I thought I'd change things up a little bit today. I moved my mouse to the left side of my desk and switched the mouse buttons in the control panel. I've done it before, but this is the first time I've done it while working at the Tumbler Ridge Public Library. It seems like a small change, but it has really made me think about how computers are set up.
As a rule, I'm a very keyboard-oriented computer user. I suppose that's a result of my early years of programming on an Apple II. When I need to access something through the start menu, I almost always do it by using the keyboard (pressing the windows key, then using the arrows to move through the menu). When I switch between running programs, I almost always use Alt+Tab.
The end result is that normally I keep one hand on the mouse, and one on the keyboard while I'm doing most work (other than typing). That method falls completely apart when I use the mouse left-handed. Stretching my right arm across to press Alt+Tab (or Ctrl+Tab for that matter) while I'm still holding the mouse is downright awkward. It occurred to me that keyboards have two Shift keys, two Ctrl keys, two Alt keys... Why can't they have a second Tab key to make life easier for left-handed users?
The (seemingly) logical place for a second Tab key would be where the oversized backslash key is (just above the Enter key) because it would mirror the position of the first Tab key. However, if keyboard manufacturers replaced the backslash key with two keys, they'd each be far too small to be useful.
My suggestion is to narrow the right Shift key. I have reasonably large hands, and I never even touch the right half of the right Shift key. What if keyboard manufacturers lopped off one key-width of the right Shift key and made a second Tab key? The distance between the right Alt and Tab keys would be about the same as the distance between the left keys.
Or I suppose I could reprogram the Menu key (between the right Windows and Ctrl keys) to work as a second Tab key, but that sounds like too much work...
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
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I switched back to working with my normal mouse settings (or as some proponents of political correctness would say, "my average mouse settings") part way through Wednesday morning.
ReplyDeleteI did discover something very cool about using the mouse left-handed. Pressing the Tab key may be awkward, but pressing Enter and the arrow keys is much easier. That made navigating dialogue boxes much easier to do without taking my hand off the mouse.
In the end, I changed the settings back because I was editing an image in GIMP and the movements of my left hand weren't quite precise enough. So I've been working with a right-hand mouse ever since, and I discovered a major downside to it when I was working this morning:
It's much easier to keep using the mouse while drinking a can of pop when I'm using the mouse left handed.