Introduction
By now, you are probably familiar with the basics of using a mouse:
moving the mouse around the screen moves the cursor around the screen,
clicking the left mouse button selects something, and double-clicking
will open a file. However, there's more you can do with the mouse
to speed through actions that would otherwise take a much longer time.
New Buttons: The Wheel and the Side Buttons
The Wheel
Many mice have a scroll wheel located between the left and right
buttons. This scroll wheel can be used in any program where the
length of the screen is taller than the monitor allows. By moving
this wheel forward or backward, the screen will scroll up and down.
This is probably most useful on the web, scrolling among pages that
are long.
By accessing the mouse properties (Start >> Settings >>
Control Panel >> Mouse) you can change the rate of this scroll,
having it move anywhere from 1 line at a time, to a whole screen
at a time. The mouse properties screen should also let you decide
how you'd like the wheel to function when it's clicked like a button.
You can assign a variety of actions to this middle "wheel button,"
such as a double-click.
Side Buttons
Some new mice are also coming with buttons on the side where your
thumb rests. The smaller button towards the front can be used as
the "Forward" button in web browsers, while the larger
of the two can be used as the "Back" button in web browsers.
Multiple Selections
Often when mousing you want to select more than one thing. This
goal can be accomplished by clicking and holding the left
mouse button in any empty area and dragging to draw a "box"
around the items you want selected. But many times that's not possible.
Fortunately, there's another method to make multiple selections.
Miscellaneous: CTRL
The "Ctrl" button on the keyboard can be used in conjunction
with the mouse to select more than one file at a time. In Windows
Explorer, hold the "Ctrl" button while selecting files.
You'll notice that as you click files, they will all remain selected.
This is an easy way to select more than one file at a time (especially
when they are not organized close to each other). You may use this
technique when you have a few files you'd like to drag to the recycling
bin.
In word processing applications, if you hold "Ctrl" and
click any word, the entire sentence that contains that word will
be selected.
Full Range: SHIFT
The "Shift" button on the keyboard can also be used
on conjunction with the mouse. Similar to the "Ctrl" button,
if you hold "Shift" and click multiple files, you'll notice
that every file between the two you click has been selected. For
example, if you click a file that starts with the letter "A,"
and then shift-click a file with the letter "M," every
file that starts with a letter between "A" and "M"
will be selected. This is another technique to use when you want
to more or delete multiple files at one time.
In word processing applications, if you hold "Shift"
and click anywhere, the point from where the cursor originally was
up to where you clicked will be selected.
Number of Clicks
In word processing applications or web browsers, you can double-click
a word to select that word. If you triple-click a word, the entire
paragraph that contains that word will be selected. If you click
after a selection is made, it will become unselected.
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