Train your hand to use your mouse effectively

When you are using a word processing package, you have a simple purpose - to complete the letter, poster or whatever accurately and stylishly in a reasonable time.

Word-processing is not only typing but the combination of composing, editing, formatting, and printing of documents.

These elements all make use of mouse operations to greater or lesser degree, so if your mouse skills are poor, your operations will be slowed down and you will be distracted from the content of your work.

Analogy

When you carry out a hill start in your car you do not consciously think through the steps and timing of the hand and foot movements - you just do them automatically whilst thinking about the rest of your journey. When you use the mouse as part of a word processing task, you similarly need to be able to focus on getting the words in your mind on to the screen, not be distracted by wondering how to use the mouse when the time comes.

Mouse skills come in three areas:

1. Pointing
2. Scrolling
3. Clicking:
   • Left-clicking (known as simply "Clicking")
   • Right-clicking (known logically as "Right-clicking")
   • Double left-clicking (known as "Double-clicking")
   • Click, Drag & Drop
   • Selecting

It's not rocket science, it's simply practice.

First, hold your mouse correctly:

Now try some fun training exercises.

Overall Mouse Skills Practice ➤