Mouse + Keys = Wow!

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"First of all, I did not want to learn the computer and when I had to, we all learned without a mouse. I thought a mouse was a real mouse and I got upset. How was I to know? Anyway, for years I only used my hands, no mouse, and I was quite content with the computer. (edit) So, now here I am years later being told if I go back to the old way I would not need the mouse anymore." - S. Scott

If you haven't read "My Favorite Keyboard Shortcuts" you can do it on line at http://askjuan.net/articles/keyboard.php

When I concluded the tutorial, I gave you the impression that you would not need a mouse anymore. That was not my intent. In fact, there are some neat tricks you can do with your mouse alone or in combination with keystrokes. If you followed the examples in the tutorial, you now know how to copy and paste directly from your keyboard. Today, we will use the mouse to enhance that operation.

Selecting text: Take your mouse and place the cursor in the middle of a sentence. If you click once, the cursor will appear where you have clicked. If you click twice, the word you are clicking on will be selected (highlighted in black). Now, for the exciting part, if you click three times, the entire paragraph will be selected. Wow!

A few words about mouse clicking: Clicking the mouse is one of the most basic forms of communication with your computer. In fact, most of us take it for granted. The number of times you click on the mouse is very important. I have seen many of you clicking away like there is no tomorrow. The basics for clicking are simple. One click is usually enough. Sometimes two clicks are necessary. That depends on the reaction you are expecting.

On the Internet, most links to another page are underlined, sometimes not. But an almost certain visual cue lets us know when we can click. That is, the "hand" cursor that appears when we place our mouse over a link. Be cautious if you are one of those over clickers.

You can get unexpected results by clicking a link twice. What happens, if you are lucky, is that your next page gets requested on the first link, then the second click cancels the first click and requests the page again, making your wait longer. If you are not lucky, the page you requested will appear quickly and possibly have a different link directly under your mouse. By having the extra click you will be skipping the page you were interested in. Ok... back from planet tangent.

Once you have clicked the appropriate number of times, you are ready to copy the selected text by using the key combination Ctrl + c. Take your mouse to the new location. Click once at the insertion point, and use Ctrl + v to paste.

More Mouse: Hold the Ctrl key and click once anywhere in the middle of a sentence.
This action selects the entire sentence. Click your mouse once anywhere in the text. We will call this point A. Now, hold the Shift key and click anywhere else. We will call this point B. This action will select all the text between point A and point B.

Note: when you are viewing a web page there is no visual cursor when you click once. But the rest of the clicks will do exactly what we talked about above.

Quick guide:
One click: Places cursor at point A (or insertion point)
Two clicks: Selects word at point A
Three clicks: Selects entire paragraph
Ctrl + one click: Selects entire sentence
Shift + one click: Selects all text between point A and (this) click (point B)
Ctrl + c: Copies selected text into memory
Ctrl + v: Pastes copied text into insertion point
Ctrl + x: Cuts (removes) selected text from document (use in combination with Ctrl + v to cut and paste)
Ctrl + z: Undo (OOPS!) this may be the most important key combination. Some programs will let you do this repeatedly to keep undoing your previous actions.
Ctrl + a: SELECTS ALL. This selects everything on your document. Play with it.

In conclusion, a good combination between keystrokes and mouse clicks will give you more flexibility when editing your documents. There is no need to get rid of the mouse or keyboard if you don't want. There are programs that help you do all the typing and navigation via your voice without the need for either. But that is another tutorial altogether. -Juan-