Mouse setup

How to set up Premiere Pro mouse shortcuts on any mouse

Updated 2026-10-31 · by the mouzeclick team · Also in Español, Português (Brasil), Bahasa Indonesia

Premiere Pro can't assign shortcuts to mouse buttons: its Keyboard Shortcuts editor only takes keys. To get mouse shortcuts for Premiere Pro, a separate app maps each button to a Premiere keyboard shortcut. mouzeclick does this per app on Windows and Mac with any mouse, adds gestures and chords, and opens a 112-tool Tool wheel. Logitech owners can also use Logi Options+.

Works with any mouse your computer sees: up to five buttons, plus scroll and tilt, no driver
Each button does its own job in Premiere and something else in every other app
Tool wheel: 112 Premiere Pro tools in 12 segments, on F10 or a held right button
Windows 10 and 11, and macOS 12 or newer

Can you assign mouse buttons to shortcuts in Premiere Pro?

No. Premiere's Keyboard Shortcuts editor (under Edit on Windows, in the application menu on a Mac) maps commands to keys, not to mouse buttons. A request to add mouse-button mapping has sat open for voting on Adobe's ideas board since December 2024.

So every working setup does the same thing in two steps: Premiere listens for a keyboard shortcut, and another app presses that shortcut when you press a mouse button. In Adobe's long-running forum thread on the question, the accepted answer is exactly that: use the mouse maker's software to map key combinations to buttons. Others in the thread name AutoHotkey, X-Mouse Button Control, Razer Synapse and Corsair iCUE.

Out of the box, the mouse does only a little in Premiere: click, drag, right-click menus, and the wheel, where holding Alt (Option on a Mac) and scrolling zooms the timeline. Adobe's gesture tutorial is about touch editing, not mouse buttons. Everything else on this page comes from mapping.

Which Premiere Pro shortcuts are worth putting on a mouse?

The ones you press hundreds of times in one edit: add an edit at the playhead, the two ripple trims, play and stop, and timeline zoom. These are Premiere's default keys; if you have changed your keyboard layout in Premiere, use your own.

Premiere command	Windows default	Mac default	A good mouse spot
Add Edit (cut at the playhead)	Ctrl+K	Cmd+K	Back button
Add Edit to All Tracks	Ctrl+Shift+K	Cmd+Shift+K	Options wheel
Ripple Trim Previous Edit to Playhead	Q	Q	Options wheel or a chord
Ripple Trim Next Edit to Playhead	W	W	Forward button
Play / Stop	Space	Space	Middle click or gesture up
Zoom in / out on the timeline	= and -	= and -	Hold a side button and scroll
Zoom to sequence	\	\	Options wheel
Previous / next edit point	Up / Down arrow	Up / Down arrow	Side buttons during review
One frame back / forward	Left / Right arrow	Left / Right arrow	Tilt left and right
Undo	Ctrl+Z	Cmd+Z	A gesture

Why these and not, say, export? Because the payoff is per press. A command you use twice a day can stay on the keyboard; one you use every few seconds should sit under your thumb.

How do you set up mouse shortcuts for Premiere Pro with mouzeclick?

Install the app, press each button once so it knows your mouse, pick Premiere Pro, and put commands from its Premiere library on your buttons. It never touches your mouse's own settings, DPI or firmware.

Install and start the trial. 3 days, no card; the key arrives by email. There is no driver.
Calibrate. The first run asks you to press each button once and builds the settings page around the buttons you actually have, up to five plus scroll and tilt.
Start from Premiere Pro. Pick your editor on first run and its buttons are set up for you, or skip that step. Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve and CapCut have ready-made profiles; every other app gets its own.
Assign. Click a button and choose a command from the shortcut library, 309 built-in shortcuts searchable by name, keys or group. If the spot already holds something, it asks before replacing it.
Add your own. Any key combination can be a named custom shortcut, and macros chain keys, clicks, waits and typed text: press Record, do the steps in Premiere, then press Esc twice.
Install the Premiere bridge from the Tool wheel page and restart Premiere, so the Tool wheel can run commands inside the editor. Keep mouzeclick running while you edit.
Test it. The live input check shows where a press went: press the button in Premiere and see whether it arrived.

