User profile for user: shayneoneill
shayneoneill Author
User level: Level 1
29 points

USB Middle mouse on button settings.

On the old magic mice you used to be able set a function on the middle button on USB mice. The problem is with a standard USB mouse, this isn't available on Macs anywhere I can find.


I've found older threads where people seem to go "Thats up to the manufacturer to support it". And thats nonsensical, as the Middle mouse button is a USB-IF HID standard, likely going back as far as v1.1 of the spec, (For the fellow software devs in the room, its bit 3 on byte 1 on the standard 3 byte USB response packet), so part of the USB HIB device class standards is this is something the OS itself "knows" how to support. This is why things like mice dont need to come with drivers.


The problem is, I cant find anywhere to configure this. You can configure the Left and Right buttons. Is there a command line way to assign this, or any third party apps that can configure this?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 23, 2023 8:34 PM

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User profile for user: BobHarris
BobHarris
User level: Level 9
57,041 points

Posted on Sep 24, 2023 5:14 AM

The Mac UI does not include middle click, so Apple does not build middle click devices, nor configure a middle click in 3rd party mice.


Heck, for the first 20’ish years, there was no right-click. The Mac used a single button mouse. Which was all kinds of fun using X11 Display Servers on a Mac (and yes back in the late 80’s and 90’s Apple had an X11 display server called MacX).


There is a trackpad utility called MiddleClick on Github.


The BetterTouchTool utility can configure a Middle click. While it is a paid app, it is not very expensive and can customize just about any Mac input device (TrackPads, Keyboards, Mice, TouchPad, etc…; it also includes a Clipboard manager which is very useful; and it has window snapping support).


USB Overdrive might (most likely will) provide middle click support.


SteerMouse is another mouse driver that allows mouse customization.

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User profile for user: BobHarris
BobHarris
User level: Level 9
57,041 points

Sep 24, 2023 5:14 AM in response to shayneoneill

The Mac UI does not include middle click, so Apple does not build middle click devices, nor configure a middle click in 3rd party mice.


Heck, for the first 20’ish years, there was no right-click. The Mac used a single button mouse. Which was all kinds of fun using X11 Display Servers on a Mac (and yes back in the late 80’s and 90’s Apple had an X11 display server called MacX).


There is a trackpad utility called MiddleClick on Github.


The BetterTouchTool utility can configure a Middle click. While it is a paid app, it is not very expensive and can customize just about any Mac input device (TrackPads, Keyboards, Mice, TouchPad, etc…; it also includes a Clipboard manager which is very useful; and it has window snapping support).


USB Overdrive might (most likely will) provide middle click support.


SteerMouse is another mouse driver that allows mouse customization.

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USB Middle mouse on button settings.

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