Left Handed Mouse Buttons
Which hand do use to control your computer mouse? Most computers are set up by default to have the mouse on the right. This can be useful for left-handers if you are taking notes or writing while you are also using the mouse as you can do so with your left hand.
On the other hand (!) most left-handers have better fine control with their left hand so would prefer to have the mouse on the left. Some lefties just put the mouse on the left and leave the buttons set at their default, with the main "clicking" button still being the left one and using it with their middle finger (this does not apply to Apple Macs which do not have 2 mouse buttons).
It is more common to actually switch the mouse buttons over so the left index finger is still doing the main clicking and this can easily be done in Windows...
Start / Settings / Control Panel / Mouse /
and on the Buttons Tab tick the box for "Switch primary and secondary buttons"
This can cause problems if you share the computer with a right-hander. Mauricio Tejada in Japan has produced a clever utility that allows you to instantly swap the mouse buttons for right- or left-handers by just pressing Ctrl-F12 instead of going through the Windows Control Panel.
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It also changes the mouse pointer and hand icons to left-handed versions at the same time (shown on the left of this image). |
You can also configure the "hot-key" settings to your own choice and set whether the pointers should automatically change or not. This clever programme is completely free and you can download it (only 461K) here
http://download.cnet.com/SwapMouseButtons/3000-2056_4-10053869.html
Many thanks to Mauricio for making this available to us.
A lot of the better quality mouses (mice?) are now being made in ergonomic designs to make them more comfortable and also with more function buttons available. As always, very few manufacturers bother to think about left-handers when designing their products so congratulations to Logitec, who have made a great left-handed ergonomic mouse.
Click here to see other left-handed computer equipment
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Left handed products - practical and individual
Click on an image to see the full range of left handed items available
