How to Add Expose and Spaces to Apple’s Magic Mouse
What perfect timing on this tip from The Apple Blog. I’ve been looking at moving away from my MacBook trackpad and keyboard so I’ve been researching Apple’s new Magic Mouse. There’s nothing wrong with the inputs on my MacBook — I’m simply looking at my home office workspace from an ergonomic standpoint. I’m not sure how ergo the Magic Mouse actually is, but I do know that it actually loses some key functionality. Namely, without the side buttons, there seems to be no way to use Exposé or Spaces with a Magic Mouse. How that’s actually “magical” is beyond me…
It turns out you can regain some of the lost magic using MultiClutch — a freeware Mac app we’ve previously covered — provided that you’re willing to give up other functionality. Essentially, you can use MultiClutch to re-map the left and right swipes for Exposé and Spaces. You’ll lose ability to swipe forward and back between web pages, but that’s a personal decision. I’m not sure which way I’d go, but at least I have the option if I do move to the Magic Mouse.
Do you have a Macbook? What OS do you prefer, Vista, Seven, or Mac?
I have a late 2008 MacBook that runs both Snow Leopard and Windows 7, so I can easily work in either, or both, operating systems.
Ergonomically Magic Mouse is really bad. You are better of with touch-pad.
Magic Mouse is not large enough and it forces your hand into the position that will hurt you in 20 minutes. I tried it. You can read same conclusion from lot of people on Apple Store product review page…
If you want something good, go for Kensington Trackball or Evoluent vertical mouse…
Keyboard wise, the best keyboard is either Goldtouch or the best by far Kinesis Contoured keyboard http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/contoured.htm
Trust me, I bought every single mouse and keyboard that is being sold or was sold in last 5 years…
Actually, Magic Mouse does NOT “force your hand into a position that will hurt you” unless you insist on gripping it in the palm of your hand. Many of us have always just used our fingertips on the mouse (any mouse) and have had no problems. For me, it’s been over 25 years! No problems at all. Ergonomics is as much a matter of the user’s choices as it is the manufacturer’s design! And what’s ergonomic for one person may not be ergonomic for another.
hmmmm, nowhere does it explain how to add the actual gesture and map it to the mouse. I downloaded multiclutch, and I WILL donate, if this can be figured out.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem too possible.
I figured out how to at least assign the correct key in MultiClutch. You have to assign a unique key combo in MultiClutch (F16) for me, and then assign Expose to that same key combo afterwards. Doing it in any other order makes it impossible to assign.
But, I can only get the expose abilities to work when System Preferences is the front-most window, I can’t manage to get it to work in any other app.
This was a problem for myself also, then I found you can download Better Touch Tool, add gestures for selected applications, so now to expose I swipe two fingers upwards, but you can use other gestures as like four fingers swipe to left or right – up or down, or three fingers up or down, the same goes for Dashboard, Finder, Spaces and so on.
I found BetterTouchTool before i got the mouse, it is a great tool both for the multitouch trackpad and the mouse. now i have exposé and show desktop mapped as on the trackpad as well as “tap-to-click” and “2-finger-secondary-click”. Overall it is a great utility, however, it would have been awesome if it was implemented as a PrefPane and not a standalone bloating the dock and/or tray. (i know you can turn it off… but i WILL forget the ctrl+option+cmd+o combo sooner or later…)
By the way, there was an update as of 2 days (i think) ago for BTT it adds a great deal of features
Cheers, Pallee