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I've recently moved into an office that has standardized on Apple computers and have run into something that I have used with Linux that I know is going to drive me nuts on the Mac. I use a Logitech MarbleMouse, a trackball that does not have a mouse wheel. On Linux, there is a configuration option (EmulateWheel and EmulateWheelButton in evdev) that let's you press a button and have mouse/trackball motion act like a scroll wheel. Is there anything equivalent on Mac?

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    Your question actually contains two question (of which the latter is maybe answered here or here). Could you pose it as two separate questions to keep the site organised?
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Aug 9, 2013 at 16:25
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    That should be cleaner.
    – EmeraldD.
    Aug 9, 2013 at 18:43
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    I think it's disgusting that to this day Logitech don't offer this most basic feature in their own software for Macs - it's almost rage inducing. I've been using the mouse for nearly 10 years and their software has been updated during this time and yet they seem to be systematically ignoring the troves of support requests about this issue. It's weird, frankly. Glad we have a solution at last, and one likely more flexible than Logitech would ever give us.
    – Nathan Hornby
    Jul 31, 2015 at 13:48

6 Answers 6

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You can use KeyRemap4MacBook.

Scroll by moving the pointer while holding the secondary button:

<autogen>__PointingRelativeToScroll__ PointingButton::RIGHT</autogen>

Scroll by moving the the pointer while holding F1:

<autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F1, KeyCode::VK_MODIFIER_EXTRA1</autogen>
<autogen>__PointingRelativeToScroll__ PointingButton::NONE, ModifierFlag::EXTRA1</autogen>

Scroll with F1 and F2:

<autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F1, KeyCode::VK_MOUSEKEY_SCROLL_UP</autogen>
<autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F2, KeyCode::VK_MOUSEKEY_SCROLL_DOWN</autogen>

Scroll by moving the pointer while holding the primary and secondary buttons:

<autogen>__SimultaneousKeyPresses__ PointingButton::LEFT, PointingButton::RIGHT,
KeyCode::VK_CONFIG_SYNC_KEYDOWNUP_notsave_pointing_relative_to_scroll</autogen>

See the source for the key code values and predefined settings.

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    This was dead on! Pointing Device -> CursorMove to ScrollWheel -> MouseButton4+CursorMove To ScrollWheel in combination with Reverse Vertical Scrolling matched my old settings perfectly!
    – EmeraldD.
    Aug 12, 2013 at 16:38
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    It is not clear to me why answer contains HTML, when the program in question KeyRemap4MacBook is fully GUI as far as I can see. -- Could you please add some comments on this HTML is to be used in KeyRemap4MacBook?
    – zrajm
    Apr 25, 2014 at 9:05
  • @zrajm It's XML that you're meant to add to ~/Library/Application Support/KeyRemap4MacBook/private.xml. See the first link in the answer or osxnotes.net/keyremap4macbook.html.
    – Lri
    Apr 25, 2014 at 9:42
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    Ah. Great! (However, you should edit your answer to include that information, otherwise your answer will be useless when/if the link goes dead.)
    – zrajm
    Apr 25, 2014 at 11:08
  • I wish I could upvote this answer 100 times. I've periodically looked for a solution to this issue for what must be around 8 years (!!) having been a long time lover of the marble mouse. After recently trying the Slimblade (and hating the feel, but loving the scroll) I renewed my hunt. This software is awesome full stop - but the perfect solution to this issue. Thank you!
    – Nathan Hornby
    Jul 31, 2015 at 13:24
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You can map scrolling to pressing a key and moving the cursor from the GUI!

Here, I map the scrollwheel action to pressing the Fn key and moving the cursor. Notice the nice option that enables this behavior for both horizontal and vertical scrolling.

Karabiner GUI screenshot

By the way, KeyRemap4MacBook is now called Karabiner. https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/

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    Hi - I've downloaded Karabiner and I don't see any menu that looks like the one you've displayed here. Can someone update this?
    – Joel
    Dec 7, 2018 at 18:20
  • yea, I think that the menu has changed in new versions :-(
    – Micah Stubbs
    Mar 13, 2019 at 20:17
  • i got it working with this on the new karabiner. thanks for the lead on where to look tho! works great. ke-complex-modifications.pqrs.org/#mouse_motion_to_scroll
    – Sterling Camden
    Jun 22, 2021 at 22:21
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This seems to work with Karabiner-Elements again.

You must "Import more rules from the Internet (open a web browser)," get "Change mouse motion to scroll," and "Enable" it. This adds the ability to hold a mouse button to change the mouse ball into a scroll wheel while the button is held down. You can then change the scrolling speed and feel by adjusting both "speed" under "Parameters" and adjusting "Scrolling speed" in the regular MacOS Mouse System Preferences Pane.

The speed, smoothness, and momentum of the scrolling feels a little weird; I think it's related to the difference in sensation from a regular scroll wheel which kind of clicks as it's scrolled.

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You can achieve this with the SteerMouse software, by mapping a mouse button to "Scroll", which will then toggle this behavior.

SteerMouse preference pane

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Since Karabiner-Elements no longer seems to have this functionality, Smart Scroll is the new way. Just use Mouse Button 4 with the "grab scroll" option. Unfortunately scrolling will stop when the cursor hits a screen edge, so it's not true scrolling, and Photoshop doesn't support it for alt-scroll zooming.

http://marcmoini.com/sx_en.html

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  • Karabiner seems to have this ability again restored.
    – timeSmith
    Oct 9, 2019 at 9:36
  • Enabling "Scroll without moving cursor" fixes the above issue.
    – aklingam
    Dec 20, 2020 at 8:09
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Now Karabiner has an option for Logitech Marble Mouse enter image description here

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