How-to: Enable Expose and Spaces for the Magic Mouse
So you’re loving your brand new Magic Mouse but are missing the ability to activate Expose and Spaces right from the mouse? Not to worry, we’ve got you covered. Using SIMBL and a neat little preference pane called MultiClutch, we can map our own custom shortcuts to the left and right swipes coming from the Magic Mouse and have them activate Spaces and Expose instead of navigating forward and back.
Getting Setup
The first thing we need to do is to get MultiClutch up and working in a 64-bit Snow Leopard world. MultiClutch, like a lot of apps relying on InputManagers, kind of got gimped when the new big cat showed up. Luckily though, a recent fork in the project now allows for its plugin to be loaded through the latest SIMBL release.
You can find some detailed instructions on how to get MultiClutch up and running from the source of the new plugin, but essentially what you need to do is:
- Install the original MultiClutch application.
- Install the latest version of SIMBL.
- Download the forked version of the MultiClutch plugin and load it into the SIMBL plugin directory at
/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins. - Go in and remove the old version of the MultiClutch plugin from
/Library/InputManagers.
Adding Shortcuts
Once you have MultiClutch up and running, open its preference pane and add new gestures for Swipe Left and Swipe Right and then assign them each key commands. If you’re configuring for use with Spaces and Expose you’ll have to use one of the function keys. You may have to do some shuffling around depending on what function keys you already have mapped. I used F1 and F2 as they weren’t already mapped to anything.
Then just go into your preferences for Expose and Spaces and set Activate Spaces and All Windows to the corresponding key command you used in MultiClutch. Since we’re using SIMBL you’ll have to quit and relaunch any applications that were already active when we started in order for the system to pick up our new shortcuts when that application is active.
Caveat Emptor
Obviously this is not an ideal solution, and ultimately it would be best for Apple to build in some customization options for Magic Mouse gestures right into the Mouse preference pane. As with anything that is this hacked together, your milage may vary, but I’ve been using it for a couple days now and it’s working great. On the whole I really love the new Magic Mouse but not having my Expose and Spaces was a bit of a deal breaker for me. Hopefully this will at least be able to tide us over until a more solid solution comes along.
bakerjam on November 2nd, 2009 at 10:22 am
That’s a lot of work just to enable Exposé and Spaces on the Magic Mouse. Good thing I never used the mouse for those features. However, I am missing the middle click that opens new tabs in safari :(
Staff Comment Bryan Schuetz, TheAppleBlog on November 2nd, 2009 at 10:28 am
@bakerjam You could just re-map one of the left-right swipes to open new tabs in Safari, using the process above.
Charlie on November 8th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I did too, use this program, it works for the Magic Mouse as well =)
http://clement.beffa.org/labs/projects/middleclick/
G$ on November 13th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
This works fine, after a few minor freeze-up’s of the preference pane, which went away with a force quit. Sounds complicated, but is really simple enough to follow. Note: only left & right swipe seem to really work, rotate for example didn’t.
bakerjam on November 2nd, 2009 at 11:33 am
That might be an option except that I use the swiping motion to navigate around zoomed-in work in CS4. Thanks for the tip though!
Onil on November 9th, 2009 at 4:30 am
perhaps you can swipe up and down with this application. can you try it and post here please?! i want to buy a magic mouse,but this lack of buttons stopped me.
Yeray on November 2nd, 2009 at 12:23 pm
As far as I know, Multiclutch only worked on certain applications, or at least used to when I installed it on my Macbook Pro (probably cocoa ones, as iTunes would not respond to swipe input). Are these shortcuts and swipes really global, or tied to the active aplication as a keyboard shortcut would be?
Adam Jackson on November 2nd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Couldn’t get it to work. The Pref pane wouldn’t load and it kept forcing me to install the old input manager (which I deleted in step 4).
