Windows Basics: The Mouse

The Mouse Before you can explore the Desktop and Taskbar, you must know how to use your mouse. Your mouse is a pointing device. You use it to point to things on the computer screen. There are other kinds of pointing devices, like touch pads and game pads, which we will not discuss here. A mouse has at least two buttons - left and right. Most have a middle button or a scroll wheel between the left and right buttons. Some mice have several other buttons that can be programmed for special functions, especially for games The normal shape for the mouse pointer is an arrow:

What You Do with a Mouse Move the pointer - Moving the mouse around moves the mouse pointer/cursor on the screen. Click - Press a mouse button and release it. Usually the left button. Double-click - Press a mouse button twice quickly Right click - Press the right mouse button and release it. Drag - Hold a mouse button down while moving the mouse. Usually what the mouse pointer was over on the screen will move or be highlighted when you drag. Scroll - Rolling the wheel that some mice have will move the document up and down in the current window.

Pointer Shapes The shape of the pointer changes depending on where it is and what is happening. The term cursor is used for the shape that shows where your typing will appear. You can position the cursor by clicking in a spot in a document. So the pointer and cursor work together, but are not the same thing. The hand shape usually means that the pointer is over a link, like on a web page. Since pointer shapes can be customized in the Mouse dialog, your pointer shapes may look quite different or be animated. For example, the following animated shapes are used in pointer schemes that come with WinXP for the shape Working In Background: