How to middle click on a Mac trackpad

A Mac trackpad has no middle click, and System Settings has no switch that adds one. The usual fix is to make a three-finger tap send a middle click, which takes an app such as Trill; first check that macOS is not already using a three-finger tap for Look Up. If the only middle click you miss is opening a link in a new tab, Command-click does that in Safari, Chrome and Firefox with nothing to install.

The rest of this guide covers what a middle click actually does on a Mac, the built-in ways around it, and how to set up the three-finger tap without the two gestures fighting.

What a middle click does on a Mac

Almost all of its value is in the browser.

On a link, a middle click opens the page in a new tab behind the one you are reading. You stay where you are, and the new tab waits. This is the habit people bring from Windows and Linux, and the one they miss most.

On a tab, a middle click closes it in Chrome and Firefox. Point at the tab, click with the middle button, and it is gone without hunting for the small close button.

Outside the browser it matters much less. A few apps give the middle button a job of their own, and many give it none, so a middle click there often does nothing at all. If you came to a Mac expecting middle click to paste the current selection, as it does on Linux, that is not a Mac convention.

If you use a mouse with a clickable scroll wheel, you already have a middle click: pressing the wheel sends it, macOS passes it straight to the app, and browsers act on it. The problem is only the trackpad, which has one surface and no middle button.

The Mac way, with no middle click at all

Before adding anything, it is worth knowing the keyboard versions, because they work on every Mac.

1. Open a link in a background tab: hold Command and click the link. This works in Safari, Chrome and Firefox.
2. Open a link in a new tab and go straight to it: hold Command and Shift and click.
3. Close the current tab: press Command-W.
4. From the menu: two-finger click or Control-click the link and choose Open Link in New Tab.

For many people that is enough. Command-click is one modifier key and the click you were going to make anyway. Where it falls short is the one-handed moment: reading with one hand on the trackpad, a coffee in the other, opening five search results in a row. That is where a gesture earns its place.

Middle click with a three-finger tap

Trill is a menu bar app for trackpad gestures, and its Everyday Gesture Set makes a three-finger tap a middle click in every app. You do not have to build the gesture yourself.

1. Install Trill and open it from its menu bar icon. The first 24 hours are free, with every feature and no card.
2. Switch on the Everyday set. It is one click.
3. Point at a link in your browser and tap the trackpad with three fingers at once, without pressing down.

The link opens in a new tab behind the current one, exactly as a mouse’s middle button would do it. On a Force Touch trackpad you also feel a tick under your fingers the moment Trill recognises the tap, before the click is sent, so you know it registered even if the new tab opens out of sight. On a trackpad without Force Touch, Trill shows each gesture on screen instead.

The same set also makes buttons 4 and 5 on a mouse go back and forward, in browsers and Finder only. In every other app those buttons pass through untouched.

Trill needs Accessibility permission to send clicks. macOS asks for it once.

BetterTouchTool can also give you a middle click; its own example is a three-finger click set to its Middle Click action, and it does a great deal more besides. If the middle click is most of what you want, a ready-made set is the shorter path.

The clash: Look Up also uses three fingers

This is the part that catches people. macOS can use a three-finger tap for Look Up, the panel that shows a dictionary entry or a Wikipedia summary for the word under the pointer. It does that only if the tap is chosen in Trackpad settings, but if it is and you also make a three-finger tap a middle click, one tap would do both: the link opens and a definition pops up over it.

Trill checks for this. If macOS is using the three-finger tap, Trill keeps your middle click off, marks it “Blocked by macOS” and says why, and offers the fix in one click: turn the Look Up tap off in macOS, or pick another gesture for middle click. Trill changes a macOS setting only when you click that fix. Every change is written down, and Put back returns them exactly as they were.

To check or change it yourself:

1. Open System Settings and choose Trackpad in the sidebar.
2. Click the Point & Click tab.
3. Find “Look up & data detectors”. If it is set to tap with three fingers, that is the clash.
4. Change it to another option or switch it off.

You do not lose Look Up by doing this. Select a word and press Control-Command-D, or Control-click the word and choose Look Up from the menu. Look Up is also one of Trill’s actions, so you can put it on a gesture you are not using for anything else.

Other gestures that can middle click

A three-finger tap is the most natural choice, but it is not the only one. Middle click is an action in Trill, and any gesture can run it.

A corner click. A real click with one finger in a corner of the trackpad. Good if you would rather press than tap. Avoid a bottom corner if your secondary click is set to that corner in Trackpad settings; Trill spots that clash too and keeps the corner off until you fix it.

A TipTap. Rest one finger on the trackpad and tap beside it with another. It feels a little like pressing a middle button between two fingers.

A four-finger tap. Free unless you use one of Trill’s sets that already has it: in the Browser set it opens a new tab, in the Writing set it starts dictation, and in the Developer set it shows the terminal.

You can also limit the gesture to the apps where middle click matters. Each gesture in Trill works everywhere or only in the apps you choose, so you could make the tap a middle click in Safari, Chrome and Firefox and leave it free for something else in Xcode or Pages. To build one from scratch, press New gesture, do the gesture on the trackpad, and choose middle click as what it does. Trill reads the rule back as a sentence so you can check it.

Questions

Is there a middle click setting anywhere in macOS?

No. The Point & Click tab in Trackpad settings covers secondary click (the right click), with options such as clicking with two fingers or in a bottom corner, but not middle click. A mouse with a clickable wheel sends one on its own; a trackpad needs an app.

Why does a definition pop up when I tap with three fingers?

Look up & data detectors is set to a three-finger tap in System Settings, Trackpad, Point & Click. Change it there if you want the three-finger tap for something else.

What happens to the middle click when the Trill trial ends?

Gestures stop until you enter a licence key, but your setup is kept. Trill is $29 once, not a subscription, and one key works on up to 3 Macs. If it is not for you, you have 30 days to ask for a refund.

Does it work with a Magic Trackpad?

Yes. Trill’s gestures work on a MacBook’s built-in trackpad and on a Magic Trackpad, on macOS 14 Sonoma or later.