The buttons change the moment you switch apps. Mouse 4 can cut a clip in Premiere, switch tabs in Chrome and paste everywhere else, and a small card shows what your buttons do each time you switch.

How do you get more Premiere actions than your mouse has buttons?

Use holds, chords, gestures and wheels: one side button can carry eleven actions, and three wheels sit on top of that.

Tap and hold. A quick tap still clicks. Holding a gesture button and moving runs an action instead of dragging.
Four-way gestures. Hold a side button, the wheel click, or the left or right button, and move up, down, left or right. An editing preset fills the empty directions in one press: up plays, down splits, left undoes, right steps one frame forward.
Chords. Hold one button and press another for a different action.
Hold and scroll. Hold a button and scroll, which is where timeline zoom belongs.
Scroll and tilt. Each can run its own action.
Options wheel (F8). 48 favourites per app on three rings of 12, 16 and 20; the middle button steps to the next ring. Good for the commands you need ten times a day, not ten times a minute.
Tool wheel (F10). Premiere's own tools, covered below.

Every wheel opens on any key or mouse button you choose. The Options wheel takes the left or right button only together with Ctrl, Shift or Alt, so normal clicking stays normal.

What is on the 112-tool Tool wheel for Premiere Pro?

112 Premiere Pro tools in 12 segments, one flick each. Hold F10, or hold the right mouse button with a delay you set from 80 to 600 ms; a quick right-click is still Premiere's own menu. Move onto a segment, flick to a tool and let go, or let go in the centre to cancel. Each tool confirms what it did with a short note by the pointer.

Unnest, Spread and Close synced, the same tools as in Studio (the unnest guide explains what each does).
All sixteen label colours as a 4 × 4 grid and all eight marker colours. mouzeclick writes the label shortcuts into Premiere's own shortcut file for you, with a backup.
Nine anchors as a grid of arrows, Fill frame with no black bars, punch in, a slow zoom and a shake that dies away.
Your installed effects: Search effects finds any of them by typing, and Shift+Enter pins one to the wheel.

You can build your own wheel: drag tools onto segments, rename them, give them icons and colours, and lock what's finished, with a layout for each kind of work. The complete list lives on the Premiere Pro tools page, and After Effects has its own 114-tool wheel, covered in the After Effects radial menu guide.

What is a good mouse setup for cutting in Premiere Pro?

Start with the cut and the trims on your thumb, zoom on a held scroll, and everything rarer on a wheel. Three starting points, all built from Premiere's default keys:

Five-button mouse, rough cut

Back: Add Edit (Ctrl+K or Cmd+K).
Forward: Ripple Trim Next Edit to Playhead (W). Hold Forward and scroll: zoom the timeline (= and -).
Hold the wheel click and move: the editing gestures (up plays, down splits, left undoes, right steps a frame).
Options wheel: Ripple Trim Previous Edit (Q), Add Edit to All Tracks, Zoom to sequence.
Hold the right button: the Tool wheel.

Two buttons and a wheel, on the road

Hold the right button: the Tool wheel, with the delay set long enough that ordinary right-clicks don't trigger it. Start around 300 ms and adjust from there.
Hold the wheel click and move: the four editing gestures.
Options wheel on F8 from the keyboard for Q, W and zoom to sequence.

Review pass after a silence cut

Back and Forward: previous and next edit point (Up and Down arrows), so you hop from cut to cut.
Gesture down: Add Edit; gesture left: Undo.
Tool wheel: Zoom every other clip and Close all gaps once the cuts are right.

The review setup pairs well with a silence pass in Studio; the silence remover guide covers that half. Give a new layout a couple of days of real editing before you change it.

Can you use Logi Options+ or another mapping tool instead?

Yes, if your mouse is a Logitech: Logi Options+ has per-app settings, lists Premiere Pro among its presets, and can assign gestures to mouse buttons. It is Logitech's app for its own supported mice, keyboards and the MX Creative Console, for Windows 10 or later and macOS 14 or later, and its page doesn't state a price.

If Options+ throws a pop-up over Premiere, Logitech's own fix is three steps: close the Options+ pop-up, save and quit Premiere, then open it again.

The other route on Windows is a general mapping tool such as AutoHotkey or X-Mouse Button Control, two of the names in Adobe's forum thread. They map keys to buttons, and the Premiere side is up to you.

