Popular open source office suite OpenOffice has partnered with a company named WarMouse to release the first mouse built specifically for the application. The mouse features a whopping 18 programmable buttons with double-click functionality.

Linux only: Any Linux user clutching a mouse with more than the standard two buttons and a scroll wheel doesn't have it easy trying to match the same kind of configuration options given by the manufacturer's setup software, which is almost always Windows or Mac-only.

One annoying misfeature of Gnome is the way that they have tried to foul up X Windows cut and paste. For those who don’t know, X Windows cut and paste is much quicker and simpler than Microsoft Windows cut and paste. Select by dragging with the left mouse button, and paste by pressing the middle mouse button (this is the scroll wheel button on modern mice)

When you have shelled out for a swanky mouse like the Logitech VX Nano, you want to make the most out of your investment, which means making its programmable buttons work. However, many Linux distributions recognize most mice as generic pointing devices, so none of the fancy extra buttons work right out of the box. The btnx utility can help you to turn your mouse into the versatile tool it is meant to be.

When you splashed out for a new swanky mouse like Logitech VX Nano, you sure want to make the most out of your investment, which means making its programmable buttons work. The problem is, however, that many Linux distributions recognize most mice as a generic pointing device, so none of the fancy extra buttons work right out of the box.

In past articles our Android sample application GUIs have consisted of a simple button or two and the corresponding click-handler code. What if some of those buttons are only supposed to be available under specific device conditions? Examples include providing a button only when a connection to a remote Bluetooth peripheral has been established or some other specific device condition.

The right mouse button—beloved by geeks for its power, theoretically unnecessary on a Mac, and generally under-utilized on the average desktop. Right-clicking can be a powerful tool for automating file actions and saving yourself time and arm effort, but only if you've put your own stamp on the offerings of that secondary button.

Some people get sniffy about OpenOffice.org, calling it mickey mouse in comparison to the “serious” and “grown-up” Microsoft Office. That may have been a vaguely plausible jibe for version 1, but I've found version 2 to be incredibly fast and powerful – it really does everything I need in an office suite, and it does it well. And yet OpenOffice.org rarely gets the respect it deserves.

A conversion calculator can save you a lot of time and unnecessary mouse clicks when you need to convert values in a document from the imperial to the metric system (or vice versa). Although OpenOffice.org doesn't have a built-in calculator, you can easily create your own one using OpenOffice.org Basic.