It was thus said that the Great Richard Erlacher once stated:
>
> I'm not sure how this ties into greater efficiency or effectiveness...
Less frustration on the user, and more consistency.
> more below, of course.
Of course ...
> > First off, a Mac mouse has one button. That is a conscience design choice
> > made by Apple. No confusing the user with this ``left button/right button''
> > choice---there's just ``the button'' on the mouse. Simply saying ``use the
> > left mouse button'' may cause confusion because not everyone is right
> > handed. On a right-handed mouse (or a mouse to the right side of the user)
> > the left-button is used as the primary button, which is also under the index
> > finger of the user. The right-button will be under the middle finger (or
> > ring finger for three-button mice).
> >
> I don't know whether you've noticed this, but, irrespective of which hand you
> favor, the left mouse button is on the left, and so on.
Yes, but had you kept on reading:
> > But move a multi-button mouse to the left side for a left handed user [1]
> > and now the left-button is under the middle finger (or ring finger if a
> > three button mouse) and the right-button is now under the index finger. The
> > index finger is usually the choice for a primary button so now you may have
> > inconvienced the user (to use a less dexterous digit to manipulate the
> > primary button on the mouse) or the documentation may now be incorrect for
> > that user (the mouse buttons have been swapped so that the primary mouse
> > button is the right one, but the documentation still says ``left-button'').
I don't know about you, but using the index finger to hit the button is
... oh ... I don't know ... *easier*? More inuitive? than using the middle
or even index finger.
Tell you what, swap the buttons in software but keep using the mouse on
the side you normally keep it on. Then come back and tell me how much
easier the mouse is to use.
> Nearly everything you ca do with a mouse can be expedited with keystrokes on
> the PC. That's not the case with a Mac, is it?
Possibly; I don't use a Mac enough to learn the equivilent keys, and even
Microsoft has stop labeling their keyboard shortcuts so while I know that
Alt-F4 closes the current window (and Ctrl-F4 will close a
window-within-a-window, so much for consistency) I don't know the keyboard
shortcut for minimizing or maximizing a window so even if Microsoft does
allow keyboard shortcuts for those operations, they don't help me.
And I doubt you can move the mouse cursor with the keyboard (which is
something the Amiga could do, as well as activate the mouse buttons via the
keyboard).
> > [2] Microsoft blew it with their Start button, as it *isn't* in the
> > lower left hand corner. It's *very* close, but you still have to
> > navigate the mouse properly or it won't activate when you hit the
> > ... left button (or is that the command button?).
> >
> I find it a big enough button that I've not missed it enough to bother me.
That's good. Me, I miss it abourt a quarter of the time (and while I like
the start bar to be hidden from view, it tends to pop up way too quickly for
my tastes, especially if I'm trying to do something near the bottom of the
screen. Granted, I can move the start bar to another edge, I'm used to it
being on the bottom, and I just wish it would pause maybe half a second
before popping up).
Received on Tue May 07 2002 - 01:35:57 BST
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