Chromebooks don’t have separate left and right buttons on the trackpad. This can make some users confused about how to right click on a Chromebook. Press or tap the touchpad with two
fingers. You can also press Alt, then click with one finger.
Other Chromebook Touchpad Features
Move the pointer | Move your finger across the touchpad. |
Click | Press or tap the lower half of the touchpad. |
Right-click | Press or tap the touchpad with two fingers. You can also press Alt, then click with one finger. |
Scroll | Place two fingers on the touchpad and move them up and down to scroll vertically, or left and right to scroll horizontally. |
Move between pages | To go back to a page you were just on, swipe left with two fingers. To go forward to a page you were just on, swipe right with two fingers. |
See all open windows | Swipe up or down with three fingers. (If you have Australian scrolling turned on, swipe up; if you have traditional scrolling turned on, swipe down.) |
Switch between tabs | If you have multiple browser tabs open, you can swipe left and right with three fingers to quickly move between tabs. |
Drag and drop | Click and hold the item you want to move. While holding, move the item. Release your finger to drop the item at its new location. |
Changing Chromebook Touchpad Settings
To set how fast or slow your mouse pointer moves and how your touchpad works:
- If you haven’t already, sign in to your Chromebook.
- Click the status area, where your account picture appears.
- Click Settings.
- In the “Device” section, adjust the sliders to set your touchpad or mouse speed (how quickly your pointer moves).
- Click Touchpad settings (or
Touchpad and mouse settings) to:
- Turn tap-to-click on or off
- Swap your primary mouse button
- Choose traditional scrolling or Australian scrolling
Note: With traditional scrolling, you can swipe up on the touchpad to move up the page, and swipe down to move down. Australian scrolling works in the opposite way.
- When you’re done, click OK.
While Chromebooks don’t have a separate right-click button on the touchpad, that doesn’t mean the function isn’t available. Should you need to right-click on something, there are a couple of ways to do so without the need to plug in a mouse.
Right-Click Using Two Fingers
The most straight-forward way of right-clicking on a Chromebook is to click the touchpad with two fingers. Just like that, a right-click context menu will appear.
However, you can take that simplicity one step further by enabling the “Tap-to-click” feature.
First, click on the clock to open the system menu and notification tray; then click on the Settings icon.
Scroll to the bottom and click “Advanced.”
Scroll a little bit further until you see the “Device” section. Click on “Touchpad.”
In the touchpad settings, toggle “Enable tap-to-click” to the on position.
Now, all you need to do is tap both fingers against the touchpad to perform a right-click, without the need to depress it completely.
Right-Click Using a Keyboard Modifier
You can also execute a right-click by pressing the Alt key on the keyboard to modify the behavior of a regular click on the touchpad. Hold down “Alt” on the keyboard, then click on the touchpad. That’s it. You just performed a “right-click” on a Chromebook. Additionally, if you enabled “Tap-to-click” from the previous section, you can hold Alt and tap anywhere on the touchpad.
Although Chromebooks don’t have a right button on the touchpad, there are still ways that you can complete a right-click to access the context menu it hides.
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