Silver Surfer Guide
Lesson 4: Handling The Mouse
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The mouse is an important device in that it enables you to easily move around the screen, click buttons, scroll down pages and drag and drop objects from one area of the screen to another.
PCs come with either a Wired mouse or a Wireless mouse; the wired mouse being where the 'mouse' name came from because the wire extending from the device resembles a rodents tail.
Modern mice have either two buttons or, alternatively, two buttons and a scroll wheel. (see Fig: 1)
Fig: 1 Relative position of buttons on a wireless mouse
If you are using a Laptop rather than a desktop PC, then instead of a large mouse you will have a Touch Pad (see Fig: 2) which acts in the same way as a portable mouse. Incidentally if you find using a Touch Pad rather awkward you can always buy a portable USB laptop mouse. Laptop mice are scaled down versions of the desktop mouse.
Fig: 2 Laptop Touch Pad
Holding the mouse
To comfortably use the mouse first rest the heel of your hand on the table or desk and then gently cradle the body of the mouse in the palm of your hand.
Your Index finger should rest lightly on the Left hand mouse button, while your Middle finger rests on the Right hand mouse button (see Fig: 3) below.
Fig: 3 Holding the mouse
Your Thumb should be resting on the Left side of the body of the mouse, while your Ring and Little finger rest on the Right side of the body of the mouse. If your mouse has a Scroll wheel then your Index finger will be used to scroll the screen up or down. It should be noted that the faster you spin the Scroll wheel the faster you will scroll from top to bottom of the page and visa-versa.
You should Grip the mouse gently, it isn't a battle of wills between you and the mouse, after all the mouse isn't going anywhere (unless you are using it on a slope, in which case it will slide down) without you moving it in a particular direction. Gentle guidance is all that is necessary.
While modern mice can move around on a variety of surfaces, it is still preferable to use a Mouse Mat. The mouse will glide over the mouse mat surface in whichever direction you wish it to move (see Fig: 4)
Fig: 4 Directional Movements
If, however you find you are running out of room on the mouse mat, you can simply lift the mouse up and set it down in a more convenient position to continue your work.
Just remember that, when working with the mouse, you keep the mouse buttons facing away from you; there is no need to physically turn the mouse, just roll it to wherever you want the mouse pointer to be on the screen.
Working with the Mouse
Gently hold the mouse in your hand and move it around the screen. As you move the mouse you will notice an Arrow type pointer responding to your every move. You can see this arrow pointer in Fig: 5
Fig: 5 Arrow pointer
This arrow is also referred to as the Cursor. Move it over a button; for example, the Start button in Windows, and the button will be Highlighted to say that it has been Selected.
If you now move the Cursor so that the selection arrow is over an Icon on your desktop or a Link on a web page the Cursor will change from an Arrow to a Pointing Hand (see Fig: 6)
Fig: 6 Pointing Hand Cursor
Finally if you need to Input information into a Word Processing application or a dialogue box on a web site the Cursor will change once again, only this time it will change to an I-Beam (see Fig:7)
Fig: 7 I - Beam Cursor
The I-Beam or Text Selector follows every character that you type and, because it constantly Flashes you always know exactly where on the screen it is situated.
Now experiment yourself by moving the mouse pointer (Cursor) around the screen and over the Graphical Icons (more commonly referred to as shortcuts because they are shortcuts to opening applications) and watch the Arrow turn to a Pointing Hand. If you have a word processing program open, such as Word Pad or Microsoft Word, then place the mouse cursor into the document, Left click the mouse button and watch the cursor change to an I-Beam
Clickety Click
Commands are sent from the mouse to the computer by Clicking the relevant mouse button. Clicking the mouse button can take some getting used to, because you need the cursor on the object you are going to Click on for it to send the command. For example, if you want to click on a link on a web site the cursor needs to have changed to the Pointing Hand pointer before you click the mouse button in order for the link to open.
As far as Clicking the mouse is concerned you actually have two options; you can:
- Double Click or, alternatively,
- Single Click
By default the mouse will respond to a Double Click command; however, this can be changed to a Single click if you feel more comfortable using this method of issuing mouse commands. Personally, I much prefer the Single click option to that of the Double click. (See Directions to change the mouse to a single click at the end of this tutorial.)
So let's give the mouse a little click.
First roll your mouse cursor (Arrow Pointer) over one of the Graphical Icons (the little program pictures) on your desktop. As soon as the cursor changes to the Pointing Hand, hold the mouse there and then Press down on the Left mouse button and then Release. If your mouse is set for double click then repeat the 'press down and release' sequence twice in rapid succession. There is no need for you to remove your finger off the mouse button. The mouse will respond by giving a 'clicking' sound and the software application you clicked on should now open.
As I have already said, it can take a little while to get used to single clicking or double clicking the mouse and I don't expect you to get the motion right first time; however, with a little practice you will soon become more proficient.
Drag And Drop
As well as opening programs and clicking on web site links, the mouse also enables you to Drag objects or text from one area of the screen to another. But before you can do that you actually need to select the object or text you want to move. Drag and Drop is ideal when you want to move areas of text from one part of a document to another without having to re-type the relevant paragraph(s) into the new position.
