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USB Overdrive should soon become the premiere mouse software for OS X.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

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Mouse and keyboard software for OS X


Feb. 26, 2003


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, The Post-Standard

   Mouse software: Windows users who switch to Mac OS X computers don't have to miss their right mouse buttons. Plug in any USB-based PC mouse and you get a right mouse button on your Mac. That's all you do. You don't have to run any special software or look for a new mouse driver. It works without any special coaxing.
   But my favorite mouse trick on my Mac isn't the two-button makeover. That's too easy. What I like most is turning the scroll wheel into a combination scroll wheel and double-clicker.
   The software that comes with OS X can't do that -- Apple steadfastly refuses to admit that extra buttons or a wheel make sense -- but you can do it easily with specialized mouse software. I've tried close to a dozen in the last six months, settling on three programs that are well designed and easy to set up.
   Choose the one you like -- or the one that seems to match your mouse best. Don't run more than one mouse-control program at a time. And note that you usually don't need a Microsoft mouse to use the Microsoft mouse software, or a Logitech mouse to use the Logitech software.
   Microsoft's OS X mouse software is available free from Microsoft. The Web address for the download page is impossibly abstruse, so get to it this way: Open the Google Macintosh search page -- yes, there's a special one just for Macs at www.google.com/mac -- and type this phrase into the search form: "Microsoft IntelliMouse Driver 2.3" (without quotes).
   Logitech's OS X mouse software is available free from Logitech, at www.logitech.com. Choose the country you live in, then click the Downloads link and click the mouse icon, then click the type of mouse you have. (If you want to try Logitech's software on your non-Logitech mouse, choose one that seems to look or work like the one you have.)
   I ran the Microsoft mouse software for about a month. It worked fine. I ran the Logitech software for two or three months, with equally good results. (I have both Microsoft and Logitech optical mice, so I was able to see if I could use Mouse "M" with software designed for Mouse "L" and the other way around. That was not a problem.)
   But I eventually returned to the OS X mouse software I had bought when my Mac was new. It's USB Overdrive, from www.usboverdrive.com. It costs $20, but you can try it for free.
   USB Overdrive should soon become the premiere mouse software for OS X. You can assign operations to any of your buttons and to many combinations of keys and buttons. You can make a click on the wheel do a left double click, and you can even set up your mouse to do different operations based on how you roll the wheel, too.
   
   Keyboard software: I've fallen in love with the keyboard software from CE Software, QuicKeys. It's professional-level software (used by thousands of pros in the graphics business, for example) but it is exceptionally rewarding for folks like you and me, too. It's $80 direct from the company's site, www.cesoft.com, and you can usually find it in stores that carry Mac software.
   I use QuicKeys X (the version for OS X -- there are Mac OS and Windows versions, too). I've upgraded the software two or three times and never had a problem with it. It handles all my keyboard hotkeys (opening folders with a key combination and running programs with the press of a function key), and it also supplies all my text macros.
   A text macro is a way to get a bunch of text typed into a document (or into e-mail, that kind of thing) when you press a combination of keys. Once you have learned how to use QuicKeys to do this, you will invariably wonder how you got along without it. (You'll also poke yourself for not getting QuicKeys sooner. It's THAT good and THAT helpful.)