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Firefox 4 will not allow a Macbook/Macbook Pro trackpad to do the pinch zoom... this should be doable but Firefox will not allow it. This has to be remedied please.

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I would like to zoom into the window I am viewing and to do this on my laptop, i pinch upon the trackpad and it will zoom. Or it should zoom in and out. It does neither. This worked alright with the last version. And this function works on other browsers. But not with Firefox 4.

I would like to zoom into the window I am viewing and to do this on my laptop, i pinch upon the trackpad and it will zoom. Or it should zoom in and out. It does neither. This worked alright with the last version. And this function works on other browsers. But not with Firefox 4.

All Replies (12)

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Some gestures have been removed in Firefox 4.

You can restore the zoom feature by changing the values of the related prefs on the about:config page.

browser.gesture.pinch.in cmd_fullZoomReduce
browser.gesture.pinch.in.shift cmd_fullZoomReset
browser.gesture.pinch.out cmd_fullZoomEnlarge
browser.gesture.pinch.out.shift cmd_fullZoomReset

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page.

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is it possible to just simply program this in because I am not familiar with messing w/ things like this... please provide an update in which will allow Macbook/Macbook Pro users to pinch zoom in/out as the hardware was intended...

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You can create a file user.js in the Firefox Profile Folder and copy and paste the text below in that file.

user_pref("browser.gesture.pinch.in", "cmd_fullZoomReduce");
user_pref("browser.gesture.pinch.in.shift", "cmd_fullZoomReset");
user_pref("browser.gesture.pinch.out", "cmd_fullZoomEnlarge");
user_pref("browser.gesture.pinch.out.shift", "cmd_fullZoomReset");

Use the Google cache in case of problems accessing the MozillaZine KB (prefix links with cache:):

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I used to love Firefox, but this is ridiculous. I don't understand the rationale for not allowing people to zoom on the trackpad. And I don't understand why they can't fix it themselves. If this isn't fixed I will just go back to Safari. It's a really dumb move on their part, quite a few people have macbooks these days.

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or just use the older version...

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You can read this bug report on why it was removed.

  • Bug 613909 - Disable pinch gestures by default & revert three finger vertical swipe gestures

(please do not comment in bug reports)

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I have no idea what any of that means. I'm not gonna worry about all this when there are plenty of other browsers that work fine.

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My problem is that I am stuck in amplified mode for ALL APPS, not just FIREFOX!! its almost impossible to navigate......... I am using my wife's partition, but this mean most of my apps are not approachable.... also cutting and pasting is out of the question....... you need to get a patch right AWAY!!!!!!!!!

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use the Safari that comes with macbook pro: the touchpad features all work easy as pie like they used to on Firefox. If Firefox doesn't fix this, I'm done with Firefox. Life moves on and so does the market.

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@ roberto fuego... If you are stuck in amplifies for all apps, you probably have accidentally turned on zoom. You can reset it back to normal by going to Settings, then Universal Access. I hope that works for you.

Modified by MathChique

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There are several different pages reporting the SAME ISSUE, depending how you typed it into your search.

I tried the solution of going back to Firefox 3.6. I had to trash the Firefox 4 first. Now the trackpad works like it should.

I hope Mozilla figures out something. I really don't like Safari but I love using the zoom on the trackpad.

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I had the same problem and attempted editing the about:Config as described. It did not work. After reading a few other thread and finding it worked for some and not others I decided to try it again. It worked. The only difference I did is I actually typed the edit text rather then cut/paste. My guess is most of you that it is not working are cut/pasting the text. Try typing it. (you can cut/paste to use it as a reference but need to actually type the characters for it to work and delete what you pasted.)

I agree, it is not a good feature to take out and I would have stopped using Firefox if I could not have gotten it to work. I am a fan of Firefox and think they need to get this fixed. Mac owners love the gesture pinch features!

Good luck!