trouble assigning/Using all the mouse buttons i have

If you want to assign that many buttons, you'll need to use specific mouse drivers for your mouse (which I'm sure you can download)

 

Don't download any Logitech drivers

Get USB Overdrive - http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13443
It'll require a reboot when you install it, but it's a great piece of software.

I have an MX1000 and here's how I have it set up to give you an idea of how extensive the software can be:

Firefox:
- press scroll wheel- double click
- tilt left- tab backwards through tabs
- tilt right- tab forwards through tabs
- button above wheel- close tab
- button below wheel- paste
- middle button on side- copy
- back button- go back
- forward button- go forward

Adium:
- tilt left- go backwards through tabs
- tilt right- go forwards through tabs
- button above wheel- close tab

Quicktime:
- button below wheel- play/pause

Thunderbird:
- button below wheel- new message
- button above wheel- send message

etc, etc, etc

You can do SO much with it, it's insane... makes my Mac experience a whole lot better

 

You have sort-of-three options:

1) Use USB Overdrive. You have to pay for it, but it's good.

2) Download the Logitec drivers. Not nearly as many fancy features, but they're ALMOST ok--I use them since I'm cheap. *Except* they have a monumentally stupid bug that sets the tracking speed to something absurd after every restart, so you have to go in and change it to something else, then back to your preferred setting to get the pointer under control. This has existed through at least a years worth of versions, and they've never bothered to fix it--idiotic.

You can use the Logitec driver to configure some basic actions (command-arrow to the forward and back buttons, mostly), but if you want to configure them to do Dashboard or Expose things, just set them to be "button click #whatever" then go into the Dashboard & Expose Prefpane and set the desired mouse button number to the desired action.

For example, on my MX500, I have the three "turbo scroll" and "app switch" buttons up top set to activate Dashboard, all-window expose, and one-app expose, respectively, while I use the Logitec Control panel to have the thumb buttons on the default forward and back. More hassle than using USB Overdrive, but it's free.

3) You can do the second half of the above without any driver at all, but you can't set the thumb buttons to be forward and back. I also found that without Logitec's drivers, the mouse was too slow for my taste. Oddly, a Kensington mouse I tried worked perfectly fine with no drivers at all.

 

hmm... I notice now that USB Overdrive is supposed to be shareware, but I got it off of VersionTracker and have been using it since mid February without any registration requirements or anything, and all the features seem to work....