Cocoa Gestures

Every once in a while, I stumble across a software program that does something so simple- yet so revolutionary- that I am stunned into realizing how powerful and flexible computers can be. Tonight, I discovered Cocoa Gestures, a simple, free program for OS X that allows you to create something akin to "keyboard shortcuts" for your mouse.

Cocoa Gestures plugs into all Cocoa-based OS X software (i.e. most software designed specifically for OS X, as opposed to older Mac programs that have been converted to run on OS X) and gives these programs the ability to use mouse gestures. For example, in Safari, I now hold down the Command key and move my mouse to the left, and I go back a page. I don't have to move the mouse up from its current position to the tiny "back" arrow or fiddle with a shortcut key- I can just wave my mouse to the left (while holding down Command), and I go back. That's a mouse gesture, and Cocoa Gestures let's you define your own, fully customizable gestures for each program you want to use them with.

Really cool stuff!