Mouse Skills

Hold the mouse with your right hand… When you move the mouse, the mouse arrow moves on the screen…. Moving The Mouse

Clicking With The Mouse I keep my finger on the left button. To single click I gently press down and then release the mouse button. Double Clicking I quickly press the button twice in a row. I keep my finger resting on the button, I button and press down twice.

Dragging With The Mouse To drag, I press the mouse button down, and keep it down. Then I move the mouse. Then release the mouse button.

Practice Using The Mouse Practice single clicking Practice double clicking Practice dragging with the mouse.

Working With Windows 9.x In Microsoft windows mouse skills are very important. You will use the mouse to perform basic actions. Such as opening programs and documents, dragging files across the desktop and managing windows.

Overview of the Windows Desktop Think of the desktop as your office desktop. Your most important items are kept on the desktop. The Windows Desktop works the same way. You can place shortcuts to programs and documents on the desktop.

Windows Desktop

Things on The Desktop Taskbar – Contains the start button and the system tray. When you minimize windows, the close window displays a button on the taskbar Start Button – Click this to start programs, and open documents. The start button also contains the shutdown command, which turns off your computer. System tray – This part of the taskbar contains the system clock, the speaker volume and other programs which run in the background. Icons – These little pictures represent programs that will run on your computer. My Computer – Contains the access to the devices inside your computer. For example if wanted to open a floppy disk you would click the floppy A: Icon. Recycle Bin – When you delete files or programs they are put in the recycle bin. If you accidentally delete a file it can be recovered easily. Wallpaper/ Desktop – This is the desktop itself. Unlike an office desktop you customize how the windows desktop will look.

Starting A Program 1. Move your mouse pointer over the Start button on the taskbar. 2. Press the left mouse button. 1. The Start menu will appear. 3. Move the mouse pointer up to programs. 1. The programs menu will appear 4. Move up to accessories 1. The accessories menu will appear 5. Move down to WordPad, and click the left mouse button. 1. The WordPad program will appear

Starting A Program II Now you have started the WordPad Program Now Start The Program Notepad Follow the steps 1 – 4 but this time click Note Pad Instead of WordPad.

Minimize Notice the three buttons at the top of the screen. These buttons, are minimize, maximize and close. 1. Move your mouse pointer to the minimize button, and click with the left mouse button. This minimizes notepad to the taskbar. Notice the notepad button is still shown in the taskbar. (notepad is still open but is running in the background) 1. Move your mouse pointer over two the notepad button on the taskbar, and then click with the left mouse button. (notepad reappears )

Maximize 1. Move your mouse pointer over two the maximize button, and click with the left mouse button. The Windows gets bigger! 2. Move your mouse pointer over two the maximize button, and click with the left mouse button. This restores the window to its original size.

Close 1. Move your mouse pointer over two the close button, and click the left mouse button. 2. Start the program notepad program again. (we will need in our next section) If you need help refer to the Start a program section.

Switching Between Open Programs Look at the taskbar, see the Word Pad and notepad buttons. Notice that the notepad button is pressed in. This means the the notepad program is the active program. 1. Click on the Word Pad button, this makes Word Pad the active program. 1. Click back on the notepad button, this makes notepad the active program.

File Management With Word Pad as the active program type this letter: Dear, Mr. Smith I received a bill statement in the mail stating that I owe one hundred and twenty Seven dollars. I have already mailed the Amount in full. Sincerely, Jon Doe Remember If you make a mistake use the backspace key. 1. After you have typed the above letter. Move your mouse pointer to File. 2. Now move down to save, and release the mouse button.

Saving The save as dialog box should appear. A dialog box is a place where you can make changes. 1. Type A Filename 2. Click My Documents 3. Click Save Saving the file in the My Documents Folder makes the file easy to find. But Sometimes you may want to save the file in a different location such as a floppy disk. In this case you would pull down the save in menu and choose the location such as 3/2 Floppy (A:)

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Save As Dialog Box

Loading A Saved Document After a document has been saved you can retrieve the document again. 1. Move the mouse pointer to the file menu 2. Now the mouse pointer down to open and click the mouse button. 3. Click on the Save In Menu and click My Documents.. 4. Click the Memo.txt doc to highlight the document 5. Click Open Step 4 Step 3 Step 5

Printing A Document You can print out anything you have typed or made on the computer this is called a soft copy. 1. Move your mouse pointer up to the file menu and click print. The Print Dialog Box will appear. Most of the time you will ignore this dialog box and click to Ok. Make sure that your printer has paper and is on. On older Dot – Matrix printers make that the On-Line Light is green.

Deleting A File Close Notepad by clicking on the at the top right of the screen. Double click My Documents on the desktop.