How to copy and paste with mouse buttons on a Mac
InputConfig is completely free on the Mac App Store. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon.
Yes, two side buttons can be copy and paste on a Mac. macOS cannot do it alone, but in InputConfig, the free app I make, a Mouse row can press Command C on one button and Command V on the next, and a third pair of buttons can carry undo and redo. Select with the mouse, press a thumb button, and your other hand never needs the keyboard.
The jobs are the same ones Apple's Mac guide lists for a keyboard: Command C to copy, Command V to paste, Command Z to undo an unwanted paste. The buttons just press them for you.
On this page: 10 sections
What the mouse can do without an app
A plain mouse already has a few routes to the clipboard. A right click on selected text shows Copy and Paste in the context menu, you can drag selected text from one place to another, and the Edit menu in the menu bar lists Copy, Paste, Undo and Redo. Apple's Mac User Guide gives the keyboard versions: Command C, Command V, and Command Z to undo. Redo is Shift Command Z in most apps.
Those routes cost a click and a menu each time. A thumb button is one press and the pointer does not move off the selection.
Find out what your button sends
Press Scan on a row and click the button to see its name. The usual pairs:
| Buttons | Job | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Button 4 and Button 5 | Copy and paste | The two side buttons, under the thumb. Block their back and forward jobs. |
| Button 6 and Button 7 | Undo and redo | A second pair on a mouse with a thumb grid. |
| Tilt left and right | Undo and redo | Opposites match opposites. See the tilt wheel page. |
| Left and right click | Avoid | They cannot be blocked. |
A mouse with only two side buttons covers copy and paste, and undo goes on a hold or a double tap. A button that sends nothing the Mac can read, such as a DPI button, cannot be bound.
Put copy and paste on two buttons
Step 1: Copy
- You: Add a row, set the device to This Mac's mouse or trackpad and the input to Mouse, then press Scan and click Button 4. Set the output to Keyboard Key, pick Command, click the plus button and pick C.
- InputConfig: Presses Command and C together each time you press the button.
- Check: Select text in Notes, press the button, then paste with the keyboard once. The text appears.
Step 2: Paste
- You: Add a second row for Button 5 with Command and V. In Options on both rows, tick Block the button's own action in the Press box.
- InputConfig: Presses the paste shortcut, and apps stop seeing the side buttons while the preset runs.
- Check: Copy with Button 4, click somewhere else, press Button 5, and the text lands there.
Add cut, undo and redo
The same two buttons can hold more. In Options, Extra actions lets a quick press do one thing and a longer hold do another, so a tap on Button 4 copies and a hold past 400 ms cuts, with Command X as the hold output. A tap on Button 5 pastes, and its hold can send Option Shift Command V, which is Paste and Match Style in most apps. Here is how I would lay it out:
| Button | Tap | Hold |
|---|---|---|
| Button 4 | Command C | Command X |
| Button 5 | Command V | Option Shift Command V |
| Button 6 | Command Z | Shift Command Z |
A double tap can also carry undo, but a row with a double tap delays its single press by the window, so I would keep undo on a hold or on its own button. A row with a macro cannot also have a hold, so each macro goes on its own button.
Copy in one app and paste in another
A macro can do the whole trip. In the row's Options, tick Run a sequence of steps (macro), and add steps: tap Command C, tap Command Tab to switch to the last app, wait a few hundred milliseconds, tap Command V. Each step has its own wait and hold time, so the pause covers the app switch.
I have not timed it on every Mac, so lengthen the wait if the second app is slow. If the paste lands in the wrong window, the wait was too short.
Ideas for different jobs
- Spreadsheet work. Copy and paste on the side buttons, with the right hand on the mouse and the left free for typing numbers.
- Editing text. Cut, copy and paste in one cluster, with undo on the tilt wheel.
- Designers. Command C and Command V on the thumb grid, plus a macro for duplicating an object. See mouse macros.
- One-handed use. Put the whole set on the mouse hand so the keyboard stays untouched. See side buttons.
If the buttons copy nothing
Climb this ladder, smallest step first:
- Test in Notes. A plain app tells you whether the shortcut itself works.
- Check the preset is on. Rows do nothing until you click Activate, and InputConfig needs Accessibility in System Settings, Privacy & Security.
- Check the order. The modifier goes first and the letter last, added with the plus button.
- Check the button scans. If Scan names a key, move the button to F13 to F20 in the maker's software.
- Look at the app. Some apps, such as a terminal, have their own copy and paste keys, and an app that blocks pasting stays blocked.
What it cannot do
- Select for you. You still select with the left button first.
- Remove the old job without Block. A side button keeps back and forward unless you tick Block.
- Tell two mice apart. Every connected mouse counts as one.
- Share a clipboard between Macs. That is a macOS feature and not part of this.
The short version
- Two buttons. Command C and Command V on Button 4 and Button 5.
- Holds. Cut and paste and match style on a longer press.
- Block. Tick it so back and forward stop firing.
Copy and paste on the side buttons is the setup I would put on a new mouse first.
Questions
Can I copy and paste with mouse buttons on a Mac?
Yes. Bind two buttons to Command C and Command V in InputConfig. macOS has no mouse button setting for it.
How do I undo with a mouse button on a Mac?
Bind a button to Command Z. Redo is Shift Command Z in most apps, and it fits a neighboring button or the other half of a tilt wheel.
What is the shortcut for paste and match style?
Option Shift Command V in most apps. You can put it on the hold action of your paste button.
Why does my side button also go back in the browser?
The button keeps its own job unless you block it. Open the row's Options and tick Block the button's own action.
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