Mac Mouse

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 29 Nov 2002 12:55 pm

The company rented me a Mac PowerBook G4 to experiment with. It's a good computer, but I'm finding that the 1-button mouse is really a pain to use.

Here's my question: Does the Mac's OS 10 support a 2-button mouse with a scroll wheel? Having context menus and scrolling would really make this machine a lot easier to use, IMHO.

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<img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
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Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 29 Nov 2002 7:12 pm

Bob, have a look at this:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,39773,00.html

Also, Logitech seems to make a 2-button Mac mouse:

http://www.Logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&CRID=3&CONTENTI D=4997&countryid=19&languageid=1

[This message was edited by Bill Llewellyn on 29 November 2002 at 08:07 PM.]

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 30 Nov 2002 8:26 am

OS X, being UNIX, supports three buttons. Most such mice will work without third-party drivers, although Logitech's software gives you the most flexibility for assigning key combinations.

BTW, you can get context menus from a single-button mouse by using Ctrl-click. No different from a Windows right-click, really. Just a different habit.

Edited to add:
Yes, OS X also supports the scroll wheel. I've got a cordless, two-button Logitech wheel mouse on one right now.[This message was edited by Jeff Agnew on 30 November 2002 at 08:29 AM.]

Jerry Gleason · Post by **Jerry Gleason** » 1 Dec 2002 9:54 pm

I think I mentioned this in a previous thread, but I have been using a microsoft 5-button mouse on my Macs for some time now. The buttons are fully programmable, and can even do different things for individual applications. Works with OS9, and OSX. I can't get along without a scroll wheel anymore, either.

Macintosh drivers for it (and other microsoft mouse products) can be downloaded at: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouse/download_ns.asp [This message was edited by Jerry Gleason on 01 December 2002 at 10:00 PM.]