A recent comment on VIGNET pointed out that the computer mouse just turned 38 years old. Even in its early, clunky version, the mouse made it quicker and easier to use computers. Today, operating systems of all sorts are integrated with a variety of pointing devices. You may be able to achieve a lot more than you thought with that “click of a mouse”.
If you want to see the very first mouse in use at a demonstration back in December 9 1968, take a trip to http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html (provided courtesy of Dan McGarry, Community Communications Project in Vanuatu). A steel box with a revolving drum, it is a far cry from the sleek palm-sized laser-driven varieties now available. But all things start somewhere.
Everyone who uses a graphical operating system (such as Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, Linux KDE or Gnome) should be very familiar with the basics of mouse usage – move the mouse around on the desk, and the pointer on the screen moves in the same way. Click the mouse, and whatever the pointer is over is “selected”. What happens when you click something depends on the software you are using together with the type and configuration of the operating system. Most often, a single-click just chooses or highlights an item (say an electronic document in a folder, or a menu item). A double-click (ie. press the mouse button twice in succession, quickly) is taken to mean “do it” - if you have selected a file, double-clicking would open that file in an appropriate application.
A few years ago, the right-click was introduced to extend the facilities available from the mouse. The right-click is usually taken to mean “display the options available for this particular object”. This operation is context-sensitive, ie. you get a different menu of options depending on what you have right-clicked.
Subsequently, the mouse-wheel was added. If you have not used a mouse-wheel, you should give it a try. Generally, the mouse-wheel allows you to scroll up and down, be it within a wordprocessing document or on a webpage or in a list of files in a folder. It seems such a minor convenience until you get used to it – then, a wheel-less mouse becomes very awkward.
Mice/mouses/meece come in a great range of sizes, shapes and extra functions. You can have third or fourth buttons to add customised actions. You can have a mouse with a track-ball so you can move the pointer just with your thumb (apparently good for people with RSI, Repetitive Strain Injury). You can reconfigure the mouse so that left and right buttons are swapped around for left-handed people. You can change the speed at wich you need to double-click, and you can add a mouse trail so that the vision-impaired can see where the pointer is going more easily.
Windows users can have a play with the options quite simply – open up the Control Panel (click “Start”, choose “Settings”, select “Control Panel”), and double-click on “Mouse”. Browse through the options and amend as required. The mouse is an important tool for modern computer users, and well worth investing in – both for the mouse hardware itself, and the time to learn how to use it to its full capabilities.
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