BTT Documentation
BetterTouchTool is based on portions of MultiClutch from William Henderson (http://wcrawford.org ) in the meantime most of this code has been rewritten or changed drastically, but without his work BTT would not exist at all. So thanks for your really great work!
Please read the current Blogposts before reading this
Use BetterTouchTool on your own risk!
Installation:
- Download & unzip the app. Then just drag it to your application folder and start it.
- It may only work on Snow Leopard (10.6.X.)
Uninstall
- Just delete the BetterTouchTool.app
Features:
- Define tons of new gestures for magic mouse and touchpad
- Assign keyboard shortcuts or predefined actions
- Increase mouse tracking speed
- Customize a lot
- Real Middleclick (e.g. for CAD & 3D)
- Can add a Preference Pane for launching the Preferences now
Before posting questions to the comments see the FAQ And if your question is related to a specific Gesture also check below
- Available gestures are:
Magic Mouse gestures (version 0.440):
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- pinch in and pinch out (zoom)
Special notes: if this one triggers accidentally you may want to disable horizontal zooming in the preferences. Also you may want to activate it only for specific apps like preview.
If you want to use it for zooming you have to set cmd+ and cmd – as shortcuts - tip tap (left / right)
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRhBa3-O3fM
In order to get it triggered you have to:
1) lift your fingers
2) tap with one finger and keep this finger down and don’t move it
3) tap left or right of this finger with an other finger
4) should trigger - two finger tip tap (left /right)
This one should be easier than the normal tip tap.
Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJSpN80c8ns - two finger swipe up/down/left/right
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOJswsiF0vA - three finger swipe up/down/left/right
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezaAh3lz0RA - single finger tap (only if you don’t have single finger tap left or right set)
- single finger tap left
- single finger tap right (left and right half of the mouse)
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4MeWKK1o3A - single finger tap middle
you can set the range of single finger tap left/right/middle in the preferences
- single finger CLICK middle
you can set it’s range/position in the preferences
(this one is able to simulate a real middleclick, if you select it in the predefined actions dropdown. This maybe useful for CAD etc.)
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwSzfcCg7XU - two finger tap
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsIxIStFz2k
- two finger click (you have to lift your fingers before clicking, but this one doesn’t work very well yet)
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxEQ7QBKKlI - three finger tap
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK4amqlzTB8 - three finger CLICK (this one is able to simulate a real middleclick, if you select it in the predefined actions dropdown. This maybe useful for CAD etc.)
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHFTn0nkCqc
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Macbook gestures:
- Tip Tap (left / right)
Video: look at this video to learn how this works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRhBa3-O3fM
Be sure to wait about 0.2 seconds before tapping with the second finger. This one will be improved soon. - Two finger tip tap (left/right), should be easier than normal tip tap.
You have to put down two fingers, then wait a little moment and then tap left or right like shown in the video:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD2g0WSIHx0 - three finger swipe (left/right/up/down)
Special notes: in order to use the custom 3 finger swipes, they must be activated in the system preferences. This is in contrast to the 4 finger swipes, those have to be deactivated if you want to use them in BTT. - rotate (left/right)
you can set the sensitivity in the preferences
- zoom (in/out)
you can set the sensitivity in the preferences - three finger tap (Available on Macbook )
- three finger click
- four finger swipe (up/down/left/right)
Special notes: if you want to use custom four finger gestures you have to deactivate the apple standard four finger gestures in your System Preferences - five finger tap
- single finger tap top left
- single finger tap top right
- single finger tap top middle
See picture: http://blog.boastr.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/touchpad2.jpg - single finger tap bottom left / right / middle
If you want to set Shortcuts that are currently used by other applications (like expose) look at this How To
If you want to set Shortcuts for Apple applications like Finder or Preview, they are located in /System/Library/CoreServices/
Those gestures & actions are currently available (v 0.424, there are more now)
18 Pings to “BTT Documentation”
47 Responses to “BTT Documentation”
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1. Michael Says:
November 9th, 2009 at 9:16 pmIt’s not clear to me how you would asign Exposé to three finger tap. My iMac alu keyboard (wired, fullsize) has Exposé permanently mapped to F3 and I cannot deactivate it. Only way to deactivate is switching the keyboard preferences to function keys but then there is no shortcut available for Exposé.
