Poor design in OSX?

Hi Guys,

I'm new here but not new to mac ownership having had a powerbook g4 for a number of years, an imac and now recently acquired a new aluminium macbook. I'm still something of a newbie though really spending most of my time in windows (because thats the platform I develop software on)

Something really bugged me yesterday though!

At work I plugged in my wireless mouse and being a 'leftie' swapped the buttons on the mouse. I left the mouse at work and came home to use the laptop but now the laptop mouse button was right clicking instead of left clicking. I brought up the keyboard and mouse panel in system prefs but there is no mouse tab without an external mouse plugged in. So I couldnt actually swap the laptop mouse back to left click. So two things strike me here (because it maybe my ignorance!)

1. Why can you not specify different settings for the internal/external mouse as you can in windows?
2. Why does the mouse tab in keyboard and mouse settings not respond to either a left or right click, as this is where you can swap them, again windows responds to either in this particular dialog

Am I missing something?

Cheers

Gary

Seems like

garyk said:

Am I missing something?

Click to expand...

Yeah. You keep calling the Trackpad a mouse. I can't tell exactly what you're talking about, so I might be a little off in my suggestions.

You're also the only lefty I've heard of that actually swaps the mouse buttons. Most lefties I know just use the mouse with their right hands, with a normal button setup. I guess because it's easier when using other peoples' computers.

I'm assuming you have one of the newer MacBooks with the buttonless trackpad. It has a couple of different options for secondary click, and I'm not sure which one you're using. You should be able to find one that doesn't get mixed up.

Trackpad and mouse settings should be seperate. One should not affect the other.

Also, keep in mind that secondary clicking is considered a specialist feature. It is usually off by default. Apple assumes that, if you're going to enable it, you probably know what you want, and that if you're having trouble, it's probably not for you.