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Top 10 computer mouse tips

SafeBytes Software

Computers weren’t always the compact, user friendly machines they are now. There was a time when a single computer could occupy an entire room, and a spacious room at that.

Old computers like ENIAC or EDVAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer and Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer, respectively) also lacked any of the modern input/output peripherals we have all grown accustomed to.

For those less computer minded, the I/O is the means by which a computer communicates with the outside world, and include screens and printers (output), mouse and keyboard (input). These ancestors of our modern PCs communicated through punch cards, and the results they gave were communicated via card punches. We have already mentioned the topic of this article, and one of the more helpful inventions that were made during the early days of computing: the mouse.

The aptly named peripheral is actually older than you might think, as is often the case with computer components or even computers themselves, with the earliest prototypes being patented in the late 1960s. These were of course much more primitive than the better designed optical mice we use today.

Those of you born in the 90’s might even be surprised to find out that mice weren’t always optical, relying on a ball to track the user’s movements. Some of you may remember the fact that there was no scroll wheel either, only the left and right buttons to use.

Whatever the case may be, computer mice provided a level of control smoother than ever before, and made many tasks easier, and its utility cannot be denied, having applications for:

• Gaming. Providing a level of twitch control (depending on the mouse’s DPI) that is still considered the premiere way to play games that rely on reflexes.

• Design. Allowing for the easy and accurate manipulation and creation of images.

• Editing. Audio and video editing is made much more accurate by a mouse, allowing minute control over what section of the media needs to be trimmed.

• User friendliness. Allowing a person to operate an OS (Operating System) via gestures that come naturally, mice have made the computer a more user friendly platform than the DOS controlled PCs of the past.

As you can see, the mouse has many functions, the most important being the ability to provide a natural, accurate and easy to understand input for the user, but we’d be willing to bet that there are one or two things the average user doesn’t really know about them.

That being the case, let’s take a moment to review some tricks and tips for the mouse that’ll make your life that much easier!Paragraph select. Most of us know that we can use the shift and control keys to select files in batches and to select multiple separate files, respectively, but did you know you can select whole blocks of text with the shift key and the mouse?

To do so, simply hold down the shift key, click the start of the paragraph and, while still holding the key down, click on the end and voila!• Select pieces of text. Carrying over from the las point, the description

pertaining to the control key also works. This will allow you to select multiple pieces of the text that you wish to copy, by the exact same process as before, but holding down ctrl, clicking the mouse and dragging it in the direction of the text piece you wish to select.

• Select text vertically. This one’s not that useful, but you never know. The same process as before applies, but this time holding down the alt key!

• Move or copy an item. If you click and drag an icon while holding either the control or shift keys, the key you hold determines what happens to the icon: control will copy the item after dragging and dropping, the shift key will simply move it.

• Open links in new tabs with just one click. Instead of right-clicking a link in a page and selecting “open link in a new tab” you can either simply position the cursor over the link in question and click in the scroll wheel, which will open a new tab for you. And if you click on the opened tab with the scroll wheel, you’ll be able to close the tab as well.Alternatively, you can also open a new tab by pressing down the control key and clicking on the link.

• Zooming. You can zoom in and out of web pages and the windows explorer simply by tapping down the control key and scrolling the scroll wheel up or down.

• Select words or phrases. By double clicking the left mouse button, you will automatically select the word your cursor is resting on. Triple click it and you’ll get the whole sentence.

And please remember, all the fancy tricks and shortcuts aren’t going to do you any good if your PC’s the victim of infection. A good antivirus program is exactly what you need in order to stop the spread and infection of viruses on your computer.

One of the best alternatives in regards to antivirus programs is Safebytes Security Suite. This handy program will allow you to prevent infection or remove any virus that is currently affecting your computer and provides, among other things:

• Real time 24/7 protection against malware• Lightweight client that will not interfere with any other

processes in your system• Firewall Protection• User friendly interface• 24/7 customer support