Set a Mac Mouse to be Left Handed

Most lefties have adapted to the righty-centric world of computing, but this isn’t necessary on a Mac. The Apple wireless mouse, wired mouses, and even most 3rd party mice have a symmetrical shape, so those that are left handed just need to adjust a few settings in Mac OS X to get the mouse on their dominant side.

Change Mouse Button Setting to be Left Handed

The main thing you want to do is change the “Primary mouse button” to be on the right button instead of the default left:

• Launch System Preferences
• Click on “Mouse”, look for “Primary mouse button:” and select the bullet box next to “Right”

This reverses the behavior of the right-click (alternate click) so it becomes a left-click, so a lefties pointer finger becomes the primary clicker.

Change Trackpad Settings to be Left Handed

For the lefties using a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, you can adjust the literal right-click to be a literal left-click instead:

• Go back to System Preferences and click on “Trackpad”
• Next to “Secondary Click” select “Bottom Left Corner”

The literal right and left clicks are a little less necessary for trackpad users though because, regardless of which is your dominant hand, you can always just use a two-fingered click to activate the ‘right-click’ or secondary click anyway.