[havyn]

please god, oh, i mean steve, tell me why there is STILL NO FREAKING BUTTON TWO ON THE POWERBOOK?????????

i refuse to purchase another piece of hardware that runs OSX without this...it is just ignorant not to include it.

i just had to vent. flame away.

ps- i nearly chucked my 12" rev. b across the room last night in frustration...

[drive-thru]

Originally posted by Millennium, from this thread, generously provided by The Search Feature :
The reason is to force all developers to make all features of their apps available via left-clicks in some manner, be it through menus, buttons, or whatever. That doesn't have to be the preferred way to access those items, but by making sure developers can't assume that all teir users have more than one button, they have to think a bit more about how they lay things out.

The reason for this, in turn, is usability. Believe it or not, most users find multibutton mouse confusing. And why not: they're two unmarked buttons which do totally different things. But when an interface designer gets lazy and makes it impossible to access certain features of the app without using both of these buttons, the user gets confused. Rightclicking was meant to be used only as shortcuts to functionality that could also be accessed by other means; it's a convenience feature, not a full-blown interface aspect in its own right, kinda like ejecting disks by dragging them to the Trash. But on platforms where you can assume more than one mouse button, developers, being too technically savvy for their own good when it comes to making interfaces, get lazy and forget about this; I've been guilty of this myself in my own few Windows development escapades. It's why, when I do Mac development, I drop from my usual four-button trackball to a one-button mouse; if I can't use it with that, I'm doing something wrong.

[siflippant]

[Mafia]

Originally posted by havyn:
please god, oh, i mean steve, tell me why there is STILL NO FREAKING BUTTON TWO ON THE POWERBOOK?????????

i refuse to purchase another piece of hardware that runs OSX without this...it is just ignorant not to include it.

i just had to vent. flame away.

ps- i nearly chucked my 12" rev. b across the room last night in frustration...

i honestly don't find the onboard mouse on the powerbook to need a second button.(now the pro mouse is a diff. story) but buy a mouse they are cheap and WORK GREAT

[emark]

Have to agree. How inconventient to have to reach for the Ctrl button to activate contextual menus, etc...

I don't worry about it at my desk with a Kensington Track Ball (my 3rd generation, wouldn't be w/o one) but when portable with the ibook it is tedious to be without a right-mouse single handed click.

[Fellow2000]

I used uControl to change the bottom enter button into the right click function, much easier if you are right handed. A right button would be nice, but this comes close.

[vinster]

I hope Apple never makes a laptop with two-button trackpad. I find the second button very awkward in a trackpad configuration.

I like having a second button on a mouse, but I wouldn't want one built-in to my laptop.

[tavilach]

SideTrack.

Set top right and/or bottom right corners as right click.

Done.

[Randman]

Originally posted by tavilach:
SideTrack.

Set top right and/or bottom right corners as right click.

Done.

We have a winner.

[Dr.Michael]

Originally posted by havyn:
please god, oh, i mean steve, tell me why there is STILL NO FREAKING BUTTON TWO ON THE POWERBOOK?????????

i refuse to purchase another piece of hardware that runs OSX without this...it is just ignorant not to include it.

i just had to vent. flame away.

ps- i nearly chucked my 12" rev. b across the room last night in frustration...

Deep Thought is still working hard on this question. Please come back in 7 million years.

[havyn]

the fact is that apple shouldn't themselves have right-click functions then...it goes against what they are trying to accomplish! even though you can access all functions through another means, it is MUCH easier to right-click ON THE OBJECT you are trying to perform the action on, rather than trying to left-click it, then go to some menu or other non-standard place where you could possibly find the item you are looking for. context menus have become a large part of modern interfaces, and to spit in the face of them is to not advance. that long quote about usability is from 2001, and it was out of date even then, probably even in the mid 1990s. how is a menu, which always exists with the same functions, some greyed-out, easier to understand than one that provides actions specific to the object you are focused on?

user: 'oh, well that action isnt available...hmmm...maybe if i click on THIS object it will work? no? damn, how about THIS one?'

baffling.

[JKT]

They do have a "right-click" button - it's called the control key.

[Randman]

There's plenty of options if you want right-click functions. When mobile with my PB, I use the trackpad and sidetrack, or the keyboard configuration.
When at home and at my desk, I plug in my external keyboard and Kensington wireless Trackman and make full use of all 7 buttons.
I, personally, like having the choice whether or not to use right-click functions.
I think most people who clamour for it are switchers and think that's the only way to operate.

