I've become dependent on the crappy software of Logitech. It sucks. I hate every bit of software that Logitech has created (although I LOVE their products), but there's one feature in their mouse software that I absolutely live by: the ability to re-map the additional mouse buttons.

On my mouseman at home, I have the standard double-click applied to the thumb button. However, I have my scroll wheel click action mapped to open the start menu. I swear it speeds up my productivity like crazy.

However, at work, I'm stuck with a little Dell wheelmouse. The challenge to you wise folks: how do I remap my scroll wheel? I can't even begin to say how useless the default MS functions are. Grrr! Please, help me increase my productivity!

I have my thumb button remapped the the browser "Back" function. Seems to speed up web browsing tremendously. I too go nuts when it's not there. Kinda like using an old mouse with no wheel.

I think I'd use a button like that, but I depend SO much on the double click that it's highly annoying when using a normal mouse.

I could get one of the new Logitechs, and I want to, but I have a single complaint that keeps me from buying any of them: I love having the tumb button on the side-bottom, not the side-top. The thumb button is always there and I don't need to move my thumb at all to use it. I know it seems tiny, but given the number of times I use it at one sitting, I know it would make for a frustrating experience.

Yikes...I hadn't noticed that they did that. I have the original Cordless Mouseman Optical, and you're correct, it's in a perfect spot ergonomically at the bottom.

For Mac OS there are two programs to do what you want, USB Overdrive and Gamepad Companion. I'm sure there must be something by now for Windows. Though i do know that when I looked a few years ago (because the MS software was even more useless then) there wasn't anything that worked with anything but 2 or 3 buttons (which, in my best New York accent, "is retaaded.")

Sorry that I can't give you the name of a specific Windows program. I'll keep an eye on this thread though because I too want to know. I'm quite used to the new Logitech mice, though I can only use the normal buttons, scroll wheel and thumb buttons. The other top buttons are completely useless unless you take your hand off the mouse.

Bruno

F2 is pretty much the universal "edit/rename" key in Windows. For example, in Explorer.

Hey man, no keyboard shortcuts lecture needed here. I love them. They're great.

However, I can see by the shortcut you mentioned and the failure scenario you gave that you're talking about shortcuts in the Programs folder. I didn't say anything about that

What I do is place shortcuts to all my most used programs in the start menu. Those are pretty easy to see and click on.

Believe me, this method is great for me. You must remember that things like this really get down to personal preference. This is simply the fastest way to get to the programs I use most. Plus, at least in the Logitech implementation, after the click the mouse cursor always ends up on the start menu button, making it that much faster.

Quote:

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(except I haven't found how to edit the contents of a cell in Excel yet. Shift-Enter? Beats me...)

That would be F2

Even I knew that one

I have an ms intellamouse. Its software allows mapping on a per program basis. In my browser the thumb button is BACK the right edge is FWD. In my cad program, left thumb is shift and thumb fwd is ctrl. I can do all mouse operations without a second hand on the keyboard. Sweet.

What I can't stand is when a program that uses multiple windws won't use Ctrl+W to close each one of them. In those instances, they usually insist on you using Ctrl+F4, which is simply insane and not really feasible for one-hand use. I usually have to situate my thumb over the right Ctrl and my pinky over the F4. Grr! It's the one thing I hate about Paint Shop Pro.

Do you have a pic of that keyboard?

Bonzi, your way is one of the ones I use. Still, I don't like having to lift my entire arm to hit a stupid key combination. It's for that reason that I usually have my left thumb on the right Ctrl and my left pinky on the F4. It's a bit awkward, but it's better for me than lifting my elbow while I puruse and close dozens of windows.

I've actually sent a message to Jasc about this issue. I'm hoping they'll respond

No, but the one I use the most often, honestly, is a Sun Type 5 keyboard. You can find some keyboards with the control key left of the 'A', but they're more expensive, usually by a lot, but they're also usually much better constructed -- meaning you won't have to replace them every month.

I must put in a plug for pckeyboard.com, who sell unicomp keyboards. Unicomp keyboards are the old "clackety" IBM style keyboards that last forever. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, except as a customer and user. You won't believe the difference a quality, "buckling spring" keyboard makes. Many different key layouts are available, including the one with the 20-some function keys.

Jim

Yeah, those are the keyboards as God intended them to be. However, the guy I share the room with at work is treatening use of force unless I find something quieter (he does'n like working with headphones on and, being our main guy for contacts wih external world, is often on the phone; no typing for me during conversations).

Well, here's an update on the original post. I haven't solved it yet, but I got a good suggestion which seems pretty obvious now. Even though I have a Dell mouse, it's such a generic one that MS Intellipoint will easily work with it. I just downloaded and installed it (selecting the basic "wheel mouse" as my hardware). This gives me nearly the same list of action options for each of the three buttons as Logitech's software does. Nearly. The only option thats missing, wouldn't you know it, is something like "Open start menu." There's even a choice for a keystroke, but if I try entering Ctrl+Esc, it opens the start menu and interupts the training.

It was also suggested to me that this feature was in an older version of Intellipoint, which seems even more odd to me. I would think that this thing I want to do is like the most Microsoft-centric thing I could imagine , but it doesn't appear possible.

*edit*
Well, I feel like a fool. I'm not sure why I thought it, but I just assumed that because I didn't have a Logitech mouse, naturally the Logitech software wouldn't work! Well I'm dumb It works just fine and now I've got the start menu coming up like I wanted it to. Duh!

Thanks for the help, folks.