Apple Mouse Problem

[Ed Rooney]

Down here in Mexico, I am using a new MacBook Pro with MacOS High Sierra. With me, I also have a plugin Apple mouse from my old iMac. It's been behaving oddly. I'm wondering if should get a newer mouse? Will that solve what might be a compatibility problem? 

 

Thanks, Edo

[Jon Lewis]

Hi Edo

 

If its the one with a rubber scroll ball then this gets full of crap and is almost impossible to clean you can use a little lighter fluid but its your choice.

 

To take it apart and clean it is major surgery (check youtube) a new one is probably the way to go.

 

Jon

 

[Ed Rooney]

Thanks, Jon. I was beginning to think Windows users were ostracizing me.  

[MizBrown]

I like the optical mice -- the lenses occasionally get dirty -- use a q-tip with lens cleaner safe for use on plastic lenses.

[Jon Lewis]

I meant the little rubber scroll ball on the top of the mouse 

 

[Robert M Estall]

back when I had one of those old black powerbooks I plugged in a cheap little non-apple USB mouse and it worked just fine. That was a pleasant surprise!

[Ed Rooney]

The tech has changed, Robert.

 

Edo

[KevinS]

I doubt it's a compatibility problem, more likely dirty or worn. I've been using the wireless Magic Mouse for years and am so used to the way it works I don't mind replacing the batteries now and then.

[Ed Rooney]

My mouse is a pull in, Kevin. Plug-in! Gmail has gone nuts! 

[ReeRay]

15 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

My mouse is a pull in, Kevin.

 

As you say Ed, the tech has changed. I can't remember the last time I used a plug in mouse or keyboard.

 

Well worth investigating and I'm sure you'll be won over.

[Robert M Estall]

My wireless mouse is such a pain that I also have an old apple USB mouse  plugged in ready for the many moments when  the wireless one loses connection. It does get through batteries but I can live with that. The wireless keyboard is fine and is pretty easy on the batteries. When our tech guru upgraded my wife's iMac he set her mouse to scroll the wrong way around. His parting words were "you'll get used to it, you'll like it!" Hoodlum!  He also installed Pages telling her how much better than Word it was and her new system wouldn't run our old version of Word anyway. Hate it! Theoretically her newer system and SSD drive should leave my similar 27" in the dust, but it doesn't seem to really work out that way. I would replace my wireless mouse but they are very expensive. Why's that?

 

 

[MizBrown]

The latest Blue Tooth Magic Mice and the Bluerooth keyboards have a built-in rechargeable batteries.  I've had the new mouse now for over a year and it only needs an occasional lens cleaning from time to time, otherwise works fine with my iMac.  I've found this mouse better than the previous generation of Mac optical mice.

[Ed Rooney]

Bought a new Magic Mouse 2.

[wiskerke]

3 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Bought a new Magic Mouse 2.

 

Version 1.0 ;-)

wim

[Ed Rooney]

Maybe Mickey could help me figure this gizmo out. These new gadgets either do too little or too much. This one is the later. I am extremely unhappy with all this new tech that has been dumped on me. Where did I put my Mont Blanc pen? 

 

Edo

[MDM]

31 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Maybe Mickey could help me figure this gizmo out. These new gadgets either do too little or too much. This one is the later. I am extremely unhappy with all this new tech that has been dumped on me. Where did I put my Mont Blanc pen? 

 

Edo

 

I don't think I'm the Mickey you mean but here goes anyway. You can just use any old USB mouse - it doesn't have to be an Apple mouse and they are way cheaper. However, these magic mice can be used like a trackpad as well as a normal mouse by moving your fingers along the top of it instead of clicking. Takes a day or two to get used to it but once you do it's way better than an old mousey mouse for all sorts of stuff - image processing as well as other stuff. None of this old dog new tricks stuff now Ed- why not give it a go. You know I think overcoming little challenges like this can be very rejuvenating. 

[Ed Rooney]

Since I bought it yesterday, I guess I'll have to give it a go. I have 101 things to do in NYC before I leave forever, and I don't want to add learning new tech to that list. 

 

I miss sharpening pencils. 

 

Edo

[MDM]

41 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Since I bought it yesterday, I guess I'll have to give it a go. I have 101 things to do in NYC before I leave forever, and I don't want to add learning new tech to that list. 

 

I miss sharpening pencils. 

 

Edo

 

Understood but this is not at all difficult and you don't need to do it immediately as it works as a normal mouse as well. GIve it a go when you get some time. You just move your finger around on top of the mouse as if it was a trackpad. It really speeds up scrolling around images checking for spots or focus or indeed editing. I'm so used to it now that a normal mouse really slows me down.

 

I use the reverse scrolling now as well so loathed by Robert above as well -  it is actually much more natural but you do get used to it very quickly. I started using it when Apple introduced it and find the old way very strange now. But it can be changed in a second in the system settings so  hoodlum is probably a bit strong. And it must be a very ancient version of Word that won't work. I still have Office 2008 for Mac and it works no problem although I prefer Pages to Word now. 

[M.Chapman]

48 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

Understood but this is not at all difficult and you don't need to do it immediately as it works as a normal mouse as well. GIve it a go when you get some time. You just move your finger around on top of the mouse as if it was a trackpad. It really speeds up scrolling around images checking for spots or focus or indeed editing. I'm so used to it now that a normal mouse really slows me down.

