Why You Need 9 Buttons Mouse?

Basic mouse today has 3 buttons: left, middle (wheel), right. Many mouses today have 5 buttons, by adding 2 extra buttons for the thumb, usually for browser backward/forward page.

But many gaming mouses sport 7 or more buttons. Why do you need it?

In order of importance:

• 3 standard {left, middle, right} buttons.
• 1 button for browser back.
• 1 button for closing tab. (【Ctrl+w】)
• 2 buttons for prev/next tab. This is incredibly useful.

That's 7 buttons already.

To be pampered, you'll also want:

• 2 buttons to switch previous/next window.
• 2 buttons for direct {copy, paste}.
• 1 button to close window. (【Alt+F4】) Make sure this button won't be easily clicked by accident.

That's 12 buttons.

Then, there's desire. You desire:

• Tilt wheel. Once in a few days, you need to side scroll a large image, or view code snippet inside a tiny scrollable inner window. Tilt wheel is easier and faster than dragging the side scroll bar. Tilt wheel counts as 2 buttons.

{Left, Right} side-scrolling isn't needed often. So, a more efficient setup is to set the {Left, Right} tilt as 2 buttons.

• Logitech's Spin Wheel. This is especially important if you use Linux, because X11 doesn't support accelerated scroll. 〔►see Logitech Mouse with Spin Wheel〕

• DPI Resolution switch. Usually, there are 2 buttons for this. This is quite important in some games. For example, in first-person shooter games, when you snipe someone far away, reducing resolution helps aiming significantly. If you do a lot 3D modeling work, it can be also very useful.

Best Hundred-Buttons Mouse

There are many mouses with 7+ buttons. See: Mouse Reviews

Tips for Button Assignment

There are more commands for operating a {computer, app, game} than there are mouse buttons. So, you'll have to make some choice. Here's some tips in button assignment.

First of all, the most important tip for assigning buttons is to put the most frequently used function to the most easy-to-press buttons.

What is most need command depends on the game/app you play, and your own preference.

For general office work, the most needed commands are, roughly from most needed to least:

1. Standard left click.
2. Standard right click.
3. Double click. (but you should set your system to use single click instead. See: Windows: Single-click Open File.)
4. Close current tab. (a button on mouse is better than moving mouse and aiming at the tiny close ❌ mark, or moving hand to keyboard to press 【Ctrl+w】)
5. Switch to {previous, next} tab.
6. Switch to last window/app.
7. Single click to paste.
8. Single click to copy.
9. Go Back previous page.

Here's some tips.

• The command for forward page history is comparatively less used. This is by default mapped to a button on mouse. That would be a waste of a button.
• The left/right tilt wheel by default is used to scroll left/right. But that's not used much. So, set tilt to something you use more often, such as copy/paste, or previous/next tab.
• The middle click is often hard to press, but in browsers it can be used to open a link in new tap. Quite useful. So, chose a easy-button to do middle click.