# Macintosh, Firefox & Mighty Mouse **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macintosh-firefox-mighty-mouse/339180 "2006-01-09T17:49:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macintosh-firefox-mighty-mouse/339180/1 "2006-01-09T17:49:21Z")
I got an Apple [Mighty Mouse](http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72503/wo/Gm3GUBehmLDL3w3lVif1WeVfWNt/1.SLID?mco=392EC8B&nplm=MA086LL%2FA) for Christmas. In most applications, the scroll ball works great. I love being able to scroll sideways as well as up and down. In Firefox, though, if I have even the slightest movement to the left as I scroll vertically, it jumps back to the previous page in my browsing history. I’ve looked through the Firefox preferences and the Mouse settings in the System preferences and can’t find a way to modify this behavior. Does anyone know how to fix this? (I know someone’s going to jump in and tell me to learn to scroll less sloppily, but I have big hands and the Mighty Mouse is _tiny_. It’s hard to get precise vertical scrolling.) ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macintosh-firefox-mighty-mouse/339180/2 "2006-01-09T21:10:35Z")
[Better link](http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=MA086LL/A&cid=AOSA10000011166&siteID=ukRUajDh%2AKU-I%2FMiKDAhkQ%2AWmZvnl6cg5w) As for the question, can’t help yuh. Looks miserable, though – Apple reinventing the wheel, indeed. (I wish Logitech would introduce a Bluetooth Trackman Marble – or even a wireless version with a notebook-scale receiver). ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macintosh-firefox-mighty-mouse/339180/3 "2006-01-10T03:03:44Z")
From [this page](http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050821141856688&lsrc=osxh): 1. In Firefox’s location bar, type **about:config**. 2. In the filter box that comes up, type in **mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.action**. Double-click on the entry and change the number to **0**. 3. In the filter box that comes up, type in **mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.numlines**. Double-click on the entry and change the number to **1**. I’m not sure if that works because I don’t have a Mighty Mouse, but try it and see. If it doesn’t work, try changing the **1** in the third step to a **-1** instead. If that still doesn’t work, try the other solution (from the linked-to page). ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macintosh-firefox-mighty-mouse/339180/4 "2006-01-13T19:46:20Z")
Thank you, thank you! I’ll give that a shot when I get home this evening and let you know if it worked. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@Stan\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Doubt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macintosh-firefox-mighty-mouse/339180/5 "2006-01-14T01:11:29Z")
Please forgive the slight hijack. Anyone know how to enable middle clicking to open link in new tab in Firefox on Macintosh? Microsoft Optical USB mouse. Intellimouse software allows different button profiles in different applications, but I can’t figure out how to set up the middle click like in WinXP. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macintosh-firefox-mighty-mouse/339180/6 "2006-01-14T01:35:49Z")
If the previous suggestion don’t work, go to your system preferences and look at appearance. If you have “Click in the scroll bar to: Jump to the next page” change it to “jump to here” I had a similar problem in a different application and that fixed it. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/macintosh-firefox-mighty-mouse/339180/7 "2006-01-14T03:04:10Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > 1. In Firefox’s location bar, type **about:config**. > 2. In the filter box that comes up, type in **mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.action**. Double-click on the entry and change the number to **0**. > 3. In the filter box that comes up, type in **mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.numlines**. Double-click on the entry and change the number to **1**. > > I’m not sure if that works because I don’t have a Mighty Mouse, but try it and see. If it doesn’t work, try changing the **1** in the third step to a **-1** instead. If that still doesn’t work, try the other solution (from the linked-to page). This worked wonderfully! The second change (your step 3) determines the scrolling speed. A “3” worked well for me. A “-1” makes the horizontal scrolling go backward.