How To Make Your Mouse Easier To Use
There are a number of ways you can adapt your computer to make it easier to use the mouse. These guides explain how to customise your operating system (Windows or Mac), so that you can use the mouse more easily with your left hand, as well as how to slow down the mouse pointer and increase the delay between clicks when you want to double-click the mouse.
Here is a way to do this…
- Slow down your mouse
Change the settings in your operating system so that you can slow down the way the mouse moves the pointer on the screen.
- Windows 7
- Mac OS X
How To Slow Down The Mouse In Mac OS X
This page explains step-by-step how to adjust the mouse speed in Mac OS X. Many people have difficulty using a mouse because of the speed the pointer travels on the screen when the mouse is moved. This speed can easily be reduced to make the mouse more manageable.
Note: The following abbreviations for keys on the Mac are used: Ctrl is used for the Control key, Apple is used for the Command key, and Alt is used for the Option key. For keyboard access, make sure ‘Full keyboard access’ is turned on – you can turn it on or off by pressing Ctrl + F1 at any time.
Step 1: Open the ‘Keyboard & Mouse’ window
Make sure you are in ‘Finder’. If necessary, press Apple + Tab to cycle through the open applications until you return to ‘Finder’.
Click on the ‘Apple‘ icon on the menu bar or press Ctrl + F2.
Click on ‘System Preferences‘, as shown in Fig 1, or press the down arrow key to highlight it and then press Enter.
Fig 1
In the ‘System Preferences’ window (shown in Fig 2), click on the ‘Keyboard & Mouse‘ icon, or press Tab repeatedly (you might need to press Ctrl + F7 first) to cycle through the icons until the ‘Keyboard & Mouse’ icon is highlighted and then press the Spacebar.
Fig 2
Step 2: Adjust the mouse pointer’s speed
In the ‘Keyboard & Mouse’ window (shown in Fig 3), make sure the ‘Mouse‘ tab is selected. If it is not, click on it, or press Ctrl + F7 to highlight one of the tabs and then press the left or right arrow key to select it. (Note: This window may display more options than those shown here, depending on the type of mouse you are using.)
Fig 3
Under the ‘Tracking Speed‘ header, click on the slider and drag it to the speed you want, or press Tab until the slider is highlighted and then use the left and right arrow keys to set the speed.
The mouse pointer speed changes straight away, so you can try different speed settings until you are happy with your choice.
When you are finished, click on the window’s red close button or press Apple + W.
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