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Publisher20.3 Choosing a Mouse
Use
the following guidelines when choosing a mouse or trackball:
Mice are available in various sizes and shapes, including very small
mice intended for children, the formerly standard
"Dove bar" size, the mainstream
ergonomic mouse, and some very large mice that have many buttons and
extra features. Most people find nearly any standard-size mouse
comfortable to use for short periods, but if you use a mouse for
extended periods, small differences in size and shape often make a
big difference in comfort. Although oversize mice such as the
Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer provide attractive features and
functions, people with very small hands often find such mice too
large to use comfortably. Pay particular attention to mouse shape if
you are lefthanded. Although Microsoft claims that its asymmetric
ergonomic mice are equally usable by left- and righthanders, many
lefties find them uncomfortable and so resort to righthanded mousing.
Other manufacturers, including Logitech, produce symmetric mice for
which chirality is not an issue.
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Although some applications do not support the wheel, those that do
are the ones most people are likely to use a great
dealMicrosoft Office, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and so on.
Using the wheel greatly improves mouse functionality by reducing the
amount of mouse movement needed to navigate web pages and documents.
Standard two-button mice (three, counting the wheel) are adequate for
most purposes. However, five-button mice are ideally suited to some
applications, such as games and web browsing. For example, the two
extra buttons can be mapped to the Back and Forward browser icons,
eliminating a great deal of extraneous mouse movement.
We have seen mice with cords ranging in length from less than 4 feet
to about 9 feet. A short mouse cord may be too short to reach the
system, particularly if it is on the floor. If you need a longer
mouse cord, purchase a PS/2 keyboard extension cable, available in
nearly any computer store.
If your desktop is usually cluttered, consider buying a cordless
mouse. The absence of a cord can make a surprising
difference.
Old-style optical mice were a pain in the begonia. They required
special mousing surfaces with fine embedded wires and frequently
malfunctioned. Red-eye mice changed that. They use a red LED light
source and do not require any special mousing surface. We have used
them on such featureless surfaces as a beige computer case and a
plain sheet of paper. Basically, they work fine with anything other
than a mirror or similarly reflective surface.Because they are sealed units, red-eye mice do not require the
frequent cleaning that mechanical mice do. Robert had to take his
mechanical mice apart and clean them literally every few days, but
red-eye mice can go for months at a time without any cleaning other
than a quick wipe with a damp cloth. Good red-eye mice are very
precise and extremely durable. Robert's den system
had a Microsoft red-eye mouse, which he dropped to the hardwood floor
several times a week. Finally, after more than two years of this
abuse, the red-eye mouse died with a horrible rattle. The replacement
continues to work perfectly, despite frequent falls.
Trackballs have never really caught on, probably because most require
using the thumb to move the pointer. At least one newer model, the
red-eye Microsoft Trackball Explorer, resembles a mouse and allows
using the index finger to point. In our experience, about one of
every 10 people who try a trackball becomes a trackball convert. But
trackballs sell probably only 1% the volume of mice, which says there
are a lot of people who don't know what
they're missing. Trackballs are also available in
red-eye versions, and we prefer those to the mechanical versions for
ease of maintenance.