Apart from that the higher mouse speed alone is worth your app and a big thank you.
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2. Krutius Says:
November 9th, 2009 at 10:01 pmHi
sehe ich es richtig das du deutsch sprichst, hast ja SecondBar mal im gulli vorgestellt
känntest du aus dem 3finger tab ein 3finger klick machen? also wie beim 2 fingerklick: 3 finger drauf und dann klicken. sonst macht man ständig diesen 3 finger tip, vor allem bei der magic mouse. Ansonsten ein super Tool +++english:
please, can you chance the 3 finger tab to a 3 finger klick like the apple second klick? its better ond the Magic mouse and on the touchpad. but its a verry good tool.Mfg
Krutius
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3. Steve Says:
November 10th, 2009 at 3:24 amFor me, the four finger gestures don’t work at all. I’ve tried turning off Apple’s prefs for those gestures and even then, when I set the four-finger down swipe to activate Spaces, it shows the desktop and then I can’t get it to stop without switching apps back and forth. Pretty thoroughly broken. I’m using 10.6.1 on a brand new MacBook Pro 13″. Great idea for an app. Hope you get it working soon.
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4. Steve Says:
November 10th, 2009 at 3:29 am@Steve
Rebooting seems to have at least fixed the problem temporarily… I hope. -
5. Decade Says:
November 10th, 2009 at 9:58 pmHallo
Besteht die Möglichkeit in das Programm die Funktion des “Touchens” mittels links und rechtsklick einzubauen? Ich finde es sehr schade das dies nicht schon von Werk aus bei der Maus funktioniert. Da es immerhin eine Multitouch Maus sein soll.
Der 3 Finger Touch funktioniert ja auch wunderbar! Danke und Gruß
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6. Niels Says:
November 10th, 2009 at 10:45 pmIndeed, I’m not able to set Exposé. I am deactivating some things in Preferences, but it’s still not working…
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7. Russell Says:
November 11th, 2009 at 6:33 amIs it possible to reassign clicks/taps? For example, I’d like to reassign a two-finger tap to a middle click and three-finger to secondary/right click.
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8. drdr Says:
November 11th, 2009 at 1:20 pmHey, how do I assign CMD+TAB to a gesture in your great app?
I have deactivated four finger swipe in original sys pref, and assigned spaces to 4swipe left, and want to reassign AppSwitcher to 4swipe right.
How do I do that?
THANKS
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9. Gavin Says:
November 11th, 2009 at 5:38 pmI’m not quite sure how to get middle click working – it says two and three finger tap are middle click by default, but for instance in Maya, cmd+middle click and drag is pan – how would I click * drag?
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10. Wolf Says:
November 11th, 2009 at 5:40 pmSince I realized that the MagicMouse still produces annoying click-sounds by using a stoneage-microswitch, I wonder if it is possible to perform “silent-clicks” (as on a trackpad) with a little help of some software like BetterTouchTool. Any suggestions so far?
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11. elldove Says:
November 11th, 2009 at 7:07 pmCmd-Tab can be assigned, but you need to dig into a preference file manually. (you’ll need either PlistEdit Pro or Plist Editor (which comes with OS X but is an optional install as part of the developer tools).
First, make the gesture you want assigned to command tab, only assign it to command-option-tab, instead.second, go to ~/Library/Preferences (where ~ means your home folder) and find com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool.plist. Open that with a plist editor.
You’ll see a kind of folder or tree structure, find Bindings, click the drop down arrow, you’ll see Global or whatever application you want mapped to command – tab.
Click the drop-down arrow next to Global. And you’ll see the name of the gesture on the left and “58,55,48″ on the right (which are key codes that correspond to option-command-tab, respectively). Double click on those numbers, and change it to just “55,48″.
Save and close the plist.
Restart BetterTouch.
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12. pagocs Says:
November 12th, 2009 at 1:11 pmMany thanks for this app, it’s great work! I can use Exposé with my magic mouse! This is a very good thing! Keep up the good work.
