Mouse Button Mapping

I'm using a Microsoft Trackball Optical (it's what's comfortable for me), and would like to map the side buttons to back and forward in Safari, but can't find that anywhere. The buttons function in other programs, so OSX recognizes them. Other posts suggested USB Overdrive or Steermouse, or using intellipoint from MS, but can't I do this without buying external software? I mean OSX is assigning functions to these keys somewhere, I can't change them? I would have expected that to be under System Preferences-Keyboard & Mouse, but it's not there.

Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Jan 25, 2007 8:03 AM

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5 replies

Jan 25, 2007 8:36 AM in response to agusek

MS's Intellipoint software is free. You can download it from www.versiontracker.com or www.macupdate.com. However, I would recommend using either USB Overdrive or Steermouse instead. You can download demos from the aforementioned sites.

OS X does not "assign" functions to the Trackball's buttons. The Trackball has default commands programmed. Some of them will be recognized by OS X applications because they are "common" across all applications.



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Jan 25, 2007 9:54 AM in response to Kappy

I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that I was actually using Intellipoint for a while, until my brother was telling me his trackball was doing things differently on his Mac without Intellipoint. So I removed it, and actually preferred the way the buttons worked in every other program without Intellipoint, Safari was the only exception. I talked to him about it, and he said once he had used a Mighty Mouse he had more options available in the System Preferences, even when he went back to the trackball (including mapping buttons 4 and 5). So I'm going to try that, Intellipoint just didn't work that well for me. Thank you

Jan 25, 2007 12:02 PM in response to Kappy

I reinstalled Intellipoint, and basically disabled it for all programs except Safari, because it does wierd things in the other programs. This seems like a kludgy way to do it, I'm still hoping the Mighty Mouse thing will work for me (I'll post what happens), I greatly prefer having it in System Preferences without all the extra stuff. Thanks for your time.

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Mouse Button Mapping

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