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 Windows 7
This page explains step-by-step how to adjust the mouse speed in Windows 7. 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 ‘Ease of Access Center’ has replaced ‘Accessibility Options’ (which was used in earlier versions of Windows) in the ‘Control Panel’ of Windows 7.
Step 1: Open the ‘Mouse Properties’ window
Right-click anywhere on the desktop and select ‘Personalize‘, to open the ‘Personalization’ window. In the left-hand pane, click on ‘Change Mouse Pointers‘ to open the ‘Mouse Properties’ window shown in Fig 2. If you are unable to do this, use the following alternative method. Otherwise, go to step 2.
Open the Ease of Access Center window by pressing the Windows key + U, or by clicking the ‘Start‘ button, followed by ‘Control Panel‘, then ‘Ease of Access‘, then ‘Ease of Access Center‘. Under the ‘Explore all settings’ header, click on ‘Make the mouse easier to use‘ (as shown in Fig 1), or press Tab until it is highlighted and then press Enter.
Fig 1
In the ‘Make the mouse easier to use’ window, scroll down to the ‘See also’ header and click on ‘Mouse settings‘, or press Tab until it is highlighted and then press Enter. This will open the ‘Mouse Properties’ window shown in Fig 2.
Step 2: Adjust the mouse pointer’s speed
If it is not already selected, click on the ‘Pointer Options‘ tab, or press Tab until any of the tabs is highlighted and then use the arrow keys to select the ‘Pointer Options‘ tab.
To change the speed that the pointer moves across your screen, click on the slider under ‘Select a pointer speed‘, and move it to a faster or slower speed setting. Alternatively, press Alt + C and use the arrow keys to move the slider.
Click the ‘OK‘ button or press Enter to save your changes.
Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies – contact your local IT support for further help.
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