Tried about 4 times, kept restarting, no go. I give up.
nebula_1979 on November 2nd, 2009 at 12:42 pm
i did in different way: i use hot corners functionality! System Preferences -> Exposè -> Active screen corners
Adam Jackson on November 2nd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
That’s what I’m doing for now.
The mouse hardware & software can support gestures that enable spaces & expose. I think Apple wanted to keep it simple since this mouse ships w/ all new iMacs.
My opinion: it’s a step backward and sucks that Apple abandoned some core features built into the Mighty Mouse (that came out in late 2005).
I used middle ball for “all windows”, side buttons for “desktop” expose commands. I also want pinch and zoom on the magic mouse. This stuff can be done as the sensors support it.
Staff Comment Bryan Schuetz, TheAppleBlog on November 2nd, 2009 at 1:11 pm
@Yeray In the above scenario the multiclutch plugin is working through SIMBL so as applications are launched its bundle gets added in. The gestures work for me in iTunes.
@Adam Sorry you couldn’t get it to work. It might be worth noting the MultiClutch preference pane was not re-written with the new plugin so when you open it System Preferences will need to switch over to 32 bit mode (it will switch back to 64 when you close it). But this should not add back in the old input manager you removed.
Chad Engle on November 2nd, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I am having issues with the SIMBL plugins & folders. I can’t find them under application support (doesn’t install or something?) what version OS does this work on? I really want this to work as Expose is the biggest downfall of my new magic mouse.
Staff Comment Bryan Schuetz, TheAppleBlog on November 2nd, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Chad if you don’t see the SIMBL/Plugins directory under /Library/Application Support then you might want to check ~/Library/Application Support.
Whether or not you choose to install it for all users or only the current user will determine whether or not it installs in the root or in the current users home directory.
Hope that helps.
Kuswanto on November 2nd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
As far I know, if the folder not present, you have to create it manualy.
I am using SIMBL on SnomLeopard for Megazoom, it’s worked.
This is one drawback feature with MagicMouse. With MightMouse I am using its middle click for expose. I will sure going to miss it when I had those new iMac.
Chad Engle on November 3rd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Still can’t get it to work. Tried it on 2 different computers installed both and can’t find the folders they install on either. I got it working once but it was only for select programs (still running in 32bit) so who knows… very, very bummed.
anonymous on November 2nd, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I would definitely recommend Expogesture
http://ichiro.nnip.org/osx/Expogesture/index_en.html
which doesn’t need any complicated setup.
Download, run, and there’s no third step!
Jorge on November 3rd, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Excellent suggestion man!! its an awesome app and I was completely unaware of its existence! solved my only complain about the magic mouse!
Thanks!
linksgiving on November 3rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
It’s great, simply great :) Thank you for the suggestion!
Isaac on November 3rd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Expogesture is great. Thanks for mentioning it.
It has 6 gestures you can map key combo functions to.
The clockwise and counter-clockwise gestures are perfect for Show Desktop and Show All Windows.
peterinjapan on November 2nd, 2009 at 10:43 pm
I can haz real double click to mean middle click? I actually really dislike swiping, I sometimes swipe my mouse off my desk ^_^
Reed on November 2nd, 2009 at 11:17 pm
SIMBL doesn’t load itself into the finder upon login – so gestures don’t work in finder until it’s manually relaunched. Anybody have a solution for this? Besides writing a script to relaunch finder on login, since that seems ridiculous?
Reed on November 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
and just for reference, that’s what I’m doing now, and it works just fine – I wrote a relaunch finder login (can be found on google fairly easily) and set it as a login item, loading SIMBL and thus multiclutch into the finder as well as any other application as it loads. a lot of work, but man it’s nice to have swipe left as expose. so natural!
Staff Comment Bryan Schuetz, TheAppleBlog on November 3rd, 2009 at 4:38 am
@Reed that’s a great idea. Unfortunately there’s no getting around the need to relaunch Finder once SIMBL is running. Doing it automatically as a login item at least takes some inconvenience out of it.
