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’s double-click speed
Increase the amount of time between clicks of the mouse button for the computer to recognise a double-click.
- Windows 7
- Mac OS X
How To Slow Down The Mouse’s Double-Click Speed In Mac OS X
This page explains step-by-step how to adjust the double-click speed of your mouse in Mac OS X. Many people experience difficulty double-clicking (clicking the mouse button twice in quick succession), because they are unable to do two quick clicks of the mouse button in time. The amount of time you have to complete a double-click can easily be increased 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 double-click 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 ‘Double-Click 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.
In some versions of Mac OS X, you can test the speed setting you’ve chosen by double-clicking on the text box below the slider that says ‘Double-click here to test‘.
When you are finished, click on the window’s red close button or press Apple + W.
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