This isn't new, matter of fact I have been doing this since I first realized my Cougar could be used as a DX device, and not just in programmed mode. A good stick/throttle has lots of buttons, rotaries, four-ways, hats, sliders and mini-sticks. But in many flight sims, and space sims, there are enough possible commands to easily run out, and long before you are done assigning them.
The results is a less-than-satisfactory mix of keyboard and stick/throttle commands. You bought this thing so you could fly heads up dammit. But with too few buttons, what is one to do?
Shift
That's shifted commands. Maybe not everyone is aware you can do this, so I thought I'd write up a quick thread in case it could help someone get more commands under their fingertips, and less heads-down play.
The idea is you designate one easy to reach and hold button as a shift button. Assign nothing to it. Now map out your stick and throttle as normal, skipping the shift button. Once done you are free to assign a second command to each of those, but you do so while holding down the shift button. For example on my Cougar I use S3, which is the pinky button near the base of the stick, on the back side, away from me. Not the paddle switch (which I used for FA-off), but the little red round pinky button. Elite sees this as Joy-3
So to map the new shifted layer of commands I just go through the Elite controls section and put a second command on everything, combined with Joy-3.
An example is the TMS four-way which, as the acronym implies, I use as the Target Management Switch. In unshifted mode (no Joy-3 held) it has
Up: Target Ahead
Down: Cancel target
Left: Target Previous
Right: target Next
The second layer (with Joy-3 held)
Up: Previous Subsystem (I thought this was target biggest threat, but nothing ever seems to happen when I hit that, so I changed it along the way I guess)
Down: Next subsystem
Left: Target Previous Hostile
Right: target Next Hostile
Anyway, as you can see, using a shift button nearly doubles the number of commands you can have under your fingertips. PSA FYI