MagicPrefs Frequently Asked Questions

MagicPrefs Frequently Asked Questions
08/01/11 22.00
Frequently Asked Questions

How do i fix my problem ? (#0) How do i install MagicPrefs ? (#1) How do i uninstall MagicPrefs ? (#2) Why is MagicPrefs free ? (#3) Will MagicPrefs remain free ? (#4) What features will be added to MagicPrefs ? (#5) What features will be removed from MagicPrefs ? (#6) Will this or that feature be added to MagicPrefs? (#7) Why does this X gesture does not work ? (#8) How exactly are the presets applied ? (#9) How do i assign this X action in OSX to a gesture ? (#10) What exactly does "potentially hard to use mean" ? (#11) How can i use the Touch Sensitivity slider to tweak gestures ?
(#12)
Will MagicPrefs affect my macbook's trackpad or other pointing devices ? (#13) I have multiple magic mice, which will work with MagicPrefs ?
(#14)
Can MagicPrefs have any impact on the battery usage ? (#15) Why did my left clicks stopped working after i overridden the "Two finger click" gesture ? (#16) How can i to add X shortcut that is already assigned to something in OSX ? (#17) I am left handed, is MagicPrefs for right hand usage only ? (#18) Do i have to keep my fingers exactly as shown in the hover images ? (#19) The acceleration curve of the mouse is bothering me, can't it be changed ? (#20) What does the "Found X applications which could impact functionality" message exactly mean ? (#21) What does the "Your operating system is missing the X keyboard shortcut" message exactly mean ? (#22) What is the MagicMenu ? (#23) What information do i need to send for a bug report ? (#24) Why does the dashboard action not dismiss it when shown ?
(#25)
Why are PPC machines not supported anymore ? (#26) Why do i get a "No Shortcut Enabled For Switch Space..." message (#27) Why do the actions for expose spaces etc have a different behavior than shortcuts ? (#28) Why do i get "Update Error! An error occurred while downloading the update. Please try again later" (#29)
How do i fix my problem ?

Select the Default preset, click the cog wheel > Import settings from the preset "I broke it, it broke, not sure what i did, not sure what to do, it is acting strange" if this is you the above will fix it in most cases
How do i install MagicPrefs ?

No installation is required, just double-click MagicPrefs.app to run it .
How do i uninstall MagicPrefs ?

In the folowing order : Quit MagicPrefs then drag MagicPrefs.app to trash, rightclick the MagicPrefs icon in > System Preferences and click "Remove MagicPrefs Preference Pane", do the same for Magic Menu. Technically there is still one more file left on your machine, the file
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containing the settings of the application, it can be removed with finder or by typing the line below in terminal and pressing enter rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.vladalexa.MagicPrefs.plist
Why is MagicPrefs free ?

Because limited functionality is a common complaint for the magic mouse, so i want everyone with a magic mouse to be able to get MagicPrefs. Because it's apple merit, their great operating system made MagicPrefs possible, so did their great mouse.
Will MagicPrefs remain free ?

Yes.
What features will be added to MagicPrefs ?

Anything that is not already available from Apple in the operating system. Duplicating functionality is both confusing and useless in the majority of the cases.
What features will be removed from MagicPrefs ?

Features like the ones in MagicPrefs that apple adds to the operating system.
Will this or that feature be added to MagicPrefs?

A lot of the features requested will be added, but only when they fit nicely within the program. I developed MagicPrefs from the start not only for my own use, but also with the aim of making it easy to use by Magic Mouse owners everywhere.
Why does this X gesture does not work ?

Some gestures are more challenging to perform than others, try different approaches and different sensitivity settings. Some gestures also might also be a bit harder to trigger as a result of making sure they are not triggered by mistake, a lot of weeks of testing is required to perfect them.
How exactly are the presets applied ?

A preset is a snapshot of settings, you can apply a preset by importing it's settings into the MagicPrefs settings, the MagicPrefs settings are what you are seeing in the preference pane and are applied globally. However presets can be also used without importing the settings from them, by assigning a application for a preset that application ignores the global settings and uses the settings from the preset it is associated with.
http://magicprefs.com/faq.html
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How do i assign this X action in OSX to a gesture ?

Any action in OSX that can be triggered from a keyboard shortcut, or launching a application can be assigned to a gesture in MagicPrefs. Create a custom action for it by pressing "Custom Actions", selecting a application, applescript or keyboard target, then assign your newly created action to a gesture.
What exactly does "potentially hard to use mean" ?

