Better mouse control in Panther?

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One Sick Puppy

Registered
I find the mouse control options in OSX to be lacking. It only has an option to speed up the mouse, which I have set to full speed, but I find it's still rather sluggish at full speed. Is there any way to get some more advanced settings for mouse control?
 
Microsoft Notebook Optical Mouse

However, my logitech optical mouse seems to have the same movement and they both move differently in windows XP, so I don't think it's the mouse.
 
You can set the mouse speed as you like;

Do a Find for .GlobalPreferences.plist

The location is case-sensitive and don't forget the little period before GlobalPreferences.plist. It is invisible and will not be found without that initial period.

Set the FIND Window to look for Invisible files.
Now you should have this file in front of you:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist SYSTEM "file://localhost/System/Library/DTDs/PropertyList.dtd">
<plist version="0.9">

Blah,Blah,Blah-- Lots of variables in here, Blah, Blah, Blah--
Look for this line near the bottom of the document:

<key>com.apple.mouse.scaling</key>
<real>1.700000000000000e+00</real>

Just alter the number to what you would like your new speed to be and save the document and you are done with the configuration.
Be sure to not get out of control with your number, my adjusted mouse setting is

<key>com.apple.mouse.scaling</key>
<real>3.000000000000000e+00</real>

...and that ‘s it.

Log out and then back in.
 
Ok. It seems it's not so much the speed setting that I'm looking for. In Windows XP mouse settings there is an option that is called "enhance pointer accuracy" which affects the mouse control and speed when the mouse is moving slowly or small distances. I'm not exactly sure how this works, but I was hoping there was a setting such as this, or some third-party software, that would help tweak the mouse like this.
 
USB overdrive, a shareware driver for multi button mice etc gives the option of altering the mouse acceleration, which may help. That way when you move fast you'll get across the screen quickly but with small movements (for accurate clicking) it will move more slowly.

For me, its good to have even if it doesn't solve your specific problem, especially for logitech mice, since it allows application specific mouse preferences that logitech software has always lacked.

Check it out at http://www.usboverdrive.com/

Hope this helps.
 
One Sick Puppy: happy to help :)


Captain Code said:
Panther already does the mouse acceleration changes by itself.
Click to expand...
I take your word for it (i'm no expert, and you are a wise mod :D ), but there isn't an option to change it as far as i can tell, at least not in the "keyboard and mouse" bit of system prefs. USB overdrive allows you to leave it on 'system' acceleration or set it yourself a anything from 1-200%.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "does the changes by itself", does it turn the acceleration on/off, or alter the amount perhaps? I ask as in some games USB overdrive mouse acceleration settings can make control a bit fiddly, so it turning on/off automatically could be good for me.
 
I guess you can't change the acceleration per se, but you can change the mouse tracking speed so that it moves accross the screen faster. Moving my mouse slowly, moves the mouse pointer slowly. Moving the mouse fast, makes the mouse pointer move a lot faster, and farther in the same distance of mouse movement.
 
Ahh, i see what you mean, I suppose i hadn't checked that since i got panther because i installed usb overdrive immediately to deal with my mx700. I wonder if the "tracking speed" increases the speed of the mouse or increases the rate of acceleration acceleration (i.e linear or curved graph).

USB overdrive's default for mouse acceleration is 'system' which perhaps suggests the system uses a fixed acceleration and just makes the response faster as you turn up the 'tracking speed' setting, i doubt users would notice the difference between the two methods most of the time.

Anyway, i'm going off on tangents and answering my own questions, but its been a long week. Cheers for your thoughts,
ora
 
Does your Microsoft Mouse have a utility for OS X? I have a logitech mouse which has it's own OS X software that I can download for free, to any computer, that gives me more control than the System Prefs mouse pane does.
 
I've tried both the Microsoft Intellipoint software in addition to the Logitech Mouseware sofware. I found both lacking in comparison to USB Overdrive.

If any of you are familiar with how mice travel/accelerate by default in Windows XP, I suspect you'll appreciate the difference between this and OS X.

I'm bringing home a PS2 to USB adapter that allows on to plug two PS2 devices (keyboard and mouse) into 1 USB port. It works like a charm in Windows XP, so I'm hopeing OSX will be ok with this, too, because I'd like to use my iBook as a desktop computer with a full sized KB/Mouse and monitor when I'm not at school... I just hope I can change the PS2 mouse refresh rate (in windows, ps2 mice default to 60 hertz but can be augmented up to 200 in the registry).

Anyhoo... couple more minutes at work.
 
One Sick Puppy said:
I'm bringing home a PS2 to USB adapter that allows on to plug two PS2 devices (keyboard and mouse) into 1 USB port. It works like a charm in Windows XP, so I'm hopeing OSX will be ok with this, too, because I'd like to use my iBook as a desktop computer with a full sized KB/Mouse and monitor when I'm not at school...
Click to expand...

Apple keyboards generally have 2 USB ports on them so you can plug the keyboard into the laptop, then plug the mouse into they keyboard and still leave yourself with 2 free usb ports (one on the laptop, one on the keyboard). This is what i do anyway, i run my powerbook with a keyboard and mouse and a second screen when at my desktop, and it works great.
 
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