I actually restart my machine so rarely that I don’t mind having to just run a quick KillAll Finder from the QSB once in a blue moon.
Glad to hear it’s working for you.
Sal on November 3rd, 2009 at 6:54 am
What about using the built-in shortcuts for Expose and Spaces?
Something like open-Apple + right click for Expose and
ctrl + open-Apple + right click for Spaces?
Works like a charm for me.
Sal on November 3rd, 2009 at 6:55 am
Sorry, I forgot the open-Apple symbol isn’t there anymore.
open-Apple == Command
James Andrews on November 3rd, 2009 at 7:31 am
Personally I’d like to see the implementation of the “middle click” through a two finger (left and right) click. This would closely map to what I use for Exposé on the Mighty Mouse.
It would make sense for gestures to be customisable, though I suspect that, given the lack of ability to customise trackpad gestures, Apple may choose not to support this kind of customisation on the Magic Mouse.
DistortedLoop on November 3rd, 2009 at 7:40 am
I’m more a trackpad man than a mouse man. Isn’t it just easier to set up the hot corners and flick the mouse to a corner for exposé, another for dashboard, etc.?
jcboy27 on November 3rd, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Hey, it works great for me, but ever since I set it up, something weird is happening: a few application windows (not all) will fade to a transparent state when deselected. Is this related at all? I can’t figure it out for the life of me. Is this happening to anyone else?
Spencer on November 3rd, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I couldn’t get this to work running Snow Leopard (10.6.1) with my Magic Mouse. Loved the idea of Expogesture – exactly what I am expecting from the magic mouse, but it doesn’t seem to work in Snow Leopard.
Roger Lewis on November 4th, 2009 at 1:30 am
I agree with James Andrews. I too would like to see Expose implemented through a two finger click. That too would map closely to how I use Expose on the mighty mouse. Any hacks for during that?
xgman on November 4th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Steermouse is working on this ability.
PK on November 4th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
I can’t seem to figure out how to get the left and right swipes to map to the F3 or F4 keys on the keyboard. What’s the trick? I can’t seem to type into the field. Any advice?
fasa on November 5th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
I’m having the same problem as PK. Would love to figure out how to get the F3 key mapped in expogesture!
EP on November 7th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Help! Neither this nor the Expogesture app mentioned in a separate comment works at the mouse-gesture level. I can access Expose by striking the F1 key, but the mapping hasn’t worked. A left gesture simply scrolls left.
Everything is mapped in System Preferences. It’s as if the gesture is ignoring the map.
(Snow Leopard, 2007 Intel iMac. Magic Mouse purchased separately with Apple’s software update. Am I missing something obvious? I’ll slap myself on your behalf if you can point out my eff-up.)
Onil on November 8th, 2009 at 8:19 am
Hi. Can we swipe down and up ??? and set that gestures to expose and desktop.. and leave right and left to the original ones?? thanks
Jorge on November 11th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Try this app http://blog.boastr.net/!! it enables three finger CLICK on Magic Mouse, lets you increase o decrease tracking speed of the mouse (more than the preference panel, and also has two finger swipe up/down, it also enables several gestures in the glass trackpad Macbooks.
I think is based on multicrutch and I read about it in a spanish blog http://www.applesfera.com
Sorry about the double post
Spencer on November 11th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Nice Jorge!
I’m running a 15″ MacBook Pro (model released in November of ‘08) running Snow Leopard 10.6.2 using the first generation Magic Mouse and http://blog.boastr.net and it is working beautifully.
John Iburg on November 20th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Thank you so much for posting this! By far and away the most elegant solution.
Fun Rob on November 11th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Got it 3 finger gestures working for spaces using SIMBL. I would really like to be able to set four finger gestures. For me, 4 finger swipe up would be ideal for opening spaces (I hate showing the desktop).
andrei on November 18th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
You could try it using the three finger touch like this:
http://blog.mindware.ro/post/246316714/magic-mouse-spaces-or-expose-with-three-finger-tap