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13. Trent Walton Says:
November 12th, 2009 at 2:46 pmThis is the best thing I’ve found on the interweb all week. Great work.
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14. Jonathan Says:
November 13th, 2009 at 10:01 amDoes BetterTouchTool work with the old “white” MacBook ?
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15. Claudio Says:
November 13th, 2009 at 11:23 pmIs it possible to enable BetterTouchTool also for OS X 10.5 Leopard?!
This would be awesome, because of some (Traktor Scratch Pro, which I am running on my white MacBook, is still not 10.6 compatible) reason I can still not upgrade to 10.6…
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16. fredsherbet Says:
November 15th, 2009 at 5:37 pmFantastic app. Makes the Magic Mouse magic
Keep up the good work! -
17. Rufus Says:
November 15th, 2009 at 7:41 pmThe app is brilliant and makes my Magic Mouse worth it. I am having problems with the left and right swipe though. I have the directional swipes mapped to switching spaces. Up and Down work perfectly (and consistently) but left and right stop working after a few minutes until I reboot BTT. Thoughts?
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18. Rez Says:
November 17th, 2009 at 5:13 pmJonathan :
Does BetterTouchTool work with the old “white” MacBook ?Same question here, the app suggests that multitouch gestures can be recognized on old MacBooks as you can select “MacBook without multitouch touchpad” in the settings, but none of the gestures seem to be working on my 2008 MacBook.
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19. Ian Says:
November 17th, 2009 at 5:32 pmIs it possible to add two-finger click?. I’m a 3d modeler and since I use the middle click every 0.5 seconds, it’s not very practical to assign it with the three finger click..
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20. mad84max Says:
November 17th, 2009 at 11:25 pmGreat app! Finally I can use multi touch gestures in Opera
! Keep up the good work! -
21. Alex Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 2:17 amHey I’m not able to see the BTT open it shows it’s open in Activity Monitor but it dose not show in the top bar of the mac. As if it’s not open the app in my dock dosent show it as being open as well. I cant set it up. I’ve deleted and re-installed the app a few times is not working.
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22. Alex Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 2:36 amI figured it out my self. I just had a software update not long ago so there need to be a new version so that we can see the app actually open and in the secondbar because like i said i can still use it as in it my previous setting is till work when i open the app i just dont see the app open and it does not show me is open in the secondbar
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23. cjmegatron81 Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 3:57 amBetterTouch is amazing! Thank you!
Is there anyway to donate?
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24. giona Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 11:49 amcan i have the middle mouse button with this application?
I usually use autodesk maya and i need the middle mouse button.
I try with trackpad but it does’nt work…
now i’m waiting for magic mouse…
many thanks -
25. AppleMacGenius Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 4:57 pmI got it to work… Woohoo.. now I love my Magic Mouse!!!
AppleMacGenius
blog url: http://www.applemacgeniusville.com -
26. Jay Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 8:08 pmApp is not present in my system tray. wtf.
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27. Venom Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 9:29 pmI still can’t get it to work and i updated to the new version today, like people have been saying it wont show in the second bar or even not showing that the app is open
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28. t3xa5 Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 10:17 pmCan I use it on a middle 2007 MacBook? my trackpad recognize only two fingers, it is possible to use this app on it? thanks
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29. Tom Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 12:12 pmThis rocks my socks! Thanks!
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30. Dan Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 10:08 pmHello. Thank you for your works. You’re doing really great app!
Where can I find your email to send bugs/ideas to you?
I tryed to use click to tap feature in magic mouse, but cannot configure it in useful way.
First I set single tap -> left click.
But in this way when I had two fingers on mouse and taped by left finger, no click raised. I should up my right finger to make tap.
Then I add two finger tap -> left click. But this not helps.What should I do to implement tap by left finger with my hand on mouse?
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31. Another Tom Says:
November 20th, 2009 at 7:46 pmIs there any way that BTT could take advantage of the Wacom Bamboo Touch to add gestures to a desktop Mac?
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32. JMG Says:
November 21st, 2009 at 6:14 pmPerhaps I am missing something, but could you please add an option for Dashboard as an action in the drop down? Thanks!