Selecting a picture or text is easy. First decide which picture or text you want to move and then place the cursor on the left hand side of it. Now Press the Left mouse key down and, at the same time, Drag the cursor over the word or picture; still keeping your finger pressed down on the Left hand mouse button until you come to the opposite end of the word or the picture.
As you Drag the cursor across the picture or word the item will turn Blue. If you now release the mouse button the item you selected will still remain blue.
Shall we give it a quick try? Move your Cursor over an Icon on your desktop. Now Left click your mouse on the Icon, the Icon you chose is now highlighted
As you can see from Fig: 8 (below) the Icon has been highlighted in a light blue colour.
Fig: 8 Highlighted Icon (Upper left hand corner)
Now that the Icon has been highlighted the cursor will change to a Pointing Hand. Now press down the Left mouse button again and Drag the highlighted Icon to another part of the screen (see Fig: 9). Once you have the Icon in the correct position, Release your finger to Drop the Icon into its new position.
Fig: 9 Icon moved to centre of screen
You can do the same thing with text in a document. Simple highlight the text by Clicking at the start of the word or text and dragging the mouse across until the word or text has been selected (see Fig: 10, below) then drag it to another part of the document. When you are ready to Drop the text the cursor will change to an I-Beam to indicate the place where you want to drop the text.
Highlighted Text
Fig: 10 Text highlighted and ready for dragging
So far during this tutorial I have concentrated on the Left mouse button, however the Right mouse button has some uses too. Clicking on the Right mouse button will bring up a context menu for you to select a set of other useful options. (see Fig: 11)
Fig: 11 Right clicking on the mouse will bring up a menu with other options
Now you give it a try. Right click on this web page and a context menu like the one in Fig: 12 will appear.
Fig 12: Right click to see a context menu similar to the one above
Scrolling Around
Scrolling allows you to move up and down a page and, if the web page or document is too wide for your monitor screen, from right to left.
Take a look at the Right hand side of this web page; you should see a grey bar. At the top of the bar you will see an upward pointing arrow and at the bottom you should see a downward pointing arrow. This is referred to as the Scroll bar (See Fig: 13)
Fig: 13 The Scroll Bar
You can move up and down a page in a variety of ways. If you Left click your mouse on the Up button you will move Up the page; each click of the mouse corresponding to one line.
Alternatively, by Left clicking your mouse on the Down arrow you will move Down the page. Again each click of the mouse corresponds to one line.
To move quickly up and down the page you can either Left click on the Scroll button, keeping the Left Mouse button pressed down and Drag the Scroll button up or down the page. When you have reached your desired destination on the page, Release the Left mouse button.
If you want to move one screen at a time just Click on the area between the Scroll button and the Up and Down arrow. The screen will move according to the direction you selected.
If your mouse has a Scroll Wheel you can also Click anywhere on the page and then Move the Scroll Wheel to move up or down the screen.
As indicated earlier, as well as the Up and Down scroll bar you may also see a Left and Right scroll bar at the bottom of the page. To move to the Left simply click the Left scroll arrow. To move to the Right click the Right scroll arrow. If you want to move quickly from left to right then click on the Scroll button and drag the button either to the Right or Left. You use the bottom scroll bar in exactly the same way as you would the up and down scroll bar,
And Finally
Now that you have learnt the basics of using the mouse all that's left is to show you how to Close a page or application.
There are three way of closing a page or program. The first is by Left clicking on the Red X in the top right hand corner of the page. (See Fig: 14)
Fig: 14 The Close Button
The next option is to Left click on the File tab on the main toolbar and then, from the drop down menu, Click Exit (see Fig: 15)
Fig: 15 The Exit Button
The last option is to Left click your mouse on the application Icon in the upper left of your screen. When the drop down menu appears, click Close (See Fig: 16)
Fig: 16 Using the Close button
Advanced Options
Directions to Change the Mouse to a Single Click
Changing from a double click to a single click is a simple affair, just follow the instructions below:
- Double Click the Start Button
- On the Start Menu, Double Click on Control Panel
- In the Control Panel Window, Double Click on the Folder Options Icon
- On the General Tab look for the section marked 'Click items as follows.'
- Now Single Click on the Radio button next to the 'Single click to open an item (point to select) option (See 1 in Fig: 17)
- Finally Click the OK button and Close the Control Panel window
Fig: 17 Changing the mouse button to a single click
Directions for Changing the Mouse Buttons from Right Hand User to left hand User
By default Windows assumes that all users' are Right Handed. If you are Left handed and cannot get used to the way the mouse performs you can always change the sequence of the mouse buttons. To do this take the following steps.
- Click the Start Button
- On the Start Menu, Click Control Panel
- In the Control Panel window, Click the Mouse icon
- On the Button Tab look at the section marked 'Left Button'
- Beneath this is a box currently saying 'Click (default). To the Right of this box is a down arrow. Click on this down arrow and an expanded context menu ill appear. (see item 1 in Fig: 18)
- From this menu click on the Right Click option
- Now look for the section marked Right Button
- Beneath this is a box currently saying 'Right Click (default). As you did before, Click on the down arrow of this section and wait for the context menu to appear again (see 2 in Fig: 18)
- Once the menu appears, select the Click option (as this is the first option on the lit you will probably need to scroll up a little).
- Finally Click the OK button for the changes to take effect
Fig: 18 Changing the mouse buttons