Clicking with the scroll wheel?

xuratoth

xuratoth

Registered
Hi,

I searched the forums and could not find what I was after: I would like to enable the scroll-wheel button on my mouse so that I can set it up to open links in Firefox in new tabs. I can do this in XP, but the mouse options in Panther's system prefs panel are rather limited. Is it possible?

Thanks.
 
which mouse is it ? did you install it's dedicated driver ? which os are you on ?
 
I see in your profile that you have a wireless mouse. Is it bluetooth? I have a Logitech MX900 Bluetooth mouse. There is no "Mac OS X" driver. However, you can buy GamePad Companion and use its preference pane to set up ALL the buttons on many of these mice. I set up the scroll wheel button to quit programs. You can set it up to open a link in a new tab by assigning the keystroke "command - click" to open in a new tab through GamePad Companion. I hope this helps.
 
In Firefox, go ot the address bar and type in "about:config".
Then, type "middle" into the "Filter" area and press enter. You'll see a list of settings related to the away the middle mouse button is treated by Firefox.
"middlemouse.openNewWindow" needs to be set to true. If you have another middlemouse function set to true, change it to false.
 
Thanks for the replies. My profile is somewhat misleading - I do have the Apple wireless mouse, but have just switched to using a usb optical mouse that came with my IBM Thinkpad. Context menus without using two hands - phew, back to normality! My wife still prefers to use the Apple mouse, for some inexplicable reason!

I tried the about:config route, but the value was already set to open a window on middle button click:

browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick true
middlemouse.contentLoadURL false
middlemouse.openNewWindow true
middlemouse.paste false
middlemouse.scrollbarPosition

So my guess is that the middle button is not being recognised as a valid OS X event? Is that correct?

Thanks again.
 
In my experience, Firefox's settings just don't recognize the middle button (same goes for most, if not all, Firefox extensions). I don't think it's a problem with the Mac OS, since other apps like Safari will see the third button just fine. At least for me, that is; does the middle button work in Safari for you? Firefox doesn't properly handle a lot of things on the Mac.

That's just one reason I use USB Overdrive.
 
Thanks Mikuro: I tried Safari and yes, the middle mouse button (scroll wheel) is recognised and works.

It's very annoying that Firefox does not accept it! As to USB overdrive, I might consider giving it a try, although I am trying to be very conservative in what 3rd party drivers I add to my system.
 
All you have to do is program the middle-button to send "command-click", and firefox will promptly give you those new tabs :)

Yes, you'll probably need some nasty third-party app to do so.
 
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