Easy Computing with Your Mouse
Many people do not realize, especially those new to computers, the great advantages you can get from using your mouse. We all know about the "left-click" function, and generally click our way to what you need. But have you considered the "right-click" mouse button?
The right mouse button is often the victim of serious neglect, with novice user's it's merely a forethought, as is the mouse wheel. These other buttons offer many advantages, and when using programs that run on Windows based computers, it is worth learning about these advantages. They become shortcuts of kinds that allow the user to complete tasks faster and easier than you normaly would.
When speaking of shortcuts, one of the first items of particular interest, is the “Right-click” function. This addresses that "other button" many people never use. It is there for a reason, and many programmers know this, hence they build in to their software (clickable menus and shortcuts) that enable the user easy access to specific functions.
This tutorial will begin elaborating on the “right” mouse button and how to use it using Windows. We will also detail a few facts about using your mouse, and how you can change its functions depending on your needs. If you are left-handed for example, we will show you how to configure your mouse to work better for you.
The Right Button
The right button on the other hand, is like the shortcut key to many functions of the left button, the difference is, it takes us a much quicker way. Many of the tutorials explained on this website will detail simple techniques using the so-called “right-click” function. The image on the right shows the right mouse button. See also; Creating Shortcuts.
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The right mouse button enables you fast access to shortcut menus etc. Below are a few examples, you can burn, send email, cut and paste, change desktop backgrounds, edit computer configuration and the list goes on. Please refer to our Windows Tips section for more tutorials using the right-click mouse function or right mouse button. Keep in mind however, this right button will become the left button should you choose to switch them over for left-handed people.
The Mouse Wheel There is also a wheel mechanism that usually sits between these left and right buttons. This also incorporates a few mouse functions many people are not aware of. It serves as a kind of “scrolling” mechanism, this helps you scroll up and down documents, menus and webpage’s. This wheel can also work much like a button in that it can be depressed acting as a "fast key," that scrolls up and down both web and document pages.
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Many people will often click and hold the elevator tab on the right hand side of webpage’s, you can instead simply use the up and down arrow keys or use the mouse wheel to scroll. If you want to scroll quickly through a page or document, press the mouse wheel and the gently move your mouse up or down to scroll quickly.
For the Left-Handed Folk!
Now that you have been introduced to the mouse, let’s show you house to use it properly. First of all, by default many programs are made for people that are right-handed with their mouse. You can change your mouse to a left-handed mouse to make life easier. This means the left-click button can now become the right button.
Should you wish to change your mouse to the left-handed function, you first of all need to access the mouse configuration via the control panel.
To change your mouse buttons to “left-handed”. Click Start and then Control Panel.
Then click on the mouse icon.
You will now see the Mouse Configuration Page which gives you many tabs to change settings.
Should you perhaps be left-handed and want to change the mouse buttons around, simply click the Buttons tab and tick the box to change the primary and secondary buttons around. Now your left button is the right button and vice versa.
There are other tabs with extra options to customise your mouse to your needs. |
Click and Drag
Click and drag is what we refer to when you simply click (usually one single left-click) on something and then drag it to a location, such as combining folders or dragging photos in to another folder etc. If you wanted to drag mutiple items in to a folder, hold down the `Ctrl' button and click each item individually and then simply drag all of them in to the folder.
You can download this lesson in PDF by clicking below:
easy_computing_using_your_mouse.pdf | |
File Size: | 288 kb |
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