Top 10 mouse tips to increase efficiency
Hello %%First Name%%
I am often just as guilty as most, to simply use and ‘know what we know’ with computers, so use and stick to that. But you probably right now have your hand on your mouse, so wouldn’t you love in just a few minutes learn some tricks  with clicks on how you could do so much more, so quickly and easily, saving you time and increase productivity?!
Take just a few minutes to glance through these tips and I am sure you’ll soon be saying “ohhhh wow…”.
So here’s a really quick Tips & Tricks list of things you may have had no idea you could do with your mouse!
Tricks with Clicks
Using the scroll wheel for a new Tab
Your Mouse Wheel is great for scrolling up and down pages, but this wheel can also do so much more, as shown below.
The mouse wheel can also be used as a button. Got to a web page and simply press the mouse wheel on a link. It will open that link in a new Tab, saving you the need to do things such as right click and then select from a drop-down menu of actions. (Under your browser menu - Tools/Option – you can set whether you are taken immediately to that new tab or in just open the tab and you stay on the current page for now.)
You can also open new tabs by pressing and holding Ctrl key while clicking on any link and it will open that link in a new tab.
Using the scroll wheel to close tabs
Often I find I want to close singular or multiple tabs in my browser, but the accuracy to click exactly on the little ‘x’ in the tab corner can be tricky. Especially when in a hurry or closing inactive tabs that are lighter shaded.
The answer?... simply press down the mouse wheel anywhere on that tab and it will close it. I find this one real handy!
Zoom the open window
Want to quickly enlarge or shrink the page you are working on?.... Quickly Zoom in and Out of a web page, word document, excel spread sheet, etc. Hold down the Ctrl key and scroll the wheel up to zoom in and down to zoom out.
Move forward and back through your web browsing history
This is a cool trick also… If you have been doing some surfing, in your web browser hold the Shift key and then scroll and or down with your wheel. It will quickly take you through the pages you have been visiting rather than using the browser back and forward buttons.
Shift key and mouse click
Many text editing programs will allow you to simply highlight all or portions of text using the Shift key and the mouse. For example, place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph, hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the paragraph to highlight the full paragraph.
Select with double and triple click
I am sure you all know to simply Double click on any word in any program to select that word. But did you know with a Triple Click you can automatically select the whole paragraph?!
Use the right-click
Don’t forget the versatility of the Right Click. In any web page, simply Right Click on text, white space, an image to be given an array of options.
Such as:
Right Click on an image and you can see all the properties of that image. You can even select ‘Copy’ and then paste in directly into your document (Right Click, ‘Paste’).
Same with text, highlight what you want, and Right Click, Copy. Then paste where you want it.
Send the Link/Page via email.
Bookmark a page.
Refresh the page.
Save the page to your computer.
And more… If you have Add-ons installed in to your browser, many of the actions these perform can be accessed by Right Click also.
Selecting multiple separate items
While holding down the Ctrl key you can left-click to select multiple individual objects or highlight multiple sections of text (Double/Triple click, move to next word/paragraph and do the same). For example, in Windows Explorer, your desktop, etc, where you can see multiple files listed, simply hold the Ctrl key and then Left Click on just the individual files you want to copy, move, etc. Then use right click or keyboard shortcuts for the action you wish to take.
On a page on text in your browser, Word, etc, you can highlight specific words or paragraphs, and then in one action, copy them all and paste where you want them.
Default Pointer to buttons
This another great efficiency feature. Often when you want to take an action such as delete, download, install and so on, a dialogue box appears asking you to agree or confirm the action you want (i.e.: Delete; Yes/No). This feature makes the mouse curser automatically move to the buttons of this box, so all you need do is click.
To activate this, go into Control Panel / Hardware & Sound and select Mouse Settings. Under Pointer Options tick the box ‘Automatically move pointer to the default button in a dialogue box’.
Tip: While in these settings, on the bottom of that same dialogue box is a setting ‘Show location of pointer when I press the Ctrl key’.
Often you find you can’t see where your cursor actually is on the screen and find yourself shaking the mouse to see it. Instead you can now just hit the Ctrl key at it will make it obvious to you.
Maximising, minimising and closing windows.
Double-click the top title bar of any window to maximize a window to full screen or if it is already maximized it will resize it to a window.
Many people also think you have to use the ‘x’ in the top right of a window to close it, but you also Double click on the top left on the window, where the program icon is and it will close the window.
Hope you found these tips helpful and will speed up some of your daily tasks. So why not test them out while checking out all our services at www.redbackstudios.com.au and see how we can help you increase your online business.
If you have any topics you would like me to address in these newsletters, or have further questions on this topic or anything else, please don’t hesitate to contact us on support@redbackstudios.com.au.
Warm regards
Laurence
When in doubt, Google it !
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