Date: Sat, 16 Apr 1994 00:15:48 -0500 From: Cathy Flick Subject: Re: Give me a book Steve asks about mouse alternatives for a Mac. Here is something I wrote up for a friend who has a tremor that makes it very difficult for her to double-click with a mouse on her Mac Plus. I think if I were to use these methods myself, I would change the position of my number pad on my modular Switchboard. Right now, it is to the far right (right of the Switchball, which is to the right of the alphanumeric module). It would be easier to put the number pad directly to the right of the alphanumeric module for these manipulations. If you have a nonmodular keyboard, I don't see why you couldn't get a separate number pad and put it directly to the left of your keyboard, which would accomplish the same thing except you would need to use your left hand instead of your right (fine for lefties, and probably a good thing for righties also, to better equalize the stress and strain). Peace, Cathy Flick cathyf@earlham.edu ------------------------------------------------------------- Making Your Computer Mouse-Free Without Hiring A Cat The mouse is used to choose items from the menus, open and close files or file folders. But all its duties can be done using just the keyboard. Here are some tricks of the trade. Some of the following uses keys on the number pad (on the far right of your keyboard) to imitate mouse movements. You probably have "arrow keys" marked on your number pad (if you have an extended keyboard, these are also on something called a "mousepad" in between the number pad and the regular letters). If you don't see any arrows, then in the following here are the arrow keys on your number pad: 8(up) (left)4 6(right) 2(down) That is, the "8" key is the "up" arrow, the "2" key is the "down" arrow, the "4" key is the "left" arrow, and the "6" key is the "right" arrow. SELECTING without using the mouse: In Microsoft Word, the arrow keys move the blinking insertion point in different directions. This is handy if you want to move around in the text without using your mouse. But you can also SELECT text by holding down the SHIFT key while you hit the arrow keys. Here's how. For Regular Text: Hold down SHIFT with one hand. Keep holding it down while you hit the arrow keys. Left arrow will keep selecting characters in a "backward" direction along the line. You can "de-select" characters you selected by mistake by just hitting right arrow until you get back to where you want to be. Right arrow will keep selecting characters in a "forward" direction along the line. You can "de-select" characters by hitting left arrow until you're back to where you want to be. Up arrow will select "upward", line by line. Backtrack using down arrow. The selecting starts from the position of the cursor when you start--- experiment to see what this means. Down arrow will select "downward", line by line. Backtrack using up arrow. In A Table: Your mailing list is arranged in a table. The rectangular units in each row are called "cells". Hitting TAB moves you from cell to cell, and at the end of the row TAB generates a whole new row. Hitting ENTER/RETURN by mistake will get you a chiding beep from your computer, which will tell you that is not a valid action for end of row. You can INSERT a row or column in the middle of a table by going to the next row or column (i.e., the one that you want to come after it), choosing Table from the Edit menu, and then choosing INSERT and ROW or COLUMN from the dialog box by clicking your mouse on the appropriate buttons. If you want to DELETE a row or column somewhere in the middle of the table, you need to first SELECT the whole row or column. Then you go to the Edit menu and choose "Table". The dialog box will ask what you want to do: click in the appropriate buttons to select them (e.g., ROW and DELETE). But selecting rows or columns can be tricky. If you double click at just the right spot at the top of a column or at the side of a row, this will select the whole column or row. Or you can try to drag your mouse across it. But you can also use the same trick as outlined above for selecting text: When you hold down SHIFT and use the arrow keys, up and down select the next row up or down respectively (instead of "lines" as in regular text). Right and left select cells in a forward or backward direction respectively (instead of individual characters, as in regular text). Just as with regular text, you can backtrack using the oppositely directed arrow. EASY ACCESS: Sticky Keys and Mouse Keys The Easy Access program is included with your System software, so it should already be in your system folder. (Look and see.) If it isn't, we can easily install it. Easy Access is meant to make using the computer easier for people who find some procedures physically difficult, but also is a lot of fun for those of us who prefer cats and keyboards to mice. Sticky Keys "Sticky Keys" lets you use "multiple key" sequences more easily. These sequences are alternatives to pulling down a menu to select certain items, and you will see many of them listed on the menus for easy reference. For an example of a "multiple key" sequence, look at the File menu either in Microsoft Word or on the Desktop. Next to "open" are little symbols for two keys: the "command" key (usually called ALT, with a funny squiggly mark on it-- it's generally right next to the "option" key), followed by the letter "O". This means that if you hold down the "command key" and keep holding it down while you type an "o", you are telling the computer to "Open" just as if you had pulled down the menu and clicked on the menu item with your mouse. But some people have trouble holding down one key while typing another (for example, if they need to type one- handed). So if you hit the SHIFT key five times in succession, then you get into "Sticky Key" mode. Then you don't have to keep holding down the ALT key, but can just first hit ALT and then "o" and the computer knows you mean "open". You get out of "Sticky Keys" the same way, by hitting SHIFT five times. Mouse Keys This is REALLY neat. You can use the number keys (1-9) on the number pad (not the ones above the letters) to move the MOUSE CURSOR (the mouse arrow) around. Just hold down the "command" key while hitting the "shift" key with one hand; keep holding both these down while you use the other hand to hit the "clear" key on the number pad. This converts your number pad into a mouse keypad. Now try out your new "mouse keys": Hold down one of the number keys, and see what happens to the mouse pointer! You can move up and down, right and left, and diagonally. To stop moving the mouse cursor, just let up on the key. How do you do "mouse clicks"? Just hit the "5" key. To "double click", hit the "5" key twice! You can open folders on the Desktop this way. For example, move your mouse cursor onto a folder, Hit "5" ("mouse click") twice to select and open the folder ("double mouse click"). You can also rename folders using this technique: get your mouse cursor onto the name of the folder, hit "5" to select it, then hit BACKSPACE to erase the old name and then just type in the new name. Practice on an empty folder! How do you hold down the "mouse button" with mouse keys? You need to do this to access menu items, for example. If you are very dextrous, you can try holding down the "5" key (the "mouse click" key) while at the same time moving your mouse cursor downward with the "2" ("down") key. But an easier way is to just use the "0 (zero)" key for "mouse button down" and the ". (decimal point)" key for "mouse button up (released)". For example, move your mouse cursor over to the View menu on the Desktop. Hit the "zero" key, and the menu will come down and stay open, just as though you were holding down the mouse button. Now use the "2" (down) key to move the mouse cursor down to whatever menu item you want (for example, By Date). You can either click on this item by hitting "5", or just "release" the mouse button by hitting the "decimal point" key. You can use the "zero" key (mouse button down) to make text selection easy: just hit the "zero" key, and then wherever you move your mouse cursor the text will be selected. You can de-select text by moving backwards over the same text. You can do this to select cells and rows/columns in a table also, but it's rather sluggish. It would probably be easier to revert back to the regular number pad (no more mouse keys) to work within a table and use the SHIFT plus ARROW KEY approach to select. The mouse keypad works in any application, so you could really throw away your mouse if you wanted! (Ha, ha.) To get out of "Mouse key mode" (such as when you want to actually type NUMBERS with your number pad, or use the number pad keys for selecting within Word), just hit the CLEAR key. You can also use your mouse while in MOUSE KEYS mode, so you can combine the two methods easily. For example, if double clicking is difficult, while in mouse keys mode you can still use the mouse to bring the cursor over to the item you need to double-click (such as a file folder on the Desktop). Then hit "5" twice to double-click it for opening the folder.