A mouse with six or more physical buttons and no software configuration is just a mouse with extra buttons that all do the same generic thing. Logi Options+ is what turns that hardware into a productivity layer, letting each spare button carry a specific action for each application it encounters. Switch from Excel to your browser, and the same thumb button does something different in each. That automatic context-switching is where the real efficiency gain lives.
Quick Answer
Configure Logi Options+ by assigning each button in the on-screen device diagram, then enable per-application profiles so the button map changes automatically when you switch between apps like Excel, Chrome, and Outlook. Smart Actions chain multiple steps into a single click for recurring routines.
🔧 Navigating the Button Assignment Interface
After installing Logi Options+ and connecting a compatible Logitech mouse, the app's home screen shows a visual representation of your device. Each physical button is clickable on the diagram. Selecting any programmable button opens a panel listing available assignment types: keystroke sequences, application launch commands, system functions, and Smart Actions.
For a productivity workflow, the most useful assignments are application-specific keyboard shortcuts. A thumb button in Excel might be set to paste special values, a command that has a cumbersome native shortcut but is needed constantly when building spreadsheets. In Chrome, that same button might open a new tab or close the current one.
Save the assignment inside a per-application profile, and the button only carries that action when the app window has focus. Open anything else and it reverts to the global default or to whatever you have configured for that second application.
⚡ Smart Actions: Chaining Multiple Steps Into One Click
A Smart Action is an automation sequence triggered by a single button press. Where a standard assignment executes one action, a Smart Action executes several in order. You build it by stacking steps inside the Smart Action editor and assigning the whole chain to a button.
A practical meeting-start routine might open your video conferencing app, mute the system audio, open a browser tab to your meeting link, and shift other windows to a secondary display. Individually those are four or five separate actions. As a Smart Action, they are one thumb-button tap.
For SA office workers running two monitors, a Smart Action can reposition windows across displays as part of a workflow switch, useful when moving from focused work on one screen to reference material on the other without manually dragging anything.
🎯 Per-Application Profiles and Automatic Switching
Per-application profiles separate a mouse that is useful in one app from a mouse that is useful all day. The profile system detects which application window has focus. When focus moves to a configured window, Options+ loads that application's button map without any input from you.
Build profiles for the three or four applications you use for the longest blocks during a workday. For most office setups that is a spreadsheet tool, a browser, a communications platform, and a document editor. Four profiles with two or three well-chosen assignments each deliver most of the efficiency benefit without requiring an evening of configuration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where exactly do you assign a button inside Logi Options+?
Open the app and click the device shown on the home screen. A diagram of your mouse appears with each configurable button labelled. Click any button on the diagram to open its assignment panel, then choose from keystrokes, application launch, system functions, or Smart Actions. The assignment takes effect immediately after confirming.
What is a Smart Action and what tasks is it suited for?
A Smart Action chains multiple steps into one button press using the Smart Action editor: open this app, press this shortcut, resize this window, toggle this setting. Useful for meeting start routines, focus-mode setups that close distracting apps and open work ones, and workflow transitions involving window layouts. Anything requiring four or more steps is a Smart Action candidate.
Do per-application profiles switch automatically?
Yes. Logi Options+ detects which window has focus and loads the corresponding profile without any input. Clicking into your browser activates the browser profile. Clicking an Excel cell loads the Excel profile. The transition is not perceptible during normal workflow use.
Does Logi Options+ need an internet connection to work?
No. The app runs entirely offline after installation. Button assignments, Smart Actions, and per-application profiles function locally with no network dependency. The optional cloud sync feature, which backs up profiles to a Logitech account for restoration on a new machine, requires internet access only when uploading or retrieving configurations.
How do you protect your button setup if you change computers?
Sign in to a Logitech account inside Options+. This triggers automatic cloud backup of your profiles. On a new or reinstalled machine, install Options+, sign in to the same account, and your configuration restores with one click.
Ready to get more out of every button on your Logitech mouse? Browse the compatible Logitech MX and Lift range at Evetech and pair it with Logi Options+ for a desk setup that works as hard as you do.