3-button Optical Mice?

proclus asks: "Does anyone else think that scroll wheels are a clunky replacement for the middle button? Mice are supposed to have three buttons, right? It was such an improvement when the three button mice started appearing for PC hardware, but I'm wondering, where are the optical ones?"

Comments

Re:Um...

[aleonard]

You misunderstood. He want a third button, but he doesn't like the scroll wheel being the third button. He considers it clunky.

To the asker: Sorry, but it's not going to change. People are used to clicking their mwheel as the third mouse button, and it seems a waste to add a third button and remove the mwheel's click.

If you really don't want to use the mwheel to click the third button, perhaps you can get an Intellimouse Explorer and remap the fourth or fifth button to the functions the third button typically handles, and use those instead? Otherwise, I don't think it's going to happen, unless a company brings out an optical mouse without a wheel. And some things are too useful to discard - How many keyboards don't have the numpad? Not many, if any at all. It's a lot more useful than ScrlLock. :P

Wheel is fine for clicking

[perlyking]

I use my middle button extensively (clicking on links and closing tabs in mozilla) and find no problem at all clicking it.
I'm not sure why you want something with less functionality.
I suppose you could glue the mouse wheel so it doesn't move and pretend its just a button ;-)

No and no.

[infonography]

Wheel mice are great, only Solaris users really need three and even then wheels are usable under Solaris. Considering I am looking at a banner ad for mice I can only think this is astroturfing. Next we'll see you spouting off about the joys of using a one button mouse. Be gone ye layer of phony shrubbery.

Scroll wheels are indispensable

[xwizbt]

I have a friend who has a three button mouse; no scroll wheel. I find myself sitting there stroking the middle button like some sort of pervert.

The scroll wheel makes life so much easier - just checking through /. this morning I used it at least as often as the left mouse button. Why on earth would anyone want to get rid of it, particularly when you can click it as well?

Re:Scroll wheels are indispensable

[shamus]

With the scroll wheel you can scroll the page without moving your hand, just rolling your finger over the scroll wheel. This makes browsing, especially long pages like /. threads, incredibly easy and comfortable.

I've yet to find a browser where the click and drag scroll method isn't horrendously clunky. For a start you have to do something to stop it scrolling again. And its either too fast or too slow.

I've also seen the wheel scroll horizontally in some applications when there is just a horizontal bar and no vertical.

Scroll wheel click

[Spudley]

I love the scroll wheel. It is possibly the most significant UI innovation of the last ten years.

But I hate having it clickable as the third button.

Particularly in Konqueror, I find myself scrolling through a document, and suddenly I press too hard on the wheel and it jumps me to some random hyperlink that I hadn't even noticed let alone intended to click on. *grrrrr*

Personally I'd rather have a scroll wheel than a third button. The third button is nice, and I always liked having it, but the wheel is better, and the two don't co-exist too well. :-/

Mouse Systems

[storem]

Mouse Systems was one of the original makers of optical mice, since back in the early 1980s, and made a nice simple & solid three-button optical mouse. Unfortunately they got bought out recently and the new owners, KYE International, are making the same two-button/scroll mice as everyone else.

Here's a picture of the actual three-button optical mouse.

Real functionality for mouse buttons

[James1980]

If a mouse is going to have numerous buttons, they need to have clear, discernable functionality within an OS. LMB = select, RMB = context, Scroll = move view. These make sense, but I'm not sure what else would, please feel free to enlighten me. Can anyone make a case for features that other mouse buttons could use? I'm not talking about customising buttons for starting file managers or browsers, as these are just shortcuts, but clear-cut functionality that help users navigate and operate withint the GUI metaphor.

Ask Slashdot

[tiny69]

I've got a stupid question. Instead of asking my friends what they think or doing a little research online, I'll post the question on Slashdot and see what the largest collection of wannabe geeks on the Internet think. When you flush the toilet in the Southern Hemisphere, which way does the water spin?

Sun

[TRS-80]

Sun makes 3-button opticial USB mice, and they ship with most of their new workstations. You could probably pick them up as spare parts, but they're probably fairly costly.

Simple mouse mod

[Hungus]

Why not just mod a wheeled mouse? The steps would be simple enough.

Parts Needed:

3 button optical mouse with wheel

Set of screwdrivers (prolly just need a #0 and #1 phillips)

X-Acto Knife

McDonald's Straw - I am not sure if other straws will work it needs to be thermo softening while being thick enough for wear and pliable enough for use.

Personal flamethrower or lighter or soldering iron

krazy glue

about 30 minutes of your time.

Heres how to do it:

1. With the X-Acto knife make a faint score on the mouse wheel along the profile where it sticks out of the mouse
2. Remove mouse cover (typically by removing 2 screws maybe 3 in your case)
3. carefully remove the screw holding the circut board to the upper mouse casing
4. Remove the wheel and action spring noting how they were installed.
5. Trim the mouse wheel with the X-Acto knife so that it is almost flush with the mouse case (using your earlier score) - Nice thing here is you have 3 chances if you mess up at first because you can just rotate the wheel 120 degrees and have a fresh surface!
6. Cut the straw latterally so as to be able to lay it flat and cut a section off which is approximately 35% longer than the exposesed mouse wheel opening in the upper shell of the mouse
7. Heat the straw fragment (dont burn it) until it lays almost flat on your work surface (you do still want some curve)
8. place the mouse wheel back on the curcuit board with the flattened side up (away from the board
9. place the now flattened straw fragment over teh mouse wheel centering it.
10. once you have things the way you want them remove the upper cover again and the trimmed straw fragment
11. place a single tiny drop of krazy glue on the former wheel and immediately recenter the star fragment on it
12. wait a few minutes as the off gas of the glue will cloud the optics of your mouse if you re-assembled immediately.
13. Re-assemble the mouse and you now have a 3 button no wheel mouse!

Congratulations!

IBM

[GiMP]

IBM makes a 3 button no-wheel optical mouse. Try looking yourself next time.