Not all people have the same preferences when it comes to using a computer mouse. Some people like to use the right-click button as the main button. Some prefer a higher scrolling and moving speed. Others may love a reverted scroll direction. But no matter what you want, it’s still a good idea to customize the mouse settings to be as efficient as possible for your own use. In this article, we will guide you on how to change the basic mouse settings on your Mac, whether you are using a traditional wired mouse or the Apple Magic Mouse.
Change the Scroll Direction, Right-click, and Tracking Speed of Your Mouse
There are some simple steps for you to follow:
- Click on the Apple icon in the menu bar
- On the dropdown menu, select System Preferences
- Select on Mouse > Point & Click
Now you will see some customizable settings:
- The Scrolling direction: natural option is activated by default. This option will make your mouse scroll in the same direction with your finger. If you want an inverted scroll direction, simply untick the box for this option
- The Secondary click option will help you select which mouse button will be the primary one. Click the arrow below Secondary Click to choose whether you use the mouse’s right or left side to trigger secondary clicking. This is very convenient for users who are left-handed.
- You can also drag the Tracking Speed slider left or right to increase or decrease the speed of your pointer moves on the screen
Change the Double-click Settings
It can be quite frustrating when you accidentally trigger double-clicking when you didn’t mean to. Therefore, you should change how fast or slow you need to click a second time to trigger a double-click. You need to:
- Go to System Preferences on your Mac.
- Click on Accessibility.
- Scroll down and select Mouse & Trackpad.
- Adjust the Double-click speed slider to decide how fast you have to click the mouse to trigger a double-click. At the lowest level, you can wait as long as four seconds between clicks to trigger double-clicking.
Change the Scrolling Speed Settings
If you are a slow-reader, a slower scrolling speed will be better for you. To change the scrolling speed settings of your mouse on Mac, you have to:
- Go to System Preferences.
- Click on Accessibility.
- Scroll down and select Mouse & Trackpad.
- Click on Mouse Options.
- Adjust the Scrolling speed slider to speed up or slow down your mouse scrolling speed.
- Adjust the scrolling speed to your liking and then click OK to exit.
Change the Gestures of your Magic Mouse on a Mac
The Apple Magic Mouse allows you to use different gestures to navigate through your Mac’s user interface. Therefore, you will need to change the settings for those gestures as well. Here is how:
- Connect your Magic Mouse to your Mac.
- On your Mac, go to System Preferences.
- Select Mouse.
- Click on Point & Click.
- You can tick the box for the Smart Zoom option to activate the gesture of double-tapping the Magic Mouse to zoom in a window.
- Click on More Gestures. You will see some more gestures for the Magic Mouse here. To activate them, tick on the box next to their name.
- The Swipe between pages gesture allows you to use your finger to swipe or scroll left and right on the Magic Mouse. You can also customize how you want to use this gesture by clicking the arrow below it.
- The Swipe between full-screen apps will enable the ability to swipe left or right to switch from one full-screen to another.
- The Mission Control option grants you the ability to double-tap the Magic Mouse to activate Mission Control.
There you go, now you know how to change the mouse settings on your Mac. We hope that these tips work for you. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
