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On the computer, you have to double-click sometimes to launch an applications or open a document, while in other places (buttons, dock icons) a single click is enough.

On the web, you generally have to click only once.

Do we still need double clicks?

I'd like to experiment with the idea.

  • is there a tool (for the Mac) that makes single clicks act as double clicks (at least in the Finder)?
    Update: Or rather, as phenry and Uwe point out, do it the other way around and configure the Finder to act on single clicks where normally a double click is required.

  • has anyone else given thought to getting rid of the double click and has an opinion if this is a good idea? (it seems that the multi-touch movement is taking the opposite route)

Thilo
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4 Answers4

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I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to use a tool like that. Double-clicks are very rare compared to single clicks, as you yourself implied, and even in the Finder you probably use single clicks a lot more than you think. Try spending some time dinking around in the Finder, double-clicking everywhere you'd normally single-click. I'm guessing the computer would be largely unusable.

phenry
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Double clicks were never needed, they are a shortcut. You can open files in the Finder without using double clicks by selecting the file and then choosing File -> Open. Since this is kind of cumbersome, it's usually easier to just double-click. Interestingly, Mac OS 9 had a Finder window view which replaced all icons with buttons, allowing you to use the Finder without double-clicking.

Simply replacing single-clicks with double-clicks will not work. You could still select files by dragging open a select rectangle, but you would not be able to drag windows anymore. As far as I know, there is no way to change the Finder so it opens files on selection alone.

One solution would be to use configure your mouse so that one of the buttons creates a double-click.

LKM
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1

Not a direct answer, but I rarely double-click anything in Finder:

  • Quicksilver (or similar) can launch applications with no clicks
  • Using Finder's column view, you can navigate folders with only arrow keys
  • Cmd+down opens the selected files
dbr
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Double clicks are fine. What you really want to get rid of is "slow clicks".

In the Finder, clicking on an icon or its label selects it. Pause, and then click again on the label to rename. But if you don't pause for long enough, you end up opening the file—particularly annoying when it's a .psd or .xcodeproj

Benjamin Dobson
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