First of all, thank you for BetterTouchTool — it’s an incredibly powerful and well-designed tool. I use it daily with a Magic Mouse.
I wanted to ask about one specific limitation I’ve noticed regarding zoom behavior.
There is an app called Linear Mouse which provides an extremely smooth and consistent zoom experience using Option + Scroll on Magic Mouse. What makes it special is that the zoom feels like a native macOS pinch gesture:
very smooth (continuous, no steps)
works system-wide
works consistently across almost all apps (Preview, Safari, Affinity, Photoshop, etc.)
In BetterTouchTool, I tried all available alternatives:
Scroll Wheel → Zoom In / Out
Pinch gestures
Continuous triggers
Cursor-relative zoom
While these work in some apps, they:
do not feel truly smooth (step-based instead of continuous)
behave inconsistently across apps
seem to emulate zoom rather than send a real system-level pinch gesture
From my understanding, Linear Mouse may be hooking into macOS at a lower level and generating a true system pinch event, whereas BTT simulates zoom actions at a higher level.
My questions are:
Is it technically possible for BTT to generate a real macOS pinch gesture event (similar to trackpad pinch), not just simulated zoom actions?
If not currently possible, is this due to macOS limitations or sandboxing restrictions?
Would it be feasible in the future to add a “native smooth pinch zoom” mode similar to Linear Mouse’s Option+Scroll behavior?
This feature would be incredibly valuable for designers and power users who rely on Magic Mouse for precise zooming without holding modifier keys.
Thank you very much for your time and for continuing to develop such an amazing tool.
Thank you for the screenshots you shared. I’d like to clarify one important detail first:
I am using an Apple Magic Mouse, not a regular (normal) mouse.
The options shown in your screenshots, such as:
“Scroll Modifier: Zoom In / Out (like Trackpad)”
“Start Smooth Zoom”
“Normal Mouse Configuration”
do not appear on my system, because they are available only for Normal Mouse devices. In BetterTouchTool, Magic Mouse is handled separately as a touch-based device.
My main goal and issue is the following:
In Linear Mouse, the Option + Scroll zoom is extremely smooth and behaves like a native macOS pinch gesture. It works consistently across most applications. The zoom options I’ve tried in BetterTouchTool for Magic Mouse do not feel as smooth and are not system-wide in the same way.
So my question is:
Is it possible to make Option act as “pressed and held” using an Apple Magic Mouse gesture or button?
If so, I could continue using Linear Mouse’s built-in smooth zoom without physically holding the Option key.
If there is a recommended way to achieve this specifically for Apple Magic Mouse, I would really appreciate your guidance.
You could e.g. make it so scrolling with two fingers is zooming.
To achieve that
1.) Use BTT >= 6.134
2.) In the "Normal Mouse" section (yes also for Magic Mouse - because scroll events are the same for all mice) add a scroll modifier "Zoom In/Out (Like Trackpad")
3.) Set it to "Only Apply To Magic Mouse"
4.) Add an advanced trigger condition to make the modifier only active when 2 fingers are touching the magic mouse:
Thank you very much for your detailed explanation and guidance.
I really appreciate the time and effort you put into helping me. After setting it up as you described, everything became much clearer. Your solution is very elegant and powerful.
Honestly, BetterTouchTool is an amazing piece of software. Without it, Apple Magic Mouse would feel like a simple brick with buttons — but thanks to your work, it becomes a truly flexible and professional input device.
Thank you again for creating and continuously improving such a great tool. It makes a huge difference in daily work.
