Top 10 Computer Mouse Tips You May Not Know

Most computer users don’t take full advantage of the computer mouse. Below are computer mouse tips and secrets to help you understand more about its features and increase your overall productivity when using a computer mouse

Shift Key and Click 

Many text editors and programs let you highlight all or part of the text using the Shift key and the mouse. For example, click at the beginning of the text and hold down the Shift key, scroll down to the end and click at the end of the text, and you can highlight all of the text. 

Tip: Holding down the Alt key  and dragging the mouse  to highlight text in a text editor lets you selectively highlight text 

 Take Advantage of the Mouse Wheel

Surely everyone is familiar with using the mouse wheel to move up and down a page. However, the mouse wheel can also do a lot more; below are just a few examples.

The mouse wheel is not just a “wheel”. It can also be used as a button. Pressing the mouse wheel also works as a third mouse button. The wheel button can be used to open a web page in a new tab by clicking the wheel on any link, and it can also be used to close a tab by clicking the wheel on any open tab

Zoom in and out on a web page, document, Excel spreadsheet and so on by holding down the Ctrl key and scrolling up or down to zoom in and out 

Hold down the Shift key and scroll down in most Internet browsers to go back to the previous web page. 

Some mouse wheels can be pushed left or right to move back and forward between web pages 

 Select With a Double and Triple Click

Any word can be selected by double-clicking it. If you want to highlight a whole paragraph, just left-click three times on any word in it. 

Tip: If you double-click and then drag the mouse, it highlights one word at a time.

Use the Right-Click

Take advantage of right-clicking whenever you highlight text to see the properties of an object. 
For example, if you highlight a file or text, you can right-click the highlighted item, copy it, and right-click anywhere else to paste it.

Tip: If you highlight or select any file or text and then click and drag while holding down the right mouse button, when you let go you get the option to move or copy it. This saves you the extra step of having to right-click where you want to paste the item.

Ctrl and Click

While holding down the Ctrl key, you can left-click to select multiple objects or highlight multiple parts of the text. 

 Tip: Mozilla Firefox users can also hold down the Ctrl key and click each cell in a table they want to copy, one by one. They can also hold down the Ctrl key and drag the mouse down a row to select only that row or text without selecting any other text in that table.

 Use the Mouse Side Buttons

Many newer computer mice also have buttons on the side of the mouse. These buttons can be programmed to do anything. However, by default, the left button can be used to go back a web page. Using the left button makes browsing the Internet more efficient because you don’t need to move the mouse pointer to the browser’s back arrow button to go back a page.


Use the Windows Snap To Feature

Take advantage of the Windows Snap to feature, which automatically moves the mouse pointer to the buttons that appear in a dialog box. For example, if you delete a file or close a window, Windows asks whether you are sure you want to do it. With the Snap To feature enabled, the mouse pointer automatically moves to the Ok button, so you only need to click the left mouse button if you agree. This saves you the time of moving the mouse pointer to the Ok button. To enable this feature, open Mouse properties in the Windows Control Panel and select the Snap To check box under the  Pointer Options tab.

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Resize a Window With a Double-Click 
Double-click the top title bar of any window to maximize the window or, if it is already maximized, resize the window to be smaller. You can also double-click the icon for the window in the upper-left corner of the window to close it.

Move the Mouse With Your Keyboard

Instead of using the mouse that came with your computer, you can also set Windows to let you use the numeric keypad as a mouse .

Customize the Mouse
Finally, if you have a mouse with more than two buttons, installing the included mouse software lets you customize the mouse further. For example, if you don’t use the side buttons to move back and forth in a web page, change them to something you do more often, such as switching between open windows or opening the calculator.