 

I use the reverse scrolling now as well so loathed by Robert above as well -  it is actually much more natural but you do get used to it very quickly. I started using it when Apple introduced it and find the old way very strange now. But it can be changed in a second in the system settings so  hoodlum is probably a bit strong. And it must be a very ancient version of Word that won't work. I still have Office 2008 for Mac and it works no problem although I prefer Pages to Word now. 

 

Out of interest do you have the Magic Mouse 2 or 1? I have the Magic Mouse 1 and gave up using it for editing in the end. It just wasn't as responsive or smooth as my Logitech wireless mouse, so now I use that with a tiny USB receiver plugged into to my MacBook Pro. I couldn't decide if it was due to Bluetooth delays or if the Magic Mouse is just like that. I tried various mouse settings and add-on software (CursorSense) but never got it to work as smoothly as my Logitech M185. 

 

Mark

[KevinS]

1 hour ago, MDM said:

 

Understood but this is not at all difficult and you don't need to do it immediately as it works as a normal mouse as well. GIve it a go when you get some time. You just move your finger around on top of the mouse as if it was a trackpad. It really speeds up scrolling around images checking for spots or focus or indeed editing. I'm so used to it now that a normal mouse really slows me down.

 

I use the reverse scrolling now as well so loathed by Robert above as well -  it is actually much more natural but you do get used to it very quickly. I started using it when Apple introduced it and find the old way very strange now. But it can be changed in a second in the system settings so  hoodlum is probably a bit strong. And it must be a very ancient version of Word that won't work. I still have Office 2008 for Mac and it works no problem although I prefer Pages to Word now. 

Agree wholeheartedly! I work much faster using tap/click, swipe, pinch, etc on the iMac as I do on a MBP. My scrolling is set so when I swipe down I see what's below the current screen. That seems natural to me, but, of course, the wife's is set opposite (natural, too, in it's own way). 

Mark, I'm on my 2nd MM1, only because the cat knocked the first one off the desk to it's demise. Replaced it with another Mk 1 and never found it to be slow in any way.

[Robert M Estall]

In answer to MDM: pretty old, but then, I'm getting on s bit as well. I just checked, mine's a 2004 version of Word. Seems like just yesterday. Lots of stuff refuses from time to time, it's getting to be a challenging game to keep this old system going. Ask about this system and it come up as 10.6.8. I think that is what they called Snow Leopard, back in the days of Cats anyway. No Mountains out here in East Anglia. I could mess with her system and reverse the scrolling, but she might think that was taking a liberty! Bring back WORDPERFECT for Macs! More Hoodlums just West of Ottawa bought it years ago and fairly promptly dropped Mac support. I do  have both pencils and sharpeners.

 

Glad to hear Edo doesn't like his new mouse in a sad perverse way. But I'm sure he and i will keep getting this stuff to work to some extent. 

[spacecadet]

One modern bugbear is these cheap badly-made pencils with off-centre leads. You can't sharpen them because the lead snaps every time. Propellers are good but they tend to be disposable, which defeats the object.

[Ed Rooney]

FYI, folks: I'm back to using my plug-in mouse for now. 

[MDM]

On 03/07/2018 at 23:39, Robert M Estall said:

In answer to MDM: pretty old, but then, I'm getting on s bit as well. I just checked, mine's a 2004 version of Word. Seems like just yesterday. Lots of stuff refuses from time to time, it's getting to be a challenging game to keep this old system going. Ask about this system and it come up as 10.6.8. I think that is what they called Snow Leopard, back in the days of Cats anyway. No Mountains out here in East Anglia. I could mess with her system and reverse the scrolling, but she might think that was taking a liberty! Bring back WORDPERFECT for Macs! More Hoodlums just West of Ottawa bought it years ago and fairly promptly dropped Mac support. I do  have both pencils and sharpeners.

 

Glad to hear Edo doesn't like his new mouse in a sad perverse way. But I'm sure he and i will keep getting this stuff to work to some extent. 

 

Yes that is pretty ancient. The Mac OS has advanced a lot since Snow Leopard. A major advance has been the transition to 64 bit which can mean huge speed increases which may or may not be important depending on what she uses it for. My wife is using a 10 year old MacBookPro with Mavericks OS and it works fine for what she does with it. As for messing with her system ...

 

 

On 03/07/2018 at 17:23, M.Chapman said:

 

Out of interest do you have the Magic Mouse 2 or 1? I have the Magic Mouse 1 and gave up using it for editing in the end. It just wasn't as responsive or smooth as my Logitech wireless mouse, so now I use that with a tiny USB receiver plugged into to my MacBook Pro. I couldn't decide if it was due to Bluetooth delays or if the Magic Mouse is just like that. I tried various mouse settings and add-on software (CursorSense) but never got it to work as smoothly as my Logitech M185. 

 

Mark

 

I am now using the new one with the built-in battery. It came with my son's iMac and he didn't like it so I acquired it. I have an older one as well which works fine. I use it with my laptop occasionally when I edit on that. I use rechargeable batteries in it. 

[MizBrown]

On 7/3/2018 at 07:29, Ed Rooney said:

Maybe Mickey could help me figure this gizmo out. These new gadgets either do too little or too much. This one is the later. I am extremely unhappy with all this new tech that has been dumped on me. Where did I put my Mont Blanc pen? 

 

Edo

Go to the mouse controls in System Preferences and turn off the swipes and taps you don't want.  Adjust the reaction speed to suit.   I've turned off "swipe between pages" in More Gestures.  Tracking speed is mid-range.   If you're just getting started, consider turning off all "More Gestures."