switch spaces by tilting your mousewheel in osx

i've found this method to be the fastest + most effective way to use and move between osx's virtual desktops. it requires than less energy than even the best keyboard shortcut. it works in mac osx leopard and snow leopard. it has not been tested in lion yet.

first, it requires a specific layout in spaces. arrange three spaces in a horizontal row. this way you only ever need to advance one step to get to any of them:

second, using the application controllermate, you can attach the tilt of your mousewheel to the key combination you use to advance one space in either direction. it took me a while to figure it out, but this configuration works wonderfully:

so, wtf is going on in this screenshot?

the black tab is the AC pan on the mouse. there is no ‘button’ for tilting the scroll wheel so instead you set it to look for a certain value input.

the blue tabs state -1 is the value when tilted left, +1 when tilted right.

underneath that, on the green tab, is something to set only if you have conflicts with other settings on the mouse. set it to .50s if you experience this.

the bottom, gray tabs state the key commands to activate each spaces action.

<small>tl;dr: make your screen look like the picture.</small>

and that's it. now you should be able to flick your mouse wheel left or right to access your spaces.

controllermate isn't free but it's pretty kickass and worth it for this single configuration alone.

<small>my mouse: i use (exclusively) a logitech g5 gaming mouse. the first of the two side-thumb buttons shows the desktop and the second does the expose show-all windows-thing. this config has suited me perfectly for years.</small>

<small>original post: humachine.us/post/118454625/problem...</small>

update for Mavericks: there is a key combination to switch between spaces, which can only be set up in a horizontal fashion now. just make sure to use the new key combination in ControllerMate.

one nice change is that this scrollwheel trick now works independently per display, i.e. if you have two monitors, you can click between desktops on just one at a time instead of both as it used to be.

one bummer (but understandable) change is that you can't rotate through your desktops anymore. get to the end, have to go back.

this has also been tested on the newer logitech g500s mouse with great results.