SlideMode Makes It Easier To Select Text With The Trackpad [Mac]
The brilliant gesture support in OS X Lion is best complemented through the usage of Apple’s Magic Trackpad, or vice versa, should you prefer it that way. If you’re on a MacBook, you get a trackpad anyway. The gestures are all excellent, highly convenient and make you, well, feel like a ninja when you use them. But, as they say, all good things come at a cost, and there is one thing that is slightly difficult to manage with the trackpad – text selection. SlideMode is a free Mac app that makes this easier and adds two other simple tweaks for users who don’t have a trackpad. What the app basically does is make selecting text easier for you, whether you’re using a mouse or trackpad.
SlideMode has three tricks up its sleeve, the first one being Slide. This is for those who haven’t splurged on a trackpad and are still playing around with a mouse. It makes it easier to switch between desktops. As opposed to using Mission Control or the keyboard shortcuts, it lets you switch to a different desktop by sliding the mouse pointer along the top of the screen and into a corner. You can define any or all corners where the app will respond to this mouse gesture.
The DockShow option is simply for showing and hiding the Dock quickly. There isn’t anything very impressive about this, and you can even mimic the trick without SlideMode by following this simple tip.
The SlideSelection is the tool you’re looking for if you find it difficult to select text when using the trackpad. The app lets you select text by holding down Shift+Control and swiping two fingers on the trackpad in the direction of the text you want to select, i.e., to the left or right of the cursor.
The app is fairly new (version 0.0.4), so you can expect more features as it evolves. It seems like a more-than-decent attempt at making using Mac easier, regardless of which pointing device you have.
