Peripheral maker Kensington Technology is now offering
a new public beta version of its MouseWorks software used to program the company’s line of multibutton mice and trackball devices.
According to Kensington, improvements in this released include:
Keystrokes. Now any button can send out a keystroke, key combination, or sequence of keystrokes. Application Sets. MouseWorks now remembers distinct settings for as many different applications as you’d like to configure, and automatically switches settings when you switch applications. System Preferences integration. MouseWorks is now a pane within the System Preferences control panel, rather than being a stand-alone application. (Note to the curious: Yes, it is a genuine Cocoa preference pane, and not merely a shortcut to a Carbon application.) More DirectLaunch options. If you have a Turbo Mouse Pro (wired or wireless), the six DirectLaunch buttons at the top can now be programmed to perform any MouseWorks action, not merely launching web pages and files. Note, however, that these button actions are still global, unlike the standard mouse buttons which can have application-specific settings. Button 4 and Button 5 responses. MouseWorks can now send out “raw” Button 4 and Button 5 responses, which are used by certain games. More Aqua. MouseWorks now makes more extensive use of transparency, sheets and other Aqua interface elements. The software has several limitations and known issues that Kensington hopes to address in future versions of the software. It’s public beta software, so be prepared to put up with some shortcomings if you choose to use it.
More details are available from Kensington’s Web site.