MacOS – Use middle mouse button (scroll wheel) as Force Touch

bettertouchtoolbluetoothmacosmouse

I downloaded BetterTouchTool in an attempt to configure my non-branded Bluetooth mouse so I could use the buttons on the side of it as forward and backward – OS X has no facility for this and my mouse didn't come with any configuration software.

I'm using a 2015 MacBook Pro on OS 10.11.4.

I've used USB Overdrive in the past (I uninstalled it as I found it a bit buggy) but it configured my mouse so that clicking the scroll wheel would act in exactly the same way as a Force Click on the trackpad would – I could preview files in Finder, preview web pages in Safari and I could use the dictionary Look Up feature as well. It was really superb, but I can't afford to lay down £15 to buy the full version so it won't hassle me.

Is there any way to configure my mouse to behave like this from within BetterTouchTool? I got really used to it and it was a great feature to have! I can't seem to find any options that replicate this functionality within BTT though 🙁

Cheers,
Dan

Best Answer

I managed to work it out: if you use BTT to map clicking the scroll wheel to the shortcut + ctrl + D , it will show the dictionary lookup box for words, but also allows you to preview files in Finder (like pressing space) or Force Clicking a web link. I had this already configured in USB Overdrive, which explains why it worked before.

Hope this helps someone :)