Mouse mapping

[Abulia]

Kinda a dumb question that's really beginning to annoy me. I'm using a MS Intellimouse Explorer (4 buttons and wheel) and I can't figure out how to map buttons in OS X.

For example, I want to map a button to Expose' and then another button (B4) to the "back" function in Camino/Safari. I can't find a way to do both. (The Expose' mapping is easy.)

I downloaded the MS software and it only lets me do very specific mappings; I can map B4 to the "back" function in my browser but then I can't do any mappings to Expose' -- MS takes over entirely and I can't free the buttons up to be mapped by OS X.

Is there a way to do both? Is there a way to do mappings without having to use the MS software?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Kinda a dumb question that's really beginning to annoy me. I'm using a MS Intellimouse Explorer (4 buttons and wheel) and I can't figure out how to map buttons in OS X.

For example, I want to map a button to Expose' and then another button (B4) to the "back" function in Camino/Safari. I can't find a way to do both. (The Expose' mapping is easy.)

I downloaded the MS software and it only lets me do very specific mappings; I can map B4 to the "back" function in my browser but then I can't do any mappings to Expose' -- MS takes over entirely and I can't free the buttons up to be mapped by OS X.

Is there a way to do both? Is there a way to do mappings without having to use the MS software?

I don't think Mac OS X has a built-in mouse button mapping utility; the only thing Mac OS X includes, according to Apple, is support for third-party mice with more than one button. I'm afraid the answer is "no".

 

[abhishekit]

To map the buttons for expose, goto system prefs-expose. There under the Mouse heading, you can map as many buttons you like. But it won't map the button for 'back' in the browser.
Don't know if it solves your problem.

 

[kgarner]

If its a USB mouse you can use USB Overdrive to map the buttons. Ther may be other programs that work too, I haven't used any so I wouldn't know. Just heard that this one works.

 

[MacManDan]

Is there a way to do both? Is there a way to do mappings without having to use the MS software?

You could set the MS Software to type the F9, F10, or F11 key (whichever one you want) so that the button will activate exposé.

 

[Abulia]

If its a USB mouse you can use USB Overdrive to map the buttons. Ther may be other programs that work too, I haven't used any so I wouldn't know. Just heard that this one works.

Yep, this works! Dan's idea would probably work too. I don't remember if you could assign specific keys. Overdrive does the trick nicely!

 

[micvog]

You could set the MS Software to type the F9, F10, or F11 key (whichever one you want) so that the button will activate exposé.

This works... you just need to de-activate the F9-F11 keys for Expose before configuring the Intellimouse, and then re-activate them after your done. Otherwise you will actually activate Expose during the mouse-setup when you press the F9-F11 key that you are mapping to one of your mouse buttons.