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andypop

macrumors newbie
Aug 28, 2004
26
0
I'll tell you what will make your mouse fill indistinguishable from a Windows Mouse.

Buy a Logitech MX310. They're affordable, and once you install the Mouseware, it's absolutely the same as a Windows mouse.

I use both systems connected with a KVM switch (to share Keyboard, Video, & Mouse) and there is virtually no difference when I switch between systems. The MX310 has made Photoshop work a piece of cake. I despised the old mouse, but this one is perfect.

go get one at Best Buy. (any MX-series will do, but the 310 is cheap and works great)

/apop
 

Rocksaurus

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2003
652
0
California
...Huh?

I guess I don't get it when you say you "go to make a precise movement" and then the mouse "moves too slowly"... At least in graphics work for me, the slower mouse allows me to be far more precise... And I can't remember running out of mouse pad such as you have since I got an optical mouse (ball mice on the other hand were a different story)... If none of those utilties (overdrive, logitech, M$, etc.) have helped, well, I'm not really sure there's anything you can do about it.
 

gekko513

macrumors 603
Oct 16, 2003
6,301
1
Well, I don't think the OSX way needs to be fixed, because for me it isn't broken, but I wouldn't mind if they added an acceleration slider to the preference pane either.

When in Windows I need to lift the mouse once to move it across my 23" display, but when in OSX I can move to any corner with just a fast jerk. At the same time I feel like I have full control for local movements because of the acceleration.

I recommend that you just set the Mouse to quite fast. It's like when the superheros gain their powers, they need some time to learn how to control it. :p
 

Timelessblur

macrumors 65816
Jun 26, 2004
1,086
0
I think this is one of those things MS windows has down better than apple.

Mouse settings mouse,type of mouse, Desktop, browers setting and those minor things vairy widely from person to person and there is no right or wrong way to set it up. What is "broken" about the apple set up is it just lacks the control of the option as much as you can in windows. It all comes down to indival preferces. I know people dont like my keyboard that much but I on the other hand love it. (it one on of those natural keyboards) It not wrong. I know people who can not stand how I have my browser set up how I turned off somethign and set up up to the way I like it.

Setting like this that are mostly little tweaks are very personal and the more control and opintions you have in the settings the better.

To conter the 23in coner to corner setting I have a slightly larger monitor set up where the total reslotion is 2034x1024 (apple 23 in is 1900x1200) from corner to corner I have an exter 258 pixals. I have no problem going from corner to corn moving just my wrist. the mouse moves about a total of 2 or so ins. This is a windows computer. It all comes down to settings. for perstion it very good and I have not problem getting to the exact spot I want.

As I said earily setting vary from person to person on what they want. On a PC you just plainly have more control over it. S

So I think I can go back to the earily post I made about how he is asking for help not to people saying get used to it and the apple way is better (because it is not. The more control over the setting the better and what apple setting on are not the best. The best setting is what the person wants for them since it is a vary personized setting
 

varmit

macrumors 68000
Aug 5, 2003
1,830
0
jackieonasses said:
it bothered me at first. But i am on my mac soo much that i can actually use this mouse more intuitvely then the ol' beige box.
edit. there is one thing i hate about os x when you want to highlight something (like the url bar in safari) you click it once. wait click it again and it puts a random "highlight"everwhere you get me? if you click it again, it highlights the whole thing. then if you click it one more time it highlights just one space. Now if you want to highlight it with your mouse by moving it across...well sometimes it does that too!

If you want to highlight the whole URL, click the icon next to the HTTP. If you want a single word, double click the word, and it highlights it.
 

flyfish29

macrumors 68020
Feb 4, 2003
2,175
4
New HAMpshire
Jigglelicious said:
As I already said, all that does is change the sensitivity of the mouse to cover more ground in less movement. It does nothing to change mouse acceleration. Acceleration means the cursor will move a greater distance depending on how fast you moved the mouse, not how far you moved it. There is something screwy with the way OSX accelerates (or doesn't accelerate) its mouse.

Edit: I have mouseworks software for my logitech so maybe that is why below I can say it is fine, but I dont' ever remember having issues about it using my regular apple mouse before I got this one.

Mine accelerates very well. If I move it slowly it tracks very slow and accurately, but if I move my hand faster it tracks farther by moving it the same distance as I did when moving it slowly.

