How
to hold the Mouse
"Let's shake hands."
You know
how to do that. Reach out and grab the mouse as if you were shaking hands. The
rounded top fits into the palm of your hand and the cord extends away from you.
Your thumb rests on the left side of the mouse, your index finger rests on the
left button, your middle finger rests on the right button, and your remaining
two fingers grip the right side of the mouse.
See a
picture
illustrating how to hold a mouse
.
Macintosh users:
Skip
the part about the left handed mouse and go to the section about
clicking
a mouse
.
"Wait a minute, what about ...?"
Suppose you are
like Napoleon, Albert Einstein, Susan Brooks or any number of
famous
left-handed people
. All of those people would find the description above backwards.
Windows Mouse control panel allows you to compensate for that by reversing the
function of the mouse buttons.
Reversing the function of the
mouse buttons
-
-
Click on the
Start
button
-
Slide the
mouse cursor to
Settings
and click once with the left mouse button
-
Slide
the mouse cursor over to
Control
Panel
and click once with the left
mouse button
-
Gently and quickly click twice with the left mouse button
on the Mouse icon.
-
Select
left-handed from the
Mouse Properties
pop-up window.
-
Reverse
everything in that first paragraph.
See a picture
illustrating
how to hold a mouse with your left hand.
Clicking
the Mouse
Definitions
:
-
Clicking
- Pressing down gently on the mouse button while holding the mouse perfectly still.
The perfectly still part is important, but is not a problem if you press the button
gently
. New users sometime jerk the mouse as they click because they are
trying to click too hard. Instructions which simply say "click," usually mean
click with the left mouse button.
-
Left-Clicking
- Clicking with
the index finger. Even if you are left-handed, if you have followed the instructions
above and reversed the left and right buttons, you are using the index finger.
So, left-click means
index finger-click
.
-
Right-Clicking
- Clicking with the middle finger. Even if you are left-handed, if you have followed
the instructions above and reversed the left and right buttons, you are using
the middle finger. So, right-click means
middle finger-click
.
-
Click
and Drag
- Gently depress the mouse button and leave it depressed while you
move the mouse. If you do this when the tip of your mouse pointer is over an object
(title bar, icon, folder, etc.) your mouse pointer drags the object to a new location.
When you let go of the mouse button, the object is dropped into a new location.
This is
almost always
done while holding down the left mouse button (index
finger button), but there are some times when you may be instruct to click and
drag using the right mouse button (middle finger button).
How
to use the Mouse �
An excellent, almost
playful, exercise is available on the internet to help someone practice their
mouse skills. Move your mouse until the pointer moves on top of the colored underlined
words in this paragraph. When the pointer turns into a finger stop moving the
mouse, and gently click one time on the left side mouse button.
After you are finished with the page of exercises
, close it and you will come
back to this page.
Another mouse skill needed is
dragging and dropping
.
To accomplish that you place the mouse pointer over an object (like a folder or
a shortcut), depress the mouse button and slide the mouse. Do not let go of the
mouse button until you have moved the object where you want it to be.
To
practice that skill visit a practice page
, scroll to the bottom of the page
and look for a red block in a yellow box. Follow the instructions you find there.
After practicing that skill, close the window to come back to this page.
Here
is another collection of drag and drop activities to help develop early mouse
skills -
Early
Mouse Skills
If you want to do some more click and drag practice, visit
Snaith
Primary School's Magnetic Poetry section
. Click and drag the words to arrange
them into a sentence. When you have completed playing ... uh, practicing in the
magnetic poetry section, close that browser window to come back to this page.
Source: http://www.internet4classrooms.com/entry_level_pc_mouse.htm
