Move two fingers towards or away from each other on the trackpad.
Twist – Rotate two fingers around a central point, much like tracing the outline of a circle.

The available gestures are:

  • Swipe Left: Go one page backwards in history; hold the ⌘ (Command) key to open the page in a new tab.
  • Swipe Right: Go one page forward in history.
  • Swipe Up: Scroll to the top of the page.
  • Swipe Down: Scroll to the end of the page.
  • Pinch Together: Zoom out from the page content.
  • Pinch Apart: Zoom in on the page content.
  • Twist Right: Go to the next tab.
  • Twist Left: Go to the previous tab.

Some additional (and very useful) gestures that aren’t specific to Firefox but available system-wide in Mac OS X include:

  • Dragging two fingers to scroll a page up / down / left / right (one finger will simply move the mouse pointer).
  • Holding down the ⌃ (Control) key and moving two fingers up or down the trackpad to zoom in or out of whatever is displayed on-screen.
  • Tapping on the trackpad with one finger to click or two fingers to right-click.

 

Related posts:

  1. Enabling additional multi-touch gestures on the Apple Magic Mouse
  2. Disabling location-aware browsing in Firefox 3.5
  3. Running Firefox 3 and the Firefox 4 BETA simultaneously on your Mac
  4. Viewing inline PDFs in Firefox on Mac with firefox-mac-pdf
  5. Google’s Page Speed Firefox plugin
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3 Responses to “Using Firefox 3.5’s multitouch gestures on the Mac”

  1. josie Reply 16 Jul 2009 at 10:33

    That was fun thanks, but I am still not completely sold on using Firefox.

    I am impressed with the new version of Safari.

    Thanks of the great tips on using a Mac.

    Cheers

    Josie
    @platform45

  2. Ryn Reply 12 Sep 2009 at 21:28

    Is it possible to use this on a first gen Macbook? Because it doesn’t appear to be working…

  3. dean Reply 14 Sep 2009 at 03:49

    worked like a charm, thanks!

    (running 13″ unibody MBP, 10.6)

    Now does anyone know how to invert the axis on the trackpad when scrolling? Its driving me crazy how scrolling is opposite on my iPhone.

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