It surprises me how many Mac users and Mac bashers don't know that you can, very easily, right-click on a Mac, bringing up contextual menus, and enabling special functions. It is just as easy to use the 'right-click' features on a Mac as on a PC, and I will show you how it's done.

Right-clicking is a very convenient way to do many things: In the Finder, you can modify files, make new folders, and do many other things simply by right-clicking on a file or folder. And in many applications, right-clicking in certain areas lets you do things quickly without opening menus or using keyboard shortcuts.

For External USB Mice: If you are using a desktop Mac (iMac, Power Mac G3/G4/G5, eMac, Mac mini, etc.) or a laptop (iBook, PowerBook, etc.), and use an external mouse besides the Apple Pro Mouse (such as a Microsoft Optical mouse), you can right click by simply pressing the right mouse button! Mac OSX (and OS9, for that matter) supports almost all USB-enabled mice - the right click button, the scroll wheel, etc.

For One-Button Mice: Even if you don't have a third party mouse, you can simply hold down the 'control' key while clicking your mouse button; this performs the exact same task.

For Laptops with a Trackpad: For Mac laptops (i.e. the PowerBook and iBooks), you have a variety of ways to enable right-clicking. As mentioned above, you may simply hold down the 'control' key and click. Or you might use an external 2-button USB mouse. But, if want to use only the trackpad, there are still a few options:

The best solution, in my opinion, is to use OS 10.3.8 or later's ability to right click using two fingers and the button. To do this, you'll have to download iScroll to enable the two-finger scrolling and right-clicking (you'll need to make sure your laptop's trackpad supports this feature). To right click, simply place two fingers next to each other on the trackpad, then click the mouse button.

If your laptop is too old to support this, or if you'd rather not go this route, you may also try using SideTrack (a Shareware app) to enable right-mouse clicking by tapping a certain part of the trackpad.

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