Office Tips and Methods

Posts Tagged ‘Basic Office Skills’

Mouse and keyboard essentials can become second nature quite quickly, once you learn them. However, if you are new to Windows computing or have simply learned by doing, you may be missing some of the basics.

This article will focus on basic keyboard skills which all seem simple once you know how to use them but which some people find very difficult to use in the first place. The article includes some examples of shortcuts that are possible with the mouse or keyboard actions but our main interest is how to use the mouse and keyboard keys alone or in various combinations. Many times when you ask for help the article or forum post suggests that you use mouse or keyboard keys is certain ways. This article is about what these suggestions mean.

How familiar are you with your mouse? Here are some basic points to be aware of:

• Mouse

  • Right or Left

    A basic windows mouse has two ‘keys,’ left and right. When you rest your right hand, palm down on the mouse, your index finger rests naturally on the left key and you second finger rests on the right. The left key is used to select or choose the item you have used the mouse to point to on the screen. The right mouse key is typically used to open a shortcut menu of choices that are appropriate to whatever it is you are doing at the moment.

  • Click or Drag

    A Click is a single quick down and up motion of the specified mouse key. A Drag on the other hand, means that you should press and hold down the specified mouse key while you move the mouse in the desired direction.

  • Scroll Wheel

    Your mouse may have a wheel between the left and right keys. You can spin this wheel in either direction. The action spinning the wheel causes depends, in part on where you are pointing when you spin it. For example, in Word 2007, or 2010 (or any of the Office applications with the ribbon interface), spinning the wheel which change the active ribbon tab.

  • Single Click

    Different actions require different kinds of clicking. A Single Click means quickly pressing and releasing the mouse key once only.

  • Double Click

    A Double click, on the other hand, means rapidly pressing the mouse key twice. The setting for just how quickly it is necessary to repeat the click for Windows to interpret your mouse action as a double click is adjustable (see below.)

  • Control Panel Adjustments

  

You can use the Mouse options in the Windows Control panel to adjust double click speed and to switch the Left and Right mouse key if you prefer to use the mouse in your left hand

• Adjust double click speed

  If you have difficulty double-clicking you can use the mouse properties to adjust the time between the first and second click.

• Switch Left and Right

  If you are left-handed you can use the mouse properties so that the mouse keys are reversed.