Mods: If this is in the inappropriate forum, please move it. I wasn’t sure where to put it.
My left mouse button has decided to die on me. (in that it’s not clicking at all) On someone’s suggestion, I looked inside the mouse and found that the black control thing directly under the button is not where it should be. Therefore, I think I’ve got a dead mouse.
Yes, I could buy a new mouse, since they’re nort very expensive. (and maybe a new keyboard too, while I’m at it) However, I cringe at the thought of diving into the veritable morass of wires in back of my computer to see where it’s plugged in. :eek: Needless to say, my friends set this computer up for me. Maybe it’s an excuse to hold another party: “Party time at my place… and fix my PC while you’re at it!”
Anyhow, I digress. I’d appreciate it if any of you had some keyboard navigation skills they could share. (the only button on my mouse that works like it should is the right mouse button, by the way)
Sending IMs takes forever now: right-click on the window, minimize it, restore it, type in message, press “send,” and then minimize the window again. As for clicking on links: right-click the link, choose “Open” from the little menu that appears, and then minimize the whole thing so I can actually work on other stuff.
So does anyone have any hints for, say, copying and pasting without a mouse? Or typing a new address in the Internet address bar? Or anything else that might make my life easier while I wait on getting a new mouse and having friends install it for me? (if I do it, I’m scared that I’ll screw it up)
A tricky solution would be to work around the left mouse button. In the Control Panel, under the Mouse settings, you might be able to reassign the buttons. They usually let you swap them at the very least. I’m not sure if that would be an improvement, but it’s worth a shot.
Without a mouse these keys get you around quite well - Tab, Up,Left,Right,Down,Alt,Windows Key,Alt-Tab
to copy - ctrl-C
to paste - ctrl - V
to cut - ctrl - X
I use them quite often at work, because most keyboard shortcuts are a lot quicker than moving the mouse and clicking. especially for a left-hander like me (when the mice are virtually confined to the right side of the monitors)
It may sound daunting, but if you just spend time messing with the keys I mentioned you might actually end up prefering them. They become sub-conscious, it becomes like riding a bike when you’ve learned all the useful keyboard shortcuts. My productivity at work is better than all of my colleagues because they stick to using the mouse for most jobs while I tap away at the keyboard.
Acutally, there’s nothing more to installing a new mouse than:
1)Turn off computer
2)Follow cord from current mouse back (or) look at back of computer to find a round plug plugged in next to a picture of a mouse (assuming it’s a newer computer).
3)Pull old mouse plug straight out
4)Align new mouse plug, push striaght in. If it doesn’t go in smoothly, it’s probably upside down. (They’ll only go in one way, if you don’t try to force it.)
5)Turn computer back on.
That’s it! (There are a few exceptions… an iFeel mouse for instance, you install software to take advantage of the buzzing stuff. But you’ll normally still get the standard mouse usage out of it even if you don’t.)
As for other keyboard shortcuts: (I am assuming you’re using a Wndows-based system.)
windows key + pause --> System Properties dialog
alt + tab —> switch between currently open windows
alt + F4 --> close current window
alt --> normally activates the menu bar at the top of the window, press again (or hit escape) to un-activate
And like Lobsang said… some of these shortcuts are very much well worth knowing. Cutting-and-pasting is much faster if you use both: highlight with the mouse, ctrl-c, use mouse to move cursor to new place, crtl-v to stick it back in. Voila.
Yes, indeed… I know those quite well. However, how are you supposed to select text in the first place for it to copy and/or paste? Maybe I will try reassigning the buttons… thanks, SmackFu. Oh, and another thing: how can I check off little boxes like the ones that appear below the “post reply” box? Any ideas?
I agree with the other posts in this thread. I use Win98, and to swap the mouse buttons, all I have to do is:
Start/Settings/Control Panel
Double-click on Mouse (in your case, right-click, point to Open, and press Enter).
If necessary, use the Tab key to highlight the Right-handed option under Button Configuration.
Use the Right Arrow key to change it to Left-handed.
Press Enter.
Of course, doing this will disable right-clicking (and I use right-click a lot), but at least you’ll have a functional “Left button.”
Anyway, some other keyboard shortcuts:
Alt - Left Arrow = Back
Alt - Right Arrow = Forward
F5 = Refresh
Ctrl - Tab will switch windows within some applications (Excel), and jump to the Address bar in IE.
Ctrl - Home = Top of page in many applications
Ctrl - End = Bottom of page in many applications
There are others I know, but I can’t think of them now.
Of course, as mentioned, you can always use the Alt key (or F10) to access the menu bar, and therefore gain access to all the commands available there. Plus, a lot of these commands/options will indicate any keyboard shortcuts.
Well, this is where things get tiresome. You’ll have to use the Tab key to navigate about the page. If it’s a radio button, use the arrow keys to change options. If it’s a checkbox, press the space bar to check or uncheck. If it’s a listbox, use the up and down arrow keys to select, then press Enter. If it’s a link or button, press Enter… and on and on and on… Depending on the order of the Tab stops, you could be hitting that damned Tab button several dozen times before you get to the option you want. Install your mouse; you’ll preserve your sanity.
Thanks, SmackFu… I love you! You are indeed a god. I reassigned the buttons, and all is going relatively smoothly.
splatterpunk, I was doing that Tab thing a LOT, and got really frustrated. I couldn’t even click on the icon buttons at the top of the screen. Thanks for your advice and shortcuts. (reassigning the mouse buttons cured me of that, and I can now select things in little boxes and buttons without too much trouble)
Flamsterette_X, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem putting in a new mouse yourself. It’s so easy - and the connection is usually right at the top of the back of the computer and now they’re even color coded! Most mice are usually plug-n-play, too (meaning you plug them in, turn on the machine, and there you have it).