The areas tagged with that could mean one or more of the following: The gestures could be physically challenging to perform . The gestures could be performed unwontedly too often during usual mouse handling movements as opposed to a trackpad that is only touched to perform a gesture. The algorithm determining if a gesture has been performed is not perfected and it could either filter too many gestures as accidental, or filter too few gestures as accidental.
How can i use the Touch Sensitivity slider to tweak gestures ?

Usually the Touch Sensitivity slider works best in the middle position however if you experience accidental triggering of gestures, or are unable to trigger gestures every time you should play with it. Let's say you experience accidental triggering of gestures, drag the slider all the way to "Extreme", gestures will now be harder to trigger, so start moving the slider one notch (every minute or so of usage) to the right until you achieve you balance between ease of trigger and miss-triggering. If a gesture is too hard to trigger drag the slider all the way to "Relaxed", gestures will now be too easy to trigger, so start moving the slider one notch (every minute or so of usage) to the left until you achieve you balance between ease of trigger and miss-triggering .
Will MagicPrefs affect my macbook's trackpad or other pointing devices ?

Nope.
I have multiple magic mice, which will work with MagicPrefs ?

If you have multiple Magic Mouse devices paired on your system the settings will be applied only to the favorite one. Navigate to > System Preferences > Bluetooth > select the device > press the cog wheel > Show More Info > press the cog wheel > Add to Favorites.
Can MagicPrefs have any impact on the battery usage ?

No, as stated on the website MagicPrefs monitors the driver, that implies the fact that it can not change the way the device itself operates. However MagicPrefs can change the way you operate the device, granted with more gestures you might be touching the mouse more but that could not equate to more impact than say 0.01% . The only thing that is changed as opposed to monitored is the tracking speed, but i am 99% certain changing the OSX tracking
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speed does not change the optics in the device itself. Typically with 14hour/day usage patterns i recharge the ni-mh rechargeable batteries i use with my mouse twice a month, same as before i made MagicPrefs (for me it is a nice upgrade from my Logitech Air that could only handle 10 hours before needing a recharge).
Why did my left clicks stopped working after i overriden the "Two finger click" gesture ?
By default even without MagicPrefs running OSX performs a Left Click when clicking with two fingers, it does this on mighty mouse too. This is because 50% of the time when we want to do a left click we touch the mouse with two fingers. When you overridden this you effectively made it impossible for you to left click with both fingers touching the mouse.
How can i to add X shortcut that is already assigned to something in OSX ?

Press and release each key at a time in the "Manage Keybard Targets" window.
I am left handed, is MagicPrefs for right hand usage only ?

Nope, there is nothing left or right hand specific in the MagicPrefs functions, everything can be swaped around It is only the default setting for "two finger click" and the visual image guides that are from a right hand perspective Also see the next FAQ item, "Do i have to keep my fingers exactly as shown in the hover images ?"
Do i have to keep my fingers exactly as shown in the hover images ?

Nope The visual guide images you see while hovering the gestures represent one of the many possible positions for the finger. So you do not have to have your fingers in the same positions that are shown, it is only the direction and the number of fingers itself that matters The images with the red zones are the ones that show the position limits for a gesture, not the images with the blue finger representations.
The acceleration curve of the mouse is bothering me, can't it be changed ?

No, the only thing you can do is increase the tracking speed to dampen the effects of the curve. Since OSX 10.4 (Tiger) the function to set the acceleration curve (NXSetMouseScaling) has been removed entirely from OSX. Any application that is claiming to change the acceleration curve is most likely doing nothing but set the tracking speed to a high value.
What does the "Found X applications which could impact functionality" message exactly mean ?
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It is nothing to worry about, just something to keep in mind shall you experience strange behavior. Typically applications listed in this message were found running on the system in a way that could in rare cases conflict with MagicPrefs. In most cases everything should be ok, but if something goes wrong you have some more information at your disposal
What does the "Your operating system is missing the X keyboard shortcut" message exactly mean ?
It means the shortcut for the named action is not defined, MagicPrefs relies on the OSX shortcuts for some actions. Typically you can fix this by going to > System Preferences > Keyboard and press Restore Defaults or just change/enable/toggle the shortcut named. In some rare cases if this does not work you should also log off then back on or even delete Library/Preferences/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist then Restore Defaults Worth noting is that the OSX keyboard shortcuts have nothing to do with the hardware keyboard shortcuts that are printed on keys and triggered directly or in conjunction with FN
What is the MagicMenu ?

MagicMenu is a menu like the right click menu, but unlike it with you handle the magic menu trough finger movements and touches instead of moving the mouse. More details about it are on the MagicMenu (magicmenu.html) page.
What information do i need to send for a bug report ?

