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Once your done double clicking to get the window above close it by clicking on the red "X". Like almost anything else on a computer your mouse can be customized, Lets look at how to do that. Using your mouse move to the bottom left hand corner of the screen to the Start button and click on it.

You will see the Start Menu.


Move your mouse up to Control Panel and click on it with the left mouse button.  The menu shown below will pop up on your screen. 



Now left click on the Printers and Other Hardware option and you should see the screen below.



Now Click on the Mouse option. Seems like alot of clicking doesn't it. You should now see the screen below.


Alright we made it here!! Here we can modify how the mouse reacts. The first option on this page is for anyone who is normally left handed if you put a check in the box it will change the way the buttons work. so you can use the mouse in your left hand.

The middle option customizes the double clicking speed of the mouse. The default setting is usually fine for teens and the average adult however very young kids and the elderly may like to slow down how fast they must click the mouse.

Using the mouse move over top of the slider with the green arrows on it and left click and hold the button down and slide the control towards the word slow one or two marks. Release the mouse button and move the mouse over the picture of a folder.

Now double click on the picture, if your clicking fast enough the picture will change to look like an open folder, Continue adjusting the slider until you find the speed that is comfortable for you. This setting is also a user setting so each person that has a user profile setup on the computer can have their own mouse customization.

The bottom option on this page lets you use the left button like an off and on switch click on it once and it acts like you are holding the button down and when you press it again it acts like you are releasing the button. You can try all these options and find what you like best.

Move your mouse to the top of the page and click on the tab that says Pointer Options and the page below appears.

On this page the top option controls how fast your pointer moves on the screen when you move your mouse. The second option if checked lets the mouse snap or grab the default option in your current program.

The options under visibility are pointer trails if  this option is checked your mouse will leave a trail on your screen as you move it, for people with poor visibility this option sometimes works well.

Hide pointer while typing does just as the name says if your typing on the keyboard the pointer will disappear until you finish typing.

Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key if this option is checked by pressing the CTRL button on your keyboard the mouse pointer will show you where it is currently on your screen.

Move to the top of the page and left click on the tab Wheel and you will see the picture below.

This page lets you set how the wheel functions on a web page or in a word processor.  The bottom option if picked will scroll one entire page when the wheel is turned.

The top option allows you to pick how many lines of text will scroll when you move the wheel.
That is all the options you can change for the basic mouse. Your mouse may have many more options depending on how many buttons it has and the type of mouse it is, see the help pages or the documentation that came with your mouse for further information not covered here.

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Hey how are you doing? I know this is boring stuff but stick with it, all of basic computer skills your learning will pay off for you.

So lets go back to the mouse, we have basically covered the left mouse button, let's talk about the right button and the mouse actions that occur when using it. The right button as I stated before is your options button, depending where you right click your options will vary.

The picture below depicts the option menu you will see if you right click in an open space on your desktop.

When there is an arrow beside an option it is telling you there is another list of options for that particular item. To see the other options using your mouse move over the option and the new list will pop up .

If you were to hold your mouse over the Arrange Icons By option you would be given a list of options listing ways to arrange your desktop icons for example you can choose to arrange them by name or by when they were modified. Explore these options and see what they all do, depending on your computer system and software installed your options may be slightly different.

This is a picture of your task bar.


If you move your mouse over the taskbar in the solid blue area and right click your mouse another option menu will pop up something like the one below.
This option menu as you can see differs from the previous option menu you saw when you right clicked on the desktop.  The grayed out options are not available because there is nothing that applies to those options at that particular moment. The Toolbars option as you can see has another option menu in here you will find different toolbars you can add and different options for those toolbars.

If you look back at the last option menu we looked at you will find that both the current menu and the last menu both had a Properties option. Both of these Properties give you different options. If you right click on the Start button you will see a list of completely different options. Try them all, explore what all the different options do, you should try right clicking on everything there are different options everywhere.

The options you get depend where you are, right clicking on a file will give you different options then right clicking inside of a running program like a word processor. Hey your doing great were just about done with the mouse there are just a couple of things left.

Lets look at the mouse actions required to start a program. If your computer is brand new your desktop area is probably pretty clean just a couple of icons on it. You know a lot of programs came with your computer but where are they? how do I start them? well let's look at that.

Move your mouse to the start button and left click, the start menu we saw earlier pops up.
If the program your looking for is listed on the far left hand side great move your mouse over the name of it and left click the start menu will close and your program will start in a moment.

This list on the left is Known as your Start Menu shortcuts the programs you use most often are listed here.

Your program is not listed here so move your mouse over the All Programs button and just like the options menu that have arrows another list pops up like the picture below.



This program list will show you every program installed on your computer. However the icon you want to click on may not be readily visible. If you look near the bottom of the picture you will see the Internet Explorer icon this program is available from this menu immediately move your mouse over the icon and click on it the menu will close and your program will start shortly.

Other programs are grouped together in a folder and just like the option menus the names that have an arrow beside them hold another menu. Move your mouse over one of the folders and another list appears, if an icon is in that list you may click on it and that program will begin shortly or there may be a mixture of icons and more folders with arrows beside them. 

For example if you know Microsoft Word is installed on your computer in the all programs
list look for a folder that has the title of Microsoft and look inside it you should find your program inside here.

If there is a program you use often you may want to put a shortcut on your desktop. Find the icon in your program list and then right click on it and hold the button down. Now using your mouse move to the right until you are over the desktop and release the mouse button.

A menu will pop up with the options to copy here, move here, create shortcut here or cancel choose create shortcut here and another icon will appear on your desktop. Left click and hold and then drag the icon where you want it to be on your desktop and your done.You can now start this program by left clicking twice on this shortcut.

Again I can't stress enough how important being good at using a mouse is to your basic computer skills. Hey were done! you did great, if you need to review any of this just come back to this page and look at the area you need help with. We will be doing some more mouse work in the word processing area I hope to see you there.

If you have a specific question, please don't hesitate to use the contact form I will be happy to try and answer any question you have.