Here is a sneak preview of Chapter 1: When NOT to use the mouse. Trust me, knowing when NOT to use the mouse is just as important as knowing WHEN and HOW to use it effectively 🙂
When NOT to use the mouse
To click on Ok/Cancel buttons.
Clicking on OK / Cancel using mouse (while otherwise working on the keyboard) is the commonest misuse of mouse!
It is not necessary to use the mouse at all to choose these buttons.
Understanding The Default Button
Here is a simple dialog. Notice that OK button has a darker border.
This is because OK is the default button.
Default button can be chosen by pressing the Enter key.
Just remember. OK = Enter key. Cancel / Close = Esc key.
Shortcut Keys
While working with menus and dialogs you will often notice that some characters are underlined. Usually you can press Alt key along with the underlined character to choose that item quickly.
To select Landscape option, type Alt S (Word – Page Setup Dialog)
If you don’t see these underlined characters, just press Alt key. Now the hot keys will be visible.
Moving To Next / Previous Item
While working with dialogs / objects we often need to move to the next item / textbox / button / shape etc. Many of us use Mouse to do this. Using keyboard is faster in most cases.
Press Tab to move to next item and Shift Tab to move to previous item.
This works with PowerPoint objects, Excel cells, Word table cells and items in dialogs.
Can you think of any other scenario of when NOT to use the mouse? Let me know in the comment section below.
2 Responses
We must avoid use of mouse to browse webpages for reading to avoid Repetitive strain injury. Many people are used to rest their wrist continuously on the mouse while surfing webpages.
Helo. Yes. Misuse of mouse (or any other technology for that matter) is going to lead to problems. This book is not about ergonomic use of mouse. The link for Repetitive Stress Injury is included in the book. The objective of this book is to demonstrate EFFECTIVE usage of mouse.