Removable button members for electronic pointing devices

An electronic pointing device comprising:

• a housing;
• a position transducer coupled to the housing;
• a plurality of electrical switches coupled to the housing, wherein the plurality of electrical switches are arranged in an m×n matrix, wherein m is a number of rows in the matrix and n is a number of columns in the matrix;
• a cover plate removably coupled to the housing, wherein the cover plate includes a plurality of holes, each hole of the cover plate is aligned with one of the electrical switches;
• a plurality of button members, wherein each button member is independently and removably disposed in one of the holes of the cover plate and is aligned to engage one of the electrical switches to actuate that electrical switch;
• and
• an overlay coupled to the cover plate, the overlay including overlay holes through which the plurality of button members extend, the overlay covering holes in the cover plate not containing one of the plurality of button members.