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The Magic Mouse seems to be a vast improvement over the old Mighty Mouse after using it for a few hours. However, I just discovered that there seems to be no way to execute a "middle" click.

I use middle-click all the time to open Safari windows in new tabs. Is there a way to enable a middle-click equivalent with the Magic Mouse?

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  • 6
    I drooled over this mouse the first time I saw it, but without middle click, I have no interest in it anymore.
    – Peter Di Cecco
    Oct 29, 2009 at 21:33
  • 10
    To new people answering: please read the FAQ (superuser.com/faq). This is not a forum, this is a place to provide answers to questions. Avoid posting answers with only your personal opinion.
    – Gnoupi
    Nov 4, 2009 at 10:02
  • 14
    Guys, it took them 20 years to put a right button on their mice-- give them time.
    – MiffTheFox
    Nov 9, 2009 at 20:49

11 Answers 11

Reset to default
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Here are two utilities that will allow you to customize gestures on the Magic Mouse, including adding middle click:

MagicPrefs

Better Touch Tool

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    MagicPrefs for the win. I had trouble with Middleclick
    – emmby
    Jan 4, 2010 at 18:35
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    +1 for MagicPrefs! Love the 4-finger click for bringing up Spaces (customizable of course)
    – phatblat
    May 18, 2011 at 19:18
  • finally -- i have my third mouse button. magicprefs is great!
    – harald
    Jan 26, 2012 at 17:09
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If you are using the middle click just for opening links in a new tab in Safari, you can do so by pressing cmd while clicking.

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9

Try this software: middleclick

Works really well for me on my 2 year old G5 running 10.5.

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  • Great suggestion! I just tried MiddleClick with my Magic Mouse and it seems to work great!
    – emmby
    Nov 11, 2009 at 18:00
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    Changed my mind after using Middleclick for awhile. Middleclick kept registering spurious clicks for me. MagicPrefs (see Jay's response) seems to work better.
    – emmby
    Jan 4, 2010 at 18:36
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No.

Maybe later Apple or a third-part app will provide an update to add more feature.

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  • Downvote because this is not true; see ⌘+Left Mouse answers here.
    – Stew
    Feb 16, 2016 at 18:08
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MagicPrefs seems not to work with the new Apple Magic Mouse 2 (MLA02LL/A), when you try to customize the behavior of it, it shows a message indicating that the magic mouse was not detected.

BetterTouchTool was the winner in my case, working on OS "El Capitan".

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I use expogesture on my Magic Mouse as I had missed expose, and the extra buttons mighty mouse had greatly. You can designate "mouse gestures" and assign the Function keys (or any mapped keys really). Works on Snow Leopard using the 10.4 download. Just make sure your expose/dashboard/show desktop shortcut keys are mapped in system preferences. I have the clockwise swipe assigned as "show all windows" and counter-clockwise swipe assigned as "show desktop". Kinda like a "wax on, wax off" type of thing. Hope that helps!

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The ⌘+Left Mouse quite often performs an action equivalent to Middle Mouse in many applications.

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  • super-L click? Please explain.
    – suspectus
    Jul 18, 2013 at 21:20
  • The option+LeftMouse works in my TotalView.
    – alex
    Aug 21, 2015 at 21:00
  • I confirm that clicking on a link using ⌘+Left Mouse works like Middle Mouse (opens link in a new tab) in Safari, Firefox and Chrome on OS X.
    – Stew
    Feb 16, 2016 at 17:55
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I found this question when looking for Middle Mouse emulation when using iTerm2, where it is mapped to 'Paste from clipboard' by default. For others who use iTerm2, it is possible to emulate this behavior with a custom mapping in Preferences > Pointer.

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Middle is a single-purpose app for adding the middle click to macOS for Magic Mouse and Apple trackpads. You can pick from a few gestures for each device, or hold the fn key and left click for a middle click. (I'm the developer, and the app is not free)

Middle app preferences

Multitouch is an app for adding trackpad and Magic Mouse gestures to macOS, and middle clicking is one of the available actions that can be tied to a gesture. (I'm the developer, and the app is not free)

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  • Middle doesn't seem to work for middle dragging. Is there any way to enable it? This is the standard for 3D modeling software. I'd happily pay the $4 if it supported that.
    – adamdport
    Mar 20, 2020 at 17:23
  • @adamdport which 3D modeling software are you using?
    – Ryan H
    Mar 20, 2020 at 21:00
  • Fusion 360. Is it supposed to work?
    – adamdport
    Mar 21, 2020 at 16:10
  • @adamdport try v1.0.3, you can get it either via in app update or from middleclick.app.
    – Ryan H
    Mar 21, 2020 at 20:45
  • Worked great and purchased! thank you!
    – adamdport
    Mar 21, 2020 at 22:30
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Try this:

http://clement.beffa.org/labs/projects/middleclick/

and assign the new "middle click" to Expose or whatever function you'd like to have.

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I use BetterTouchTool (a 64bit app), and have middle click configured as a two finger tap, works extremely well and feels natural in Safari. The others I have are: Show Desktop - three finger tap Application switcher - single finger middle tap Spaces - single finger middle click Expose - three finger click

That's the main things I want, and they all work extremely well, hardly any false readings, no lag.

http://blog.boastr.net/?page_id=195

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