7 Mouse Tweaks Which Improve Productivity

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Want to squeeze more productivity from your mouse? Here are 7 simple ways you can do just that!

1. How to Move a Mouse With Extreme Precision

Extremely handy when doing graphics work, a built-in Windows feature called MouseKeys allows you to move your mouse with your keyboard so it becomes much more precise than eve the most careful flick of the mouse.

Open the Control Panel, and click ‘Accessibility Options’.
On the mouse tab, and check the ‘Use MouseKeys’ box to turn the feature on.

Check out Microsoft’s MouseKeys Tutorial for more details.

2. How to Copy and Paste Faster

If you thought using keyboard shortcuts to ‘copy and paste’ was faster than a mouse, you haven’t tried True X-Mouse Gizmo. More than just a funky name for a free app, it gives you the option of auto-copying anything you highlight, and pasting it simply by clicking the middle mouse button.

3. How to Add Extra Functionality to Your Right Click

ClickZap allows you to run a predefined action when you double right-click at your mouse. Set up anything from locking your computer, to muting volume, or even minimizing windows when you double right-click. Free of course.

4. How to Lock Your Mouse So You Can Clean It Properly

If you’re not using an optical mouse, but one with a ball - you know how annoying it is to clean a mouse. One common headache is having the mouse active while cleaning it - where the cursor floats all over the place and you may click around unintentionally.

ToddlerTrap basically intercepts any keyboard or mouse inputs and makes the computer think that the key was never even pressed.

The mouse lock is automatically activated once the program is started, and it is disabled when the program is closed and the good thing about it is that it requires no installation. Now you can clean your mouse without having to worry about accidentally clicking on something.

(Thanks CyberNetNews!)

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5. How to Control The Mouse More Intuitively

Mouse Gestures refers to a process where quick flicks of a mouse perform basic functions in a program. (Think of it as shortcut-keys via mouse). For example, if you want to open a new window, just flick your mouse one way. If you want to close a minimize a window, just flick your mouse another way. (You can of course do many more things than that).

If you’re interested in a powerful Firefox browser mouse gesture package - check out ‘All-In-One-Gestures’. For a less powerful package but one which works for browsers, Windows explorer and Itunes - try out Rocker.

6. How To Quickly Select Lines of Text and Paragraphs

Triple click on a paragraph or line of text and Windows will instantly select it. This shaves off seconds right away, and really frees up a significant amount of time in the long run.

7. How to Scroll Without Using the Scroll Wheel

Clicking the scroll wheel on your mouse will give you a new interface to control your mouse. Just middle click your cursor on a web page, or document and the mouse cursor should change to look like the below picture.

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Now you should be able to scroll by simply moving the mouse around, and you can click any button to return to normal mode.

Bonus tip #1: Get smarter just switching the side of your mousepad

Bonus tip #2: Historical look at the man who invented the mouse

Bonus tip #3: Increase size of text and graphics in a web page, or office document by holding down the CTRL key and using your mouse scroll wheel.

Bonus tip #4: A free application called Edgeless causes the mouse pointer to wrap around the screen instead of stopping at the edges. Why you’d want to do that - I have no idea :)

In what other ways do you use your mouse? Tell us in the comments!

[tags] mouse, tips, windows [/tags]

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6 Responses to '7 Mouse Tweaks Which Improve Productivity'

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Ananth said,

on November 29th, 2007 at 12:49 pm

Some nice tweaks there.
Could I add two more that I know of?

1. There is Strokeit that is similar to the “All-In-One Gestures FF plugin” except that Strokeit is for all of Windows.

2. Then there is Type-to-click which is a brilliant software that enables the keyboard to perform mouse-like functions in a much more easier and efficient way than the Windows Mousekeys feature.

And yes, both are free.

Hope these are useful.
BigNerd said,

on November 30th, 2007 at 8:19 am

Thanks for those freeware links. (True-X and Click Zap).
Since I started using an optical mouse, I’ve always tweeked my settings so that I don’t use much movement to move around the screen.
Now that I use a laptop for my home ‘desktop’ computer, I use a black, foam backed desk pad (approx. 23″ x 18″) to set the PC on. An optical mouse responds better on a black surface than on a white or reflective one and will save battery life!

With the computer sitting at the top of the pad, there is enough room to place my cordless optical mouse directly in front of the computer. I personally find using a mouse in this ‘front and center’ position much more ergonomically effecient - vs. the ‘mouse pad on the right’ approach. Basically the mouse is just south of the computers touchpad.

/my two cents.
moontear said,

on December 5th, 2007 at 7:52 am

Strokeit (http://www.tcbmi.com/strokeit/) for life!

No seriously, I cannot live without it anymore. There is no faster way to start programs and control them when one is using with the mouse. It’s one of the first things I install on a computer and I also have a portable version on my USB stick.
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on December 30th, 2007 at 10:18 pm

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4 free ways to tweak your mouse and increase productivity said,

on January 13th, 2008 at 10:30 pm

[...] that later! Any other tips that you use that you would want to share? Post a comment! Enjoy! Source FriedBeef Technorati Tags: tweak mouse, mouse tweaks, tweak my mouse, how to tweak mouse, free mouse [...]
V Srivastav said,

on March 22nd, 2008 at 12:59 pm

sir i am looking for a way to remove the ‘copy here’ option from the options which appear when we right click , drag and release any file in winxp explorer. previously, till win98, left click and drag used to copy the file and right click and drag used to move the file–i am amazed they have removed this functionality and increased a keystroke !!

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