If you think that your mouse doesn’t matter when searching the web and blogging, think again.
I have bragged about my Internet savvy mouse in my series, Web Browser Guide for Bloggers, in Web Browser Guide: Button, Keyboard, and Mouse Shortcuts, and now I’m trying to function without my mouse and I’m going crazy.
I’ve been traveling a lot recently, switching between cars, houses, hotels, two trailers, and a motor home, and I’ve lost my mouse.
Actually, I have my mouse. It’s the Bluetooth USB device that’s missing.
I use the Logitech Revolution series mouse, a wireless, rechargeable unit with powerful finger and thumb buttons and a multi-speed scrolling wheel and button. It moves like silk under my hand and in an instant I can control what I click, when I click, and how I select. I’m in love.
It has a small rechargeable base and connects to my laptop via the Bluetooth USB device. I lost it, found it, and then put it somewhere safe, and now I can’t find that safe place as I’ve shifted from location to location.
I can’t get the darn thing to work with my two other Bluetooth adapters yet, so it must be a proprietary connection. ARGH!
But that’s not the point. It will turn up, sooner or later. The point is how dependent I am upon a good browsing and blogging mouse.
I’m using a small portable laptop mouse from Targus, which I bought for use on airplanes since I have to turn off all wireless devices in flight on US airlines (not on some international flights, though). It connects via wire to a USB connection so I have to learn to struggle with a string off my mouse again.
While optical, it isn’t very sensitive. I will click my Write Post editor and instead of setting the cursor in place, it will select a whole word, two words, or parts of words, or the whole damn sentence. If I’m not fast enough to catch it, I will start typing, deleting the selecting words instead of inserting my text in between them. ARGH!
I’ll click a link to copy it and then move to paste it into my post to find that the selection jumped and instead of the link, I’ll paste in some words from the post I want to link to. I have to remove those and then go back and do it again.
Without a back and forward thumb button, I’m constantly swinging my arm around as I move to the back and forward buttons on the browser. The scroll wheel is a ball and it scrolls one line at a time, making speed scrolling impossible. I then have to hunt for the narrow scroll bars on the browser to move up and down a web page. ARGH!
I use the scroll wheel button (center button) to open links in new tabs as I read through referring articles. The scroll ball is so flaky, it moves as I click and who knows what I’m opening or clicking on when I use it. I’ve opened up some weird stuff, or thought the click had worked to find out later that it didn’t. ARGH!
My fingers hurt and are cramped from the tiny size. My wrist and elbow hurt from the added work and exertion. And it takes 5 times longer to do anything that it would if I had my damn mouse.
Have you become dependent upon your mouse? Or do you even have a web savvy power mouse to help you blog? If you don’t, you don’t know what joy you are missing!
Having the right tool for the right job is critical to doing the job well. And if you are blogging without a good web-friendly mouse, you might not be doing your job as well and efficiently as you think.
Updated: I found the little sucker, the small USB Bluetooth thing. I swear I’m going to clip a mouse trap to it. But at least I’m back to my power mouse browsing after two weeks of agony.
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network, and author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
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11 Comments
If there’s one thing I’m so attached with mouse-related activity, it’s the mouse gesture. I used to use Opera a lot and I’ve grown attached to using various gestures to do various things. It’s a good thing that I find a good mouse gesture add-on for Firefox, which I have switched to recently.
I also try to do a lot of things with keyboard shortcuts now. Using mouse is really convenient, but if it can be done without both my palms leaving the keyboard then it’s better for me. I’ve read somewhere that it’s faster to use shortcuts than mouse, and I’m about to find out whether it’s true. It will take some getting used to, I assume.
BEST. MOUSE. EVER. I am addicted to this mouse. For OS X users, definitely get SteerMouse and map some of those side buttons to Expose actions. You’ll be zipping around in no time. I definitely miss it when I’m on the go.
I’ll agree with Mark, “BEST. MOUSE. EVER.” It’s saving me a lot of time and energy.
One of the features I like best, I didn’t even know about when I bought it. The way it’s settings are linked to the program you’re in. So I can use the speed scroll feature when reviewing code in DreamWeaver, but the slower scroll in another program without having to remember to switch each time I swap programs. Brilliant!
I read somewhere that ‘the tool defines the task’.
I have been using a Microsoft Optical TrackBall for about 5 years. Two left-right buttons, two programmable side buttons (right is ‘undo’, I forget the left), and scroll button. When it starts skipping I grab a Kleenex, pop the ball, wipe it down (dry), ball the Kleenex and swab the ball cavity, discard the Kleenex, pop the ball back in. The seller (Staples) swears it never skips, you never have to clean it.
We learn a few tools well, with experience we then learn to use those tools well. Often we learn to do superb work using crude tools, because of how we learn to use the tools. It is the experience, the learning, that makes the tool useful. At its best we get the most of the strengths of our tool, and exploit the weaknesses.
Change is often painful, even for those that spend their lives with new tech or other constant change. Whether you call it inertia or ‘stuck in a rut’. Or ‘expertise’. I am glad, Liz, that you have a tool that you depend on. Whether the work-around needs to be a different tool or a gentler learning curve, though .. Luck!
No wonder you couldn’t make that mouse work with other bluetooth adapters: it isn’t a bluetooth mouse.
Mouse is more the part of my body than it is a part of computer. Each time my mouse dies I spend days searching for a new one. Problem is, I need a csmall mouse, one of those that looks lie it is made for four year olds. Anything bigger makes me clumsy over the screen and is a bit tiresome cause I don’t move my wrist while using a mouse. And yes… it has to be black 🙂
Month ago, while I was in my holy quest of replacing old A4Tech I was a nightmare of computer accessories selers. Old model I got used to was out of the production so I saw millions of new models, not a single that promised me experience of the old mice I had. But one series really made me think. near the left button they had an extra one. According to the package, that one was there to replace the left double click! Instead of double clicking the left button you move your indew finger a bit and click just once. Am I the only one that see this as a magnificient stupidity made just to have something to write on the package? I am using a mouse since my first Amiga, that is since 1991. for the last sixteen years, I am double clicking left mouse button. By now, it is unconsciousness action. Now I am supposed to think about moving my finger to the new button just to save myself effort of the other click?
I skipped those models in a second and finished my shopping with something wireless, cheap and Chinese. Yes, I know it was a crazy decision but it was a lucky strike. The user manual is writen in english that can be described as hilarious, but who needs a user manual for a mouse. Oe thing I really like (and I know you would too) is that USB adapter can be hidden in a mouse’s body when not in use.
two weeks! waah I could have gone to the nearest IT store to buy a new one, i.e., same unit but if it is THE ONE then that’s a problem. It must’ve been very frustrating. But i agree that we are sometimes dependent on the good ol’ mouse in making our blogging experience faster and enjoyable. I do use one even with my laptop. 🙂
I thought about buying that mouse, too. How much did you pay for it?
Personally, I like to use the keyboard more than anything. It is so much faster knowing the shortcuts of the keyboard than using the mouse for everything. Of course, some things the mouse are better at, like clicking links.
For me, the ergonomics of the design really matters — even more than the button/scroll bells and whistles. I just got back from Staples trying the new ones out and went with the Logitech. (Okay, I admit, I had this post in the back of my mind, and your praise definitely helped make my decision.)Now, actually using it, I love it.
I’m also hooked on the ergonomic keyboard. I have the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and it really does make a huge difference with my carpal tunnel.
I know that it is important to have a great ergonomic keyboard when you spend all day on the computer. I never even thought about the mouse. I never knew how important the mouse was. I will definitely have to look into getting a new mouse. Thanks for the eye opener.
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