Hi, for making the mouse left or handed you can use gconftool. I don't know if its part of the default install or not, if you don't have it then install package gconf2.
Then, this command will make mouse left-handed:
Code:
gconftool -s /desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/left_handed -t bool true
and this will revert it to right-handed:
Code:
gconftool -s /desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/left_handed -t bool false
So you could create a pair of custom launchers in your panel with these as the commands.