MUZ Apps

If you’re accustomed to using a trackpad with two buttons that resemble those on a mouse, you might be perplexed as to how you can right-click on a Chromebook since it doesn’t have those buttons.

In the section below, we show you how to right-click (or middle-click) on a Chromebook.

Chromebook Touchpad Basics

Chrome OS enables “tap-to-click” by default. This implies that clicking on the touchpad doesn’t require you to actually press anything down.

Despite this, most Chromebook touchpads have a “pressable” button on their lower half. It feels natural, you get feedback, and you hear a click.

But as on Apple laptops “clicking” in the lower right-hand side of the touchpad does not create a ‘right-click’ response. In actuality, clicking on the touchpad will still work as usual regardless of where you click.

In Chrome OS, tap-to-click is used to carry out standard right-click and middle-click operations.

How to Right-Click on Chromebook (2023)

On your Chromebook, you have two simple options for accessing the right-click menu: using the touchpad alone or the keyboard and touchpad together. To see how both of these techniques operate, expand the table below.

Right-click on Your Chromebook Using Touchpad

On Chromebooks, you must first confirm that the tap-to-click function is turned on before performing a right-click. Here’s how to go about that and then use the touchpad to right-click on your computer:

1. To begin, click Settings in the Quick Settings panel in the bottom right corner of the screen.

2. Then, head to “Device -> Touchpad” and check if the “Enable tap-to-click” toggle is on or not. If it’s enabled, move on to the following step to discover how right-clicking functions in Chrome OS.

3. With that out of the way, you need to tap the touchpad with two fingers to right-click on your The right-click menu will also appear if you press the touchpad with two fingers on a Chromebook.

Right-click on Your Chromebook Using Keyboard

Besides that, you can also right-click on your Chromebook using the keyboard. Simply press and hold the “Alt” key on the keyboard and tap on the touchpad with one finger to right-click. Now, you’ll be able to tell if the right-click was successful if a pop-up menu appears on your screen.

How to Disable Tap-to-Click on Your Chromebook

Old-school users sometimes prefer to click rather than just tap on the touchpad. Fortunately, this can be disabled in Chrome OS. When you accidentally touch the trackpad and the active window switches to another one, disabling it also helps in those situations. You can turn off tap-to-click to avoid situations like these.

1. From the bottom right corner, access the Quick Settings panel. Here, click on the cogwheel icon to open the Settings page.

2. Next, move to the “Device” settings menu on the left pane and then open “Touchpad”.

3. Here, disable “Tap-to-click”, and you are done. The right-click menu on your Chromebook must now be activated by pressing the touchpad firmly with two fingers.

How to Use Other Trackpad Gestures on a Chromebook

On your Chromebook, there are a number of useful trackpad gestures in addition to the right-click function. Here are those we use most often:

See All Open Windows

It can be tedious to have to tab through all of your open apps or browser windows or go to the dock and choose the right icon if you have multiple windows open at once. Instead, you can quickly see all of the windows that are open on your Chromebook by using three fingers to swipe up.

Open a Link in a New Tab

If you’re on a website and want to open a link but also want to keep the current page, you can tap the link three times to open it in a new tab.

Move Between Pages

You can navigate between pages you’ve already opened in the browser by swiping left with two fingers (to go back) or right with two fingers (to go forward). If there was anything on the page you just left that you wanted to know, this is very helpful.

Move Between Tabs

Among all the ChromeOS trackpad gestures, this is probably our favorite. Once more, if you have several tabs open in the Chrome browser and want to quickly switch between them, place three fingers on the trackpad and move them left or right. Lifting your fingers off the trackpad will allow you to select the desired tab after you see the highlighted tab change to reflect your gesture. So simple, so useful.

These are just a few applications for the trackpad gestures that ChromeOS comes with. The trackpad experience on pretty much all of the Chromebooks we’ve tested is surprisingly dependable and consistent, especially when compared to some Windows laptops. If reading this inspires you to purchase a Chromebook for yourself or upgrade your old model to a new one, be sure to read our article on the top Chromebooks so you can choose the one that will serve your needs the best.

How to Middle Click on a Chromebook

The value of “middle click” actions is obvious if you’ve ever used a mouse with a clickable scroll wheel.

Depending on the object that is clicked on in Chrome OS, middle-click can perform a variety of tasks.

The two most common uses are:

• Middle click on a link to open it in a background tab
• Middle click on an open tab to close it

Chromebook middle click is done using a three finger tap on your trackpad.

It can be difficult to get the hang of using three fingers at once on the touchpad. If you’re having trouble understanding, should those be advice? — with the middle click gestures you can also hold the Ctrl key and click on a link to have it open in a new background tab.

How to Scroll on a Chromebook

There’s a good chance you already know the answer to this one, but just to be thorough, we’ll recap.

To scroll a webpage on a Chromebook you need to place two fingers on the touchpad then move them up or down (depending on your desired scroll direction) to make the page travel.

You can enable so-called ‘Australian Scrolling’, where pushing two fingers up the trackpad makes the page move up by changing the option in Settings > Touchpad and Mouse > Scrolling.

Frequently Asked Questions