OS X Lion: Use a Mighty Mouse

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Use a Mighty Mouse

If you have a Mighty Mouse—Apple’s four-button mouse—you can customize it by adjusting the way the buttons work.

If you have a wireless Mighty Mouse, before you start using it, you need to use Bluetooth Setup Assistant to pair the mouse with your computer.

  1. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, and then click Mouse.
  2. Use the menus and sliders to customize your mouse.
    • Primary Button: For most clicking and dragging. It can be the left button, right button, or both.

    • Secondary Button: Displays shortcut (contextual) menus—the same as Control-clicking a one-button mouse.

    • Exposé, Dashboard, Application Switcher, and Spotlight: Activates these tools. For Exposé you can set the button to expose all windows, windows for the current application, or the desktop.

    • Other: Opens an application of your choosing.

    • Off: Deactivates the button.

    • Scrolling Options: Sets how the scroll ball behaves in windows and lists. Choose an option to adjust how the pointer moves when you scroll. (The scroll ball doesn’t scroll menus or sliders in dialogs.)

    • Zoom using scroll ball while holding: Turns on zooming. To zoom, choose a key from the menu; then hold down that key while rolling the scroll ball. Click Options for more settings. Try each option while zooming, moving the pointer to see the option’s effect.

    • Tracking: Adjusts how fast the pointer moves when you drag.

    • Double-Click: Adjusts how rapidly you must click for the computer to recognize a double-click.

To use the two side buttons, you must press them both at once. They should make a “click” sound.

Last Modified: Oct 31, 2013
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