Anyone have trackball experience?

I prefer to use a trackball, but I do not have much experience with Macs. I see the standard mouse is a one button setup. I was thinking of getting the Kensington Expert Mouse Optical USB Trackball for use with a MBP.

1) I assume I can customize the OS to recognize the additional buttons.
2) Is it worth the effort or am I fighting the intended mindset and I need to just get used to the one button deal.
3) Will there be issues with switching between the touchpad and trackball? I.e. if I customize the OS to recognize the trackball, will it behave differently if the trackball is not hooked-up?

Thanks for all your help,
Matthew

 

I recommend not using a mouse for a while. Get used to the multi-function trackpad. After you use it for a few days, you'll wonder why anyone would want anything else on their laptop. Right clicking and scrolling will become second nature and much nicer than a normal two button track pad.

As far as using a mouse, generally its pretty plug and play. I've used two or three mice and haven't had a problem. But unless there are specific drivers for the mouse you won't be able to do a whole lot of customization for it.
But there OS X will keep separate your settings for the trackpad vs. mouse.

 

OS X supports right clicks, they just dont include 2 buttons for the sake of design. The trackpad on Macbooks recognize a tap with 2 fingers as a right click. Also every mouse I have used with my Mac have been 2 button mice, and all I did was plug it in and everything worked like it should. The trackball should be no different. I refuse to use an Apple mouse except for the trackpad since Apple sucks at making mice... I understand having one button on a trackpad since a two finger tap is easy to use, and I don't use the mouse button on a track pad period.... but 1 button on an actual mouse is annoying.

That being said: OS X recognizes right clicks natively.... it always has, Apple just doesn't like the look of 2 buttons. (Their most recent mouse: the mighty mouse has 2 button functions using a sensor to detect what finger you're touching the button with.... but having to lift your 1st finger off for the sensor to recognize it as a right click is annoying.)

 

yea good luck with button customization in OSX.


i love my new BT microsoft notebook 5000 mouse. 30$ at microcenter!

 

Kensington have drivers for the Mac.

(I should know, I've been using the same Kensington mouse since 2000).

It works out of the box for Left/Right clicking, and scrolling but my extra two buttons needed the control panel to configure them. I never could agree with Apple in the mouse department.