Where mouzeclick is different: it works with any brand of mouse, puts three wheels on top of the buttons, and its Tool wheel runs Premiere commands through a panel inside Premiere rather than only sending keys. Where Options+ wins: it comes from your mouse's maker, so for an MX mouse it is the natural first stop. The side-by-side is on the Logi Options+ alternative page, and if you want dials or LCD keys instead, see the TourBox alternative and Stream Deck alternative pages.

Do mouse shortcuts for Premiere Pro work on Mac?

Yes. Buttons, gestures, chords, macros and all three wheels, the Tool wheel included, run on macOS 12 or newer, on Apple Silicon and Intel, with the same licence key as on Windows. Use Cmd where Windows uses Ctrl; the table above lists both.

Three Mac details. On a MacBook keyboard the wheels need Fn, as in Fn + F8 and Fn + F9. Apple has not notarized the app yet, so macOS asks you to allow it once in Privacy & Security. And it needs the Accessibility and Input Monitoring permissions to see your buttons. Cloud sync of your setup is Windows only for now. The steps are on the Mac install page.

Why does Premiere Pro ignore my mouse shortcut?

Usually because Premiere isn't the app in front, its keyboard shortcut was changed, or something sits between the button and Premiere. Check in this order:

Premiere must be in front. Each shortcut runs only while its own app is active, so if another app's window is in front, the press follows that app's profile.
Your Premiere keys changed. mouzeclick presses the key you assigned. If you remapped that command in Premiere, update the button.
Premiere runs as administrator (Windows). Shortcuts don't reach apps running as administrator. Pick Restart as administrator in mouzeclick's tray menu.
Mac permissions. Switch mouzeclick on under Accessibility and Input Monitoring, then quit it from the menu bar and open it again.
Tool wheel does nothing. Install the Premiere bridge from the Tool wheel page and restart Premiere.
No connection. mouzeclick needs the internet while it runs. If it drops, shortcuts pause and the mouse behaves normally until it's back.
Two apps on one button. If your mouse maker's software also maps that button, switch it off in one of them so only one app handles the press.

The live input check settles most of these: it shows where the press reached.

Put Premiere's cuts and trims on the mouse you already own. One plan with everything included, $25 a month, or $249 for a year.

See the price

Questions people ask

What is the best mouse for Premiere Pro shortcuts?

One with two side buttons you can reach without moving your grip; that already gives you a cut and a trim. mouzeclick uses up to five standard buttons plus scroll and tilt, so an ordinary five-button mouse covers everything on this page; gestures and wheels do the rest.

Can I use the middle mouse button in Premiere Pro?

Yes, once it is mapped. A middle click can send Space for play and stop, or the wheel click can become a gesture button: hold it and move in one of four directions. While the Options wheel is open, the middle button steps to its next ring.

Can the horizontal scroll or tilt wheel do anything in Premiere?

With mouzeclick, scroll and tilt can each run their own action, per app. Tilt left and right are a natural fit for one frame back and forward, the Left and Right arrows in Premiere. Hold-and-scroll on a side button is a separate slot, which is where timeline zoom works best.

Do the same mouse shortcuts work in After Effects?

Each app has its own profile, so the same button can cut in Premiere and do something else in After Effects. After Effects gets its own Tool wheel with 114 tools in 13 groups, and four layouts to start from. The After Effects radial menu guide covers it.

Can I share my Premiere mouse setup with another editor?

Yes. Turn one app's profile into a link, and the other editor imports it after a review of what will change. You can also export your whole setup to a file. On Windows, profiles, gestures, hotkeys and every wheel also follow you to any computer you sign in on.

Does mouzeclick change my mouse's DPI or need a driver?

No. It changes what your buttons do, not how the mouse works: no driver, and it never touches DPI, polling rate, lighting or firmware. If you quit it, or your plan ends, the mouse works as a normal mouse again.

How much does it cost to put Premiere shortcuts on my mouse?

Try it free for 3 days, no card. After that mouzeclick is one plan with everything included, $25 a month or $249 a year, and the plan also covers the Premiere Pro and After Effects panels. Prices and payment options are in the pricing section.

Sources

Checked on 2026-10-31. Prices and features change: each link goes to the maker's own page.