Mouse Clicking

By Sandy Berger

The mouse is our direct contact with the computing world. This tactile connection gives us the ability to point to, select, and move items on the computer screen. To select items on your monitor's screen, all you have to do is point and click your mouse. It does not take long until clicking becomes second nature to you, but clicking is more involved than just pressing down on the mouse button. Let's take a look at the right way to click as well as the different functions tied to clicking.

Clicking

First, rest the heel of your hand on the desktop or table in front of the mouse. Put your hand over the mouse and hold it on one side with the thumb and on the other side with the ring and little finger. Now use your thumb and fingers to move the tip of the arrow onto the on-screen item you would like to select.

Watch for the arrow to become a pointing finger. Hold the mouse still. Now lightly click the mouse button with your index finger. If your mouse has more than one button, click the left mouse button. The lighter you click, the better clicking works. Let's take a look at some clicking terminology.

Click

Click means to press and release the left mouse button.

Double-click

Double-click is to press twice in quick succession and release the left mouse button. Do not take your finger off the left mouse button while clicking. If you are having trouble double-clicking, you are probably moving the mouse slightly between the clicks. The mouse must stay still between mouse clicks. Double-clicking is clicking something twice in very quick succession. At first, many people have difficulty double-clicking because they do not click fast enough.

Right-click

Right-click means to press and release the right mouse button. Be adventurous; right-click on everything. You really can't do any damage with the right mouse button in Windows because it's designed to show only a context menu (a list of options appropriate for the selected object). One of the options is usually Properties, which gives you access to lots of settings and information.

Dragging

To drag your mouse, place the pointer over an object on your screen. Next press and hold down the left mouse button. While you are holding the button down, move the mouse to reposition the object on the screen. When the object that you moved is in the location of your choice, release the button.

Scroll Bars

A good place to practice your dragging skill is on the scroll bars. Sometimes the entire window is too long to fit on the computer screen. If that is the case, you will see a scroll bar running up and down the right hand side of your screen. The scroll bar is a bar that has arrows on either end with a small box in between those arrows. Click on the small box and, while holding down your left mouse button, drag the box towards the bottom of the screen to see additional areas of the screen. You can drag the box on the scroll bar up or down at any time. To accomplish the same task, you can also click on the up and down arrows on the top or bottom of the scroll bar; this moves the scroll box up or down one line at a time. If you are scrolling up or down several screens, dragging the scroll box is a much faster way of moving than clicking the up and down arrows one line at a time.

Vertical movement on your computer screen is accomplished by using either the up and down arrows or the drag box on the scroll bar found on the right side of your screen.

There is another scroll bar for horizontal movement. If a window is too wide to be fully visible, you may also see a scroll bar on the bottom of the screen that will allow you to scroll both from right to left and from left to right.

Mouse Practice

Practice up; you will be a pro in no time. Clicking becomes second nature to computer users in the shortest time. Once you have clicking down pat, it is time for some fun. Want to measure your finger speed? How about a Fastest Finger Challenge? Click that little mouse here to visit the Mouse Clicking Championship Site. Find out how you rate against others; see how many times you can click your mouse button in ten seconds. The Master level is eighty times in ten seconds. Can you beat that?

It is a comfortable feeling to have that mouse under your hand and know you are using the right tool to communicate with the computer. A special thanks to Douglas Engelbart who invented the mouse in the 1960's to help people interact with the computer. Can you imagine the computing world without our good friend, the mouse?