When we talk about gestures, we tend to focus on the variety of on-screen fingers, whether we're talking about Android's gestures and all the possibilities on that front or chewing on the similar set of on-screen gestures that Chromebooks have had for a while now
But there's another class of time-saving sliders that sneak into your larger Google devices. These swipes are relevant to ChromeOS, in particular, and will have you flying around your favorite Chromebook in record time, once you remember to start using them.
Here are seven Chromebook touchpad gestures that will do wonders for your productivity. And also keep in mind that some of these shortcuts (related to the web, particularly browser-level features not directly connected to ChromeOS) will also work in Chrome Browser on other operating systems.
fingers ready Here we are…
(*7*)Chromebook Touchpad Gesture #1: Side Scroll
You probably know that you can scroll up or down by placing two fingers on your Chromebook's trackpad simultaneously, side by side, but I often forget that the same basic gesture also works for scrolling horizontally. .
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So the next time you need to scroll left or right on a particularly wide surface in ChromeOS, place two fingers together on the trackpad, either side by side or on top of each other. (Both approaches will work. It's up to you!)
All you have to do is slide your fingers to the side and laugh as the screen mimics the movement.
(*7*)Chromebook Touchpad Gesture #2: Back
Speaking of two-finger swiping, hold down your two digits for a moment and swipe all the way to the left on your trackpad while viewing any web page. As long as you've been to another site before in the same tab, this will take you one step back in your browsing history (the equivalent of pressing Alt and the left arrow on your keyboard).
And if you've already gone back a step in your web history timeline, swipe right on your Chromebook's trackpad with two fingers to move to the next page on your browsing spectrum.
(*two*)Chromebook Touchpad Gesture #3: The Tab Switching Trick
This one's for all my fellow obsessive tab organizers: whenever you have multiple tabs open in a single Chrome window on your Chromebook, a three-finger side swipe on your trackpad will switch you to the next or previous tab in the list ( depending on whether you swipe right or left of course).
Ahhh… switching between tabs has never been so satisfying.
(*7*)Chromebook Touchpad Gesture #4: The Overall Snapshot
The ChromeOS overview screen—you know, the thing that shows all your open apps and tabs—is one of the most underrated parts of the operating system.
It lets you easily see everything you have open at any time, quickly navigate to any other app or website, manage multiple ChromeOS virtual desktops (more on these in a second), and even zip into a quick and easy split-screen setup ( by dragging any active application or process to either side of the screen).
And, yes, you guessed it: Your Chromebook's touchpad offers an extremely efficient way to swipe into that preview area with just the flick of one, or more precisely, three fingers.
Swipe up on your Chromebook's trackpad with three fingers together at any time to open the ChromeOS overview interface, then swipe down with those same three knuckles to exit when you're done.
It's one of the most useful ChromeOS shortcuts you'll ever remember.
(*7*)Chromebook Touchpad Gesture #5: Your Closest Tab
Here's another three-fingered beauty worth keeping in the active storage area of your head: Whenever you want to close a tab, you can simply hover over its title area, at the top of the screen, then click or touch your trackpad with three fingers. together.
Fagot! Who knows?!
(*7*)Chromebook Touchpad Gesture #6: Instant New Tab Delivery
On the other hand, when you want to open a link on a page you're viewing in a new tab, hover over the link, then click or tap the glowing three-finger trackpad again.
This will display the associated page in its own separate tab in the same browser window, just as if you had held down the Ctrl key while clicking.
(*7*)Chromebook Touchpad Gesture Number 7: The Virtual Desktop Quick Spin
Finally, back to those virtual desktops: Anytime you have more than one desktop open on your Chromebook (and if you have no idea what I'm talking about here, read this), you can switch between virtual desktops to Switch between desktops with an extremely useful Chromebook trackpad command.
Just swipe left or right on your trackpad with four fingers touching. It's a bit of an awkward move to get used to, but once you do, you'll never go back to the clunky manual alternative.
And with that, there's only one gesture left: a big thumbs up for all the glorious seconds you're about to start saving.
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