The One Button Mouse
The first thing my friends ask when they find out I bought a Mac is “How can you get used to that one button mouse?”.
This puts a big smile on my face whenever I hear it. OK, so let’s go straight to the point: the context menu is an important feature of the Mac OS X user interface. Almost all Mac OS X applications expose additional functionality through context menus that are accessible using, you’ve guessed it, a right mouse button click.
If you’re a recent switcher, here’s what you need to do to enable the secondary click on your tracking device. All of these settings are available under the System Preferences application in the Keyboard & Mouse category.
If you’re using a laptop, enable the following option under the Trackpad tab:
- Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click
Other trackpad options that I like to have enabled are:
- Use two fingers to scroll
- Allow horizontal scrolling
- Clicking
- Dragging
- Ignore accidental trackpad input
If you happen to have a pre-2005 machine, like an iBook or a PowerBook and would like to enable two-finger scrolling, check iScroll2 or SideTrack. Both applications provide replacement drivers that allow you to take full control over your trackpad configuration.
If you’re using a regular mouse or a Mighty Mouse, here’s what you need to do to enable the secondary mouse button. Again, you will need to open up the System Preferences application, go to Keyboard & Mouse and make the following changes under the Mouse tab:
- Set the right mouse button mapping to: Secondary Button
- Assign the Button 3 mapping to the mouse wheel. Alternatively you can choose Expose, Application Switcher or Spotlight.
If your tracking device does not have a secondary button you can always use Ctrl Key + Left Mouse Button Click to simulate a right click action.
Thanks for visiting Mac Dummy. Email us with comments at tips@macdummy.com. While a comments section is not available yet (see post below), I will try to add your comments myself as part of this post.