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33. InVisibleMe Says:
November 21st, 2009 at 6:31 pmNice ideas, what about releasing them under the GPL and making an Open Source Project out of it? I’m sure there are a lot of people out there willing to contribute…think about it.
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34. Nico G Says:
November 21st, 2009 at 7:54 pmHey,
Cool software. It works (almost).I’m having some side effects: iTunes has always worked seamlessly for me. Now it works perfectly until I use my multiTouch trackpad to scroll (two finger scrolling). When I do this it freezes and i have to force quit it. This started happening the DAY I got betterTouchTool and it happens even after I’ve quit AND uninstalled your program. While I’m sure this is only because of some small overlooked artifact or cobweb code stuck in the multitouch trackpad/Magic mouse software (Apple or 3rd party), I was wondering if you could help me remove this problem. iTunes works perfectly fine when I turn off multiTouch settings in System Prefs. That might be very helpful to know.
thanks.
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35. sm Says:
November 21st, 2009 at 7:55 pmThank you for the Bettertouchtool it solved me the problem with Expose.
I am sure it will make my life much easier -
36. Andreas Hegenberg Says:
November 21st, 2009 at 8:02 pm@Nico G
Sorry but this is not possible. BetterTouchTool changes nothing on your system, if it is closed there can’t be any sideeffects anymore. (At least not after you have restarted your system)
I think this ist just a random iTunes bug maybe try updating / reinstalling iTunes.Cheers
Andreas -
37. beiju Says:
November 21st, 2009 at 11:27 pmMacBook Trackpad Request: Four-finger click, like the three-finger click, where you have to actually depress the button.
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38. Azundris Says:
November 22nd, 2009 at 1:31 amIs there a specific reason one- and two-finger tap on the trackpad can’t be reassigned? I have (1:”select”, 2:”menu”, 3:”paste”) now (thanks for that alone! combined with a swift ‘xmodmap -e “pointer = 1 3 2″‘ X11 now works as expected!!). I’d like to swap 2-tap and 3-tap, so 3-tap gives the right click (context-menu) and 2-tap gives middle click in Aqua, is that possible? Thanks and regards, -A-
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39. pixelpusher Says:
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:06 pmHi,
I’m fascinated by BTT, still there is one thing irritating me: When BTT is running I’ll have to lift all other fingers for scrolling with one. Without BTT (so in Apple’s “standard” mode) I can leave one finger on the surface of the Magic Mouse while scrolling with the other one.
Have I just didn’t find the setting for switching this on/off in BTT or is this meant to be?
Thanks in advance and keep on your fantastic job! (BTW: Is there any option to donate?)
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40. Captain Shift Says:
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:35 pmTHANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THIS GREAT TOOL!!!
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41. senfbrot Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:32 amErstmal: Großartiges App, sehr schön!
Hab allerdings ein altes (late 2007) weißes Macbook, OS X 10.6.2, und die drei und/oder vier- Finger- Gesten funktionieren bei mir nicht.
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42. Darren Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:35 amHow do you make this start up everytime I boot my MacBook Pro? Awesome tool. I have it doing Expose with 3 finger swipe down.
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43. Alan Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:07 amIs it possible to make the magic mouse turn up and down the sound? if so can you please explain? thanks
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44. Heinz Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:52 amumm it is just me but it keeps crashing on my iMac…im running Snow Leopard and it worked once so far..the actual program…i have assigned 1 gesture so far and changed some settings….but then the program won’t actually work now
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45. Perc3val Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:13 pmThanks a lot for better touch tool it was working very well on my iMac with my magic mouse!
But can you add a “Start at opening” option in preferences ?
And it is possible to have a rotate option like the touchpad or not ?One more time, thanks a lot for BTT and sorry for my english
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46. Vladimok Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:12 pmComment configurer l’action tip tap (left / right), cela ne marche pas sur mon MacBook ?
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47. Lee Faus Says:
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 pmIs there a way to use specific gestures in Keynote when in Presentation mode. I would love to hold my magic mouse and two finger gesture to go forward and backward in the presentation.
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