How to Left-Click on a Mac With a Mouse

Follow these steps to set the primary clicking function to the left button on a compatible wireless or wired mouse.

How Do You Left-Click on a Mac Without a Mouse?

Without a mouse, use your Mac’s built-in trackpad to set left-click behavior.

How to Left-Click With a Force Touch Trackpad on a Mac

If your Mac has a Force Touch trackpad, primary or left-clicking actions take on advanced behaviors in specific programs by clicking and pressing an item. To take advantage of these tools, first ensure you’ve enabled Force Touch functionality. 

Enable Force Touch Trackpad Behaviors

From System Preferences > Point & Click, select the box beside Look up & data detectors and choose Force click with one finger.

Examples of Force Touch Trackpad Functionality

Use the Force Touch trackpad to perform some of these shortcuts on your MacBook with a force left-click.

Display all active windows of an application: From the Dock, click an app to reveal the App Expose, a menu of options related to the app. Then, select Show All Windows to display all the active windows for that particular program. Look up information: In Safari or Mail, look up a word or address to get a definition from the dictionary or directions from the Maps app. Change a file name: Force-click a file name or folder to edit it. Preview a file: Force-click a file to view it using the Quick Look feature on macOS.