What is the action of moving your mouse pointer over something on your screen is called?

1. [This lesson continues from the previous and we assume that your computer is turned on]
   To find out if you are left or right handed, right-now [assuming both of your hands are free and fine], without thinking, touch the top of your head. If you used your left hand, you are likely left-handed. If you used your right hand, you are likely right-handed.
   If you are right handed, you can continue the lessons.
   If you are left-handed, you may need to first configure your mouse. If you are in a classroom, your teacher can do that for you [Start -> Control Panel; Mouse; Switch Primary And Secondary Buttons:
    

   OK].

2. If you are right-handed, position the mouse on the right of the keyboard
   If you are left-handed, position the mouse to the left of the keyboard
3. If you are right-handed, place your right index finger on the left mouse button
   If you are left-handed, place your left index finger on the right mouse button
4. If you are right-handed, place your [right] middle finger on the right mouse button
   If you are left-handed, place your [left] middle finger on the left mouse button
5. If you are right-handed, place your right thumb on the left side of the mouse
   If you are left-handed, place your left thumb on the right side of the mouse
6. If you are right-handed, place your right pinky and ring fingers on the right side of the mouse
   If you are left-handed, place your left pinky and ring fingers on the left side of the mouse

After positioning the mouse to the desired position, the next thing you must do is to locate its presence on the screen. Most of the time, and after a while of practice, you will be more concerned with where your mouse is on the screen as opposed to where your fingers are. This means that the position of the mouse on the screen is very important and you should know it at all times [unless an application, such as a screen saver, is meant to hide it].

To make the position of the mouse known, the computer draws a small picture on the screen. This picture is called a mouse cursor or simply, a cursor.

The most used cursor displays as an arrow pointing to the North-West [in some scenarios of word processing, it will point to the North-East]. Because there are various types of operations you will usually be asked to perform, there are other types of cursors. To support the most regular assignments, the computer comes with its own set of cursors:

As mentioned already, the most regularly used cursor is the one with the up-left pointing arrow. The primary object that defines what cursor to use is the computer. In some cases, when performing an assignment, the mouse cursor may change also depending on what you are doing. A programmer [a person who creates a computer program] also is highly in charge of deciding what cursor to display and when. Besides the above cursors, many programs you will use also have their own cursors, in addition to, or instead of, the above.

Not all mice function the same, nor do they use the same mechanical functionality, but all accomplish the same purpose. Many mice have a ball in the bottom section; that ball rolls when the mouse moves. Some mice, such as trackballs, have their ball on top and/or they don't exhibit buttons; you would have to grab the ball to do what you want:

Many of the new mice don't use a ball at all: they use a type of light beam to provide the same functionality as the ball. Laptop computers - Notebooks - use another process to simulate the mouse. They are usually equipped with a small flat area/surface, or, sometimes, a short stick.

One of the actions you can perform with the mouse is to move it. To do this, if you are using a regular mouse, you can physically but slightly push the mouse on the table. If you are using a trackball, you can roll the ball. If you are using a laptop, you can position a finger on the pad, press and hold the finger, then move the pressed finger.

When the mouse rests on certain items on the desktop or on some buttons of some programs, a short word or sentence appears: that's a tool tip.

1. Position the mouse on an empty area of the desktop. You see the mouse pointer also called the mouse cursor or simply the cursor
2. To see a tool tip, position [only position] the mouse on the Recycle Bin icon and see the sentence that appears:

    

The mouse is the object you will use the most when interacting with the computer. The mouse is primarily used in one of four actions.

When asked to click, this request always refers to the left mouse button. To perform this action:

1. Place your index finger [if you are right-handed, this refers to the right hand index finger; if you are left-handed, this refers to the left hand index finger] on the left mouse button
2. Press the index finger once on the button and release the finger. What you see on the item clicked depends on the type of item. We will view most types of behaviors that occur when the mouse is clicked on an item

1. Position the mouse on an empty area of the desktop and make sure the mouse pointer is not touching anything else:

    

2. Place your index finger on the left mouse button and press the mouse button once. This action is called Click 
3. Notice that nothing happens
4. Move the mouse and position its cursor on Recycle Bin
5. Then press the mouse button again once
6. After clicking, notice that the Recycle Bin icon becomes highlighted. This is also referred to as "selected"
7. Position the mouse on another item such as Internet Explorer. Then click once
8. Notice that Recycle Bix is not selected anymore but the new item is now selected or highlighted
9. Position the mouse on an empty area on the desktop and click
10. Notice that the previous item that was selected got deselected and now nothing is selected

Another regular action you will perform using the mouse consists of pressing one of its button twice, very fast. This action is referred to as Double-Click. To perform this action:

1. Position the mouse on an item
2. Then apply two very fast strokes on the left mouse button. What happens as a result depends on the item on which you performed the action. It may open something. It may select another. Or it may not do anything at all

Letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z Numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Symbols

The letters you typed in the previous section are referred to as lower case or lowercase. To type their equivalent uppercase, first press and hold a Shift key . While the Shift key is down, press the key corresponding to the letter you want. If you wanted to type only one uppercase letter, after typing, you can release Shift. Otherwise, you can keep Shift down and type the desired uppercase letters. At the end, release the Shift key.

If you plan to type a lot of uppercase characters, you can press the Caps Lock key. This causes the keyboard to display a light, usually on the upper-right section of the keyboard of a desktop or the Caps Lock key itself. After typing the uppercase characters, press the Caps Lock again to turn the light off.

Besides being used to type uppercase letters, the Shift key also allows you to access the upper base of the keys that display two of them. Such symbols are:

The third category of keys is mainly subject to programmers' choice. These are called function keys. They are F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, F10, F11, and F12. Although the F1 key is usually used to get help while working in Microsoft Windows, the use of the other keys vary from one application to another. Eventually, the application you use will give you instructions on what to do and how to use the function keys.

In the Action Keys section, we saw that some keys can be combined to produce uppercase letters or to access the upper symbols of some keys. Keys are also combined for many other reasons. When this site, a book or any other document wants you to combine keys, the request will usually specify how to use/press those keys; this sometimes differs from one book or document to another.

In some situations, you have to press keys simultaneously, which means that you may be expected to press two or more keys at the same time, or almost at the same time. In some other situations, you may have to press and release one key, followed by another.

For our lessons on this site, here are the conventions we will use:

Which mouse action is used to move an icon on the screen?

What is the process of making changes to text or graphics in an office file?

What is the action of holding down the left mouse button while moving your mouse called?

Which mouse action do you use to move tiles on the start screen?