Mouse Terms

Mouse: The Mouse is a device to input clicked commands to your computer.

Common Mouse Commands: The most common directions for mice are to use them to "point and click." It is also useful to know how to "double-click," "right-click," "drag and drop," and "highlight" or "select" text.

Point: This is to drag the mouse so that its pointer is on a particular spot on the screen. Remember, the mouse only registers movement when its underside touches the pad. So if you run out of room to slide, just pick the mouse up lightly, set it back down on the opposite side of the pad, and move in the direction you need to again. Sliding the mouse faster will move the pointer faster.

Click: A PC mouse has two or three buttons. To click, use the left-most button. Don't move the mouse as you click, that will select the text instead. Clicking can do numerous things. In many cases, it is used to place a cursor in an appropriate place in a box or text document so that typing will go in the right place. It can be used to activate a toolbar button or drop a menu. It can be used to follow an Internet link, resize a window, or many other things.

Double-Click: This command is executed using the same button as a click, but in this case, you click twice, closely together. The speed should be about the same as the "lub-dub" of a quick heartbeat. Usually, you double-click to open a program or a file and single-click the rest of the time, but there are exceptions. When in doubt, click first, if that doesn't work, double-click.

How Do You Know a Click Worked? When you click or double-click correctly, one of two things happens. Either the command you issued immediately executes, or an icon appears on the screen that tells you to wait. In Windows 95, the icon is usually an hourglass. While these wait icons are on, it is important not to issue more commands through clicking or other methods. The computer will not do anything else until it completes whatever process put the hourglass up in the first place.

Right-Click: With a PC mouse, there are usually at least two buttons. Clicking the right button will often bring up a short menu on your screen from which you can select (by moving your pointer over a choice and left-clicking). If you don't want to select from the resulting menu, click somewhere on the screen away from it. The right and middle mouse buttons can also be set to perform specific instructions.

Drag and Drop: This was originally a Macintosh feature, but has also been incorporated into Windows 95. If you click and hold down instead of letting up, your pointer turns into something like a magnet, grabbing the objects your arrow is over and dragging them to wherever the mouse moves.

Highlighting Text: This function works much the same as drag and drop. Hold your mouse button down and move the arrow over text and that text will be selected. You can tell this has happened when the text becomes "highlighted" with an outline color around it, usually black or dark purple. Turn the highlight off by clicking somewhere else on the screen.

Troubleshooting: If the arrow does not move, check to ensure the mouse has a ball. If the arrow still does not move check to see if the cable is plugged in securely to the mouse port on the CPU. If it was not securely fastened, press the ALT key and the F4 function key to restart the computer.