Just think of how proud you will be of yourself when you can say “i installed a new periferal on my machine all by myself.”
Selecting text with a keyboard is quite easy, simply hold down the shift key while moving the cursor (using arrowkeys, page up/down, etc) to the end of the section of text that you want to select. Using Ctrl and the arrow keys will move you one word at a time instead of one character…
Having said that, I agree that connecting a new mouse will be very straightforward.
On Windows, you can also turn on Accessibility options to use your keyboard as a substitute for your mouse:
Go to Settings, Control Panel, Accessibility Options, click on the Mouse tab, and check the Use Mousekeys box. With mousekeys, you can use the numeric keypad to move the cursor around, simulate mouse clicks, drag the cursor to select text, and everything else you’d usually do with a mouse. Go to Help and search for mousekeys for all the gory details.
Another essential trick for navigating without a mouse is how to move and resize windows. Use alt-space to pop up the little menu on the window’s icon, and then hit m for move or s for size, and then use the arrow keys to do the moving or resizing. For a child window of an “MDI” app (one of those apps where all the documents open in windows inside a main window), you can get the parent window’s menu using alt-space and the child window menu using alt-minus.
I actually use “alt-space, n” for minimize very frequently because it’s a lot quicker than moving the mouse to the minimize button.
Oh, and in case nobody else has mentioned it, when using arrow keys to navigate around various places (i.e. the desktop, web pages, etc), you can usually use the “menu” key on keyboards that have it to pop up the right-click menu for whatever is currently selected. The menu key is usually to the right of the space bar and has an icon of a mouse selecting an item from a menu. You don’t really need this since you’ve still got your right mouse button, but if you use someone else’s suggestion of swapping the mouse buttons, you might.
OK, you’ve reassigned the mouse buttons, so how do you right-click? Ctrl+Shift+F10. Newer keyboards have a context-menu button next to the right Ctrl key as well that also simulates a right-click.
All these are very good tips. Thank you all. However, I can assure you that my computer is indeed a very old model, so the wires are not color-coded, nor is there a picture of a mouse next to the plug where you’re supposed to put it in. That said, does anyone else have any ideas?
The windows Key + f4 minimizes all open windows, very handy when you are surfing at work. I have tons more but am busy at work, so I’ll check back later. You can pretty much survive without a mouse, and we’ll help get you there.
In XP at least, WindowsKey+D is the “show desktop” thingy, which is very similar to the “minimize all windows” thing, except that if you do it again, it brings them all back, which is handy.
Thanks again for the replies. These shortcuts will come in very handy, now that my mouse has decided to not move at all! (see my very recent pit thread, entitled “This Computer is a piece of crap”) Yes, I am fairly certain it’s plugged in. Any other ideas, bring them on!
By the way (since I’m in a thread anyhow, and it doesn’t really warrant a whole new thread), is it normal to have a thin white line right down the middle of my desktop? I first noticed this at around 3 AM, and have no clue as to why it was there. Restarting the computer doesn’t do a thing, either.
At first, I thought it was because I’d closed all my browser windows that were open, in preparation for going to bed. However, that explanation made little sense. Anybody have any ideas?
I must say you’re doing an admirable job of posting without a mouse.
The mouse not moving could be a short in the wire. Feel along the entire length of the wire for anything strange. Just doing this might bring the mouse back to life on the next reboot. You can also go into Device Manager (Control Panel, System icon) which is not easy to navigate without a mouse. Use Tab to get to the main window where the devices are listed, arrow keys to move down the list, and + key to open a device group that’s highlighted. Check if you have Mouse listed and if you do that there is no yellow exclamation point on the device. Otherwise, dead mouse and it needs to be replaced (but you were going to do that anyways, right?)
Video artifacts on the screen can be caused by a number of things. Easiest thing to do is degauss the monitor first. There should be a button on your monitor that will bring up a menu. Look for Degauss or a symbol that looks like an upside-down U with a slash through it. If the white line persists it could still be the monitor, but let’s check the video card first.
Go into Control Panel and run the Display applet. Click the Settings tab and then the Advanced Properties button. Look at the refresh rate and set it to Optimal, or if it’s there already some of the other refresh rates available and click apply after each setting change.
Line still there? Close the advanced settings dialog box and drag the resolution slider to 640 x 480 and click Apply.
Still got a line? Go back into the Advanced Settings and click the Change button on the Adapter tab (please make sure to write down what video driver you are currently using). Choose the Show All Devices option then scroll to the top of the list on the left window pane and select Standard Display types then select Standard Display Adapter (VGA) in the right window. Click OK all the way out and reboot when prompted. If you still have the problem after reboot then your video card is probably dying. If you don’t have the line then your prior video driver was suspect. Go out to your PC manufacturer’s website and try to find an updated video driver (refer to what you wrote down earlier). If they don’t have anything try the video chipset manufacturer’s website for reference drivers.
All these instructions are for Windows 98 so you may have to do slightly different things to make the above suggestions work in other versions of Windows. Good luck.
P.S. Um, you’re sure your desktop wallpaper isn’t corrupted, right? Change wallpaper to (None) just to make sure.
However, how are you supposed to select text in the first place for it to copy and/or paste? Maybe I will try reassigning the buttons… thanks, SmackFu. Oh, and another thing: how can I check off little boxes like the ones that appear below the “post reply” box? Any ideas?