If you regularly use a laptop, it is in your best interest to know these gestures on the touchpad: they will save you time and comfort by simplifying many operations.
The laptop computer is today the work and leisure tool par excellence, replacing the good old desktop computer. So, most users have swapped their mouse for a touchpad to interact with their device. As practical as this device is, it is not always as fast or precise as “the field mouse”, and certain manipulations are sometimes quite laborious.
Fortunately, most, if not almost all, modern laptops are equipped with a “high-precision” touchpad, which allows specific and very practical actions to be triggered using simple gestures. At Microsoft, these functions are called “touch gestures” and are supported since Windows 8 and later.
While some are well known and widely used, others are more confidential. However, these touch gestures can make using a laptop much more comfortable, intuitive and fluid when they are well mastered. For example, one of the best known is zooming in a web page or document, which works like on a smartphone or tablet: simply place two fingers on the touchpad and move them apart or closer to zoom or zoom. zoom out.
Similarly, it is possible to easily navigate an application interface or a document, such as a large Excel workbook, without using the scroll bars on the right and bottom of the window. Simply place two fingers on the touchpad then slide them to the left, right, up or down to scroll horizontally or vertically through the displayed content. And by briefly pressing with two fingers on the touchpad, we then open a context menu, like clicking with the right button of a mouse.
But there are also three- or four-finger touch gestures, which trigger actions relating to windows and workspaces, very practical in the context of “multitasking” activity. If you have multiple windows open at the same time, you can switch between them by placing three fingers on the touchpad and sliding them to the right or left.
Better yet, by swiping upwards with three fingers, you see a mosaic of all open windows, and can select the one you’re interested in by clicking on it. Conversely, a three-finger swipe down minimizes all windows, without closing them, to instantly clear your desktop.
As for the four-finger touch gestures, they allow you to switch from one virtual desktop to another (if you have created one) by swiping to the left or to the right. This is a very good way to navigate between your different work or leisure spaces, if you tend to open many applications at the same time.
Finally, note that these touch gestures can be personalized, to a certain extent, via Windows settings. To do this, open the application Settings and go to the section Bluetooth and devices > Touchpad. There, click on the blocks Three-finger gestures Or Four-finger gesturesthen select the actions you want to assign to these movements from the options available in the drop-down lists.