[ivi]

one thing I was wondering about for some time is how to save an image from the web page without second button?

[drive-thru]

Originally posted by ivi:
one thing I was wondering about for some time is how to save an image from the web page without second button?

Well, you want to grab the image from the web and put it on your desktop. So...grab it (click and hold) and drag it to your desktop. Simple

[tavilach]

Originally posted by Randman:
There's plenty of options if you want right-click functions. When mobile with my PB, I use the trackpad and sidetrack, or the keyboard configuration.
When at home and at my desk, I plug in my external keyboard and Kensington wireless Trackman and make full use of all 7 buttons.
I, personally, like having the choice whether or not to use right-click functions.
I think most people who clamour for it are switchers and think that's the only way to operate.

I totally agree. I'm a switcher, and I do admit that it's a bit frustrating...

...and yet, I still think it's better to have one button. Think about the many laptops today that not only have two buttons, but have little scrolling pads, two extra buttons, etc. That's what happens when you ignore simplicity! I just did a little experiment with right clicking, too, and I found that it really is unnecessary (I'm just used to it).

(Note: I noticed that the keyboard shortcuts are not written out in context menus...why not?)

Right clicking on the desktop:

New Folder => File -> New Folder (Shift Command N)
Get Info => File -> Get Info (Command I)
Change Desktop Background... => Open System Preferences, View -> Desktop & Screen Saver (This one takes a bit longer, but who changes their desktop that much?)
Disable Folder Actions => Open Finder, Applications -> Folder Actions Setup (This one was hard to find, but most people don't even know what it is...for those who do know about it, it's in an obvious location)
Configure Folder Actions... => See Above
Attach a Folder Action... => See Above

Right clicking on the background of this web page:

View Source => View -> View Source (Option Command V) (If this isn't the most obvious thing in the world, you're braindead)
Save Page As... => File -> Save As... (Command S)
Print Page... => FIle -> Print... (Command P)

Let's look at a program like iTunes, when you right click on a song in your library:

iTunes Help => Help -> iTunes and Music Store Help (Command ?)
Get Info => File -> Get Info (Command I)
Show Song File => File -> Show Song File (Command R)
My Rating => File -> Get Info, Options (Or just right there in your library)
Reset Play Count => I can't seem to find this one, but I'm sure it's hidden somewhere. Note that this is a feature that people would only use every few months, if ever.
Convert Selection to AAC => Advanced -> Convert Selection to AAC
Play Next in Party Shuffle => Drag it into the beginning of your Party Shuffle
Add to Party Shuffle => Drag it into the end of your Party Shuffle
Playlists => I'm not sure about this one, but it's a rather unnecessary feature
Copy => Edit -> Copy (Command C)
Clear => Edit -> Clear

As you can see, you can do most things rather easily without right clicking (I have yet to figure out what's up with Reset Play Count and Playlists, though). Only things that you would rarely do take a bit longer without right clicking. Thought definitely goes into this.

Let's take a non-Apple program, like Adium. These are the options that you get when you right click on someone's screen name.

View Info => Contact -> View Contact's Info (Command I)
View Logs => Contact -> View [contact]'s Logs (Shift Command L)
Invite to play game => File -> New Game
Send File => Send File To [contact] (Shift Command F)
Invite to Chat => Contact -> Invite to Chat
Delete => Contact -> Delete Selection (Command Delete)

Note how most of the locations of these items are not hard to guess. In fact, they are quite intuitive.

Compare this to Windows, where you're forced to right click every two seconds (because not only are the locations nonintuitive, but many things can only be accessed via right clicking). Linux even takes it to a new level with blackbox and fluxbox. As fun as blackbox and fluxbox are, they're just giant context menus, and that's not the way a refined OS should operate.

[JKT]

FWIW, as far as I am aware, all browsers on the Mac will pop-up their contextual menu if you click e.g. the image you want and hold that click for about a second - no second button (or control key press) needed. However, as has been pointed out already... this is a Mac where drag and drop is the king.

[Randman]

Deja menu is another great freeware app. Gives you the control click/menu bar options anywhere on the page. Great when you're involved in something and don't want to scroll up or anything.