Actually it does affect the acceleration. Try moving the slider to the left and it doesn't really accelerate at all or doesn't seem to. The more you move it right the faster it accelerates as well as the faster it moves in general, but if you need accurate tracking then you just move it slowly until you get to what every you need to click.
 

New Guy

macrumors member
Apr 15, 2002
66
0
Connecticut
My recommendation is to get a trackball. A trackball uses minimal desktop realestate. The ball/optics are much larger than what you get on a traditional mouse – which allows for much greater precision. Plus, when you get used to using it, you can zoom the cursor across the screen with just the flick of a finger.

I personall use the Kensington Turbo Mouse Pro. This has four buttons (plus two chord combinations) and 6 direct launch buttons.

I also recommend the Kensington MouseWorks software. Excellent product.
 

point665

macrumors regular
Jun 27, 2004
239
0
Well I switched from PC to mac about 1.5 years ago, Basically heres recap of the evening...

Get home from school, my new video card for PC has come...
Install new video card (just bolt in)
Goto Apple Store, buy my iBook
Go walk around mall and eat
While leaving 2 guys try to sneak up on me and grab the huge iBook box, but fail
I come home, throw PC keyboard off desk, set iBook down, unplug Microsoft intelli wheel mouse from PC and plug it into my iBook.

Yeah sure there was a difference, in fact with 10.2 I hated that the mouse tracking speed at max was too slow so I used Mousezoom, but either I adapted or 10.3 fixed it, now my tracking speed is about 3/4 or so... I love my iBook, I love OSX, I still use that same damn mouse and need to buy a kensington studio pro mouse, in fact I use the same mouse pad I have for last 5 years (cotten PC Gamer "Hands off my monkey" one) because optical mouses dont work on my glass desks... (Ive considered masking off a "mouse pad" area and sanding it...

All in all, youll get used to it. I know what you mean by the acceleration but... I dont like it, just seems annoying to me.
 

iChief

macrumors member
Jun 19, 2004
77
0
Bankside, London SE1
jackieonasses said:
it bothered me at first. But i am on my mac soo much that i can actually use this mouse more intuitvely then the ol' beige box.
edit. there is one thing i hate about os x when you want to highlight something (like the url bar in safari) you click it once. wait click it again and it puts a random "highlight"everwhere you get me? if you click it again, it highlights the whole thing. then if you click it one more time it highlights just one space. Now if you want to highlight it with your mouse by moving it across...well sometimes it does that too!

If you click on the icon to the left of the web address - to the left of "http://" - in the Safari address bar (usually the website's own icon) it always highlights the whole address.

IHTH
 

Jigglelicious

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 25, 2004
421
0
NYC
Well, i'm still looking for a good answer. I tried the Kensington software, but it refuses to work unless you have an actual kensington mouse. I also Tried USBoverdrive, but it doesn't let you change the acceleration curve, just to make it more pronounced or subtle. Does anyone else have any advice? The mouse in windows still feels soooo much better :(
 

iChief

macrumors member
Jun 19, 2004
77
0
Bankside, London SE1
Sorry, I only knew the answer to the problem to the highlighting issue.

I'm in the market for a mouse myself - the reason I was looking at this forum in the first place. I've got an iBook but I use a windoze machine at work so I'm thinking of getting a multi-button bluetooth mouse - any ideas?
 

igucl

macrumors 6502a
Oct 11, 2003
569
17
Jigglelicious, I noticed that you had some negative things to say about the Microsoft mouse software for the mac. Such as, it took over the OS, or something like that. I have to say that I am now using the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer and the included software with my iMac and I haven't noticed any of the effects you mentioned. I switched about a year ago and was also annoyed by the mouse. Now, with the MS software, I do think that my mouse feels like Windows, which I like. I think you should give the MS software another chance. What specific problems did you have with it?

As a side note: Have any other switchers found the text straining on the eyes on the mac, compared to windows? At first I was very infatuated with the whole mac experience, but now, after a year, I'm starting to notice the things that bother me. The honeymoon is over. I have considered switching back, actually.
 

Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,937
157
igucl said:
As a side note: Have any other switchers found the text straining on the eyes on the mac, compared to windows? At first I was very infatuated with the whole mac experience, but now, after a year, I'm starting to notice the things that bother me. The honeymoon is over. I have considered switching back, actually.
Do you make use of text zoom in any of your applications?
 

igucl

macrumors 6502a
Oct 11, 2003
569
17
In Safari, I often increase the text size, but on some web sites it doesn't work as well as I would like. In Apple Works, it goes from 100% to 200%, which almost takes up my whole screen. I would prefer something in between.

Something about the windows text just seems to be inherently easier on the eyes. Am I the only one who thinks so? Don't get me wrong. I love just about everything else about the mac.
 

jimjiminyjim

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2003
440
14
Canada
Wow... I must be bored. This discussion sent me over to see if I could use the Kensington software on my mac. It says it doesn't work with one button mice. Sigh. I've got the Apple stock version, and unless someone wants to donate $80 US for a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, I won't be using it. I sure would like to though, as I'd have to agree. The "feel" of the mouse on Windows is much snappier and accurate. For working with individual pixels, maybe not. For drawing stick people, definitely. This from someone who has used Macs for 10 years and never owned a windows machine. Go figure.
 

spungraphics

macrumors newbie
Jun 17, 2003
3
0
I'm with you Jim, I've been using Mac's for almost 15 years and I would have to say that mouse acceleration and tracking has never been worse than it is now with Panther. It's really frustrating. I find it's nominally better with my wired mouse, but my wireless mouse is just so annoying. I'm always missing icons and buttons menus....it's also very embarasing when people are looking over my shoulder wondering why I just launched Microsoft Excel when everyone knows that I was trying to click Photoshop in my dock. I'm not sure what the solution is. Anyone???
 

Josh

macrumors 68000
Mar 4, 2004
1,640
1
State College, PA
I've just installed the drivers for MS's intellimouse (which is what I have).

It allowed me to adjust the mouse a little better, but still did not give me controll over acceleration.

It also took away my ability to use the additional buttons for expose.

I have two questions:

1)How can I get the ability to use expose via my mouse back? How would I uninstall the MS drivers?

2)Would the Kensington mouse software work with my mouse?

Thanks much - I appreciate it!
 

paw9000

macrumors newbie
Jun 16, 2010
1
0
Well, i'm still looking for a good answer.

Same here. The mouse movement on the mac feels exceptionally uncomfortable to me. Its almost as if the acceleration is treated as a whole integer value instead of a floating point number. Its like there is a noticeable stair step function that describes how fast you mouse goes and for me its really easy to operate where I'm hitting the corners of the stairs on the acceleration function. I end up overshooting/undershooting repeatedly as I'm attempting to click on something small after moving the mouse say a quarter of the screen. I've downloaded 3-4 different programs that allow me more control over the acceleration and I've never been able to get it right. It always feels like the acceleration is a non continuous function which is what is driving me bonkers.

My solution since I have to use a MAC for my work was to get a PC and then remote into the MAC using VNC so that I get the mouse acceleration settings from the PC controling the MAC.

I would prefer a solution that makes the mouse acceleration function a continuous curve on the host MAC itself.
 

p4.jimmy

macrumors newbie
Jan 5, 2013
1
0
Mouse Fix - Hope This Helps

I have a 27" iMac and I'm using a Magic Mouse. This too was an annoying issue for me personally. Here's what I did to fix it. No third party software required.

1.) Open Terminal and type the following command:
defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1

2.) Go into System Preferences, under Mouse and move the Tracking slider to the third position from the right side.

3.) Go back into Terminal and type the following command:
defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling 2.25

YOU MUST LOG OUT AND BACK IN TO SEE THE CHANGES.


Step 1 above disables the mouse acceleration that makes a mac mouse over shoot it's target. At least that's how I describe what it's doing. Annoying. After this is disabled, depending on the Tracking you had setup, at first it feels like you've made it worse, but do steps 2 and 3 and your mouse will then act allot more like a Windows, which is especially good if you are forced to work on Windows at work and come home to a Mac.

If it isn't quite right for you, try playing with the number in step 3. Change the 2.25. to 3.0 or more to make it faster, and go the other way (2.0, 1.5, etc) to make it slower.

Another side note; If you want to turn acceleration back on retype the command in step 1 and substitute the -1 for a 1
Also the default scaling, on my computer was 1.5. You can set it back to the default if you like. You can also read the value at anytime using the command... defaults read -g com.apple.mouse.scaling

Hope this helps :) Jimmy
 
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