1-Summary: 2-Steps to Reproduce: 3-Expected Results: 4-Actual Results: 5-Regression: 6-Logs: Perform the next steps to get the logs : Open /Applications/Extra/Terminal.app Copy and Paste the next lines in it: zip -m ~/Desktop/mm_log.zip ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/MagicPrefs* Press enter zip -m ~/Desktop/mm_log.zip ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MagicPrefs* Press enter zip ~/Desktop/mm_log.zip ~/Library/Preferences/com.vladalexa.MagicPrefs.plist Press enter syslog -k Sender eq MagicPrefs | zip ~/Desktop/mm_log.zip Press enter Send me a e-mail to (valexa [at] gmail [dot] com) with the mm_log archive on your desktop attached. Delete the archive.
Why does the dashboard action not dismiss it when shown ?

This is a issue with shortcut independent dashboard triggering. To fix it you can create a Custom Keyboard Action for your dashboard shortcut and use that instead of the magicprefs built-in dashboard action.
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Why are PPC machines not supported anymore ?

Properly supporting PPC at times doubles even triples the development time Furthermore even when i find time to invest into PPC support i have no way to debug potential issues due to a lack of a PPC machine, consider donating one/for one if you want PPC support but i can not guarantee it because the time issue still remains. Currently MagicPrefs is not recommended for usage on PPC machine because of potential impact on CPU resources of the machine, crashes and hangs.
Why do i get a "No Shortcut Enabled For Switch Space..." message

You get that message when you are triggering a gesture that is enabled and assigned a Switch Space action but Switch Space shortcuts are disabled. To enable them go to > System Preferences > Expose & Spaces > "To switch between spaces" and select something like "^ Arrow Keys" instead of "-" in the drop box, restart MagicPrefs. You could also just uncheck the gesture in cause.
Why do the actions for expose, spaces etc have a different behavior than shortcuts ?
The built in expose actions have a slightly different behavior and are there for compatibility, that is they work on all systems even those where the keyboard shortcuts do not. Create your own custom keyboard actions for the expose shortcuts and you will experience the behavior you want, like exposing windows while in spaces switch mode.
Why do i get "Update Error! An error occurred while downloading the update. Please try again later"
You are trying to update from a MagicPrefs version older than 1.5.4, due to a bug in the update framework updates are not served to those versions. You need to update manually by downloading the application from the website, for more details on the bug see my blog post on it
(http://blog.vladalexa.com/2009/12/13/what-the-sparkle-docs-wont-tell-you/)
(http://twitter.com/magicprefs) MagicPrefs
magicprefs (http://twitter.com/magicprefs)
@iamski (http://twitter.com/iamski) the conflict is because obviously a two finger tap to right click is a two finger click if two fingers are still touching afterwards
2 days ago (http://twitter.com/magicprefs/status/23049784247980032) reply (http://twitter.com/?status=@magicprefs%20&in_reply_to_status_id=23049784247980032&in_reply_to=magicprefs)
@iamski (http://twitter.com/iamski) trackpad two finger tap to right click works for me when a two finger click gesture is enabled in MP however it conflicts some times
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@lrlee (http://twitter.com/lrlee) only a beta at this point, no release.
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@iamski (http://twitter.com/iamski) hover over the yellow notice, it will say "Turn Tap To Click off in the system's trackpad preferences in order to assign custom ..."
@iamski (http://twitter.com/iamski) no, not clear what you mean, two finger tap right clicks for me after enabling a two finger click
MagicPrefs2 beta 6 now available at https://groups.google.co... (https://groups.google.com/d/topic/magicprefs/QLfdVGxoGCQ/discussion)

MagicPrefs beta 5 now available at https://groups.google.co... (https://groups.google.com/d/topic/magicprefs/SN4iHx02CRE/discussion)

@amparose (http://twitter.com/amparose) http://getsatisfaction.c... (http://getsatisfaction.com/magicprefs/topics/macbook_trackpad_and_magicprefs)

@James_Random (http://twitter.com/James_Random) the twitter features do not work in 1.9.x since their API changes in October, will be fixed in MagicPrefs 2
@bzqi (http://twitter.com/bzqi) there might be a final 1.9.4 release before 2.0 but as soon as 2.0 is released there will be no 1.9.x release anymore.
(http://twitter.com)
Join the conversation (http://twitter.com/magicprefs)
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MagicPrefs Frequently Asked Questions

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MagicPrefs Frequently Asked Questions

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MagicPrefs Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i fix my problem ?

How do i install MagicPrefs ?

How do i uninstall MagicPrefs ?