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Chapter 5: Customizing Your Computer’s Hardware Devices

Optimizing Your Mouse Settings

You use the mouse pointer, trackball, or other input device every time you work with

your computer, but have you taken the time to optimize the way it works? Probably

not, because the mouse, like the keyboard, is another hardware component we tend

to take for granted. Let’s fix this by taking a few minutes to optimize your mouse.

Configuring your computer’s mouse settings

You can optimize your computer’s mouse settings by completing the following steps:

1. In the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound and then click Mouse. This dis-

plays the Mouse Properties dialog box shown in Figure 5-14.

2. If your mouse is on the left side of your keyboard rather than the right side,

you’re probably left-handed and may want to switch the primary and secondary

mouse buttons by selecting “Switch primary and secondary buttons.” With the

buttons switched, the right button is for clicking and the left button displays the

shortcut menu. As a result, wherever you are instructed to right-click some-

thing, you would actually need to left-click it.

Figure 5-14. Configuring the mouse settings

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3. Use the “double-click speed” slider to adjust the way your computer recognizes

a double-click. If you move the slider to the left you increase the likelihood of

your computer recognizing a double-click whether you double-click fast or

slow. If you move the slider to the right you decrease the likelihood that your

computer will recognize double-clicks with longer pauses between clicks. Dou-

ble-click the folder provided to test your settings. If the test folder doesn’t open

and close as expected, change the settings until you get the desired effect.

4. Select “Turn on ClickLock” to select or drag without having to hold down the

mouse button. With ClickLock on, briefly press the mouse button to set the

lock, move the mouse without holding the button to drag, and then release the

click lock by clicking the mouse button again.

5. On the Pointer Options tab, use the Motion slider to set the pointer speed. In

most cases, you’ll want a relatively fast pointer. To allow the pointer to zip

across the screen, move the slider all the way to the right. To ensure that the

pointer doesn’t appear bouncy by increasing pointer precision, select “Enhance

pointer precision.” Enhancing pointer precision also lets you easily make small,

precise pointer movements even when the pointer speed is set all the way to

Fast.

6. Select “Automatically move pointer to the default button...” to have the pointer

automatically move to the default button in a dialog box.

7. Select the “Display pointer trails” checkbox if you sometimes have trouble see-

ing the pointer, and then use the slider to adjust the length of the pointer trail. If

you have trouble seeing the pointer sometimes and don’t like pointer trails,

select “Show location of pointer when I press the Ctrl key instead.”

8. Select “Hide pointer while typing” to hide the pointer (and get rid of an annoy-

ing distraction) while typing.

9. Click the Wheel tab.

10. By default, most computers scroll three lines at a time when you move the

mouse wheel one notch. You can use the “Vertical scrolling” options to set the

number of lines to scroll, or select “One screen at a time” to configure the mouse

wheel so that one notch scrolls a screen at a time.

11. If you have a mouse wheel with a tilt feature, you can use this to scroll left and

right a specified number of characters at a time. By default, the mouse horizon-

tally scrolls three characters at a time. Enter a different Horizontal Scroll in the

combo box provided, if desired.

12. Click OK to apply your settings.