Eight Simple Tweaks That Make a Mightier Mouse
Scott Dunn
One of the most underappreciated PC accessories is the humble mouse. Imagine using a PC without one! But the only time you pay any attention to your mouse is when it stops working. You can enhance the performance of your mouse's pointers and cursors with a few quick changes to the critter's Control Panel settings.
First, open Control Panel and double-click the Mouse icon (it's under 'Printers and other hardware' in XP's Control Panel Category View). Note: The items available in the Mouse Properties dialog box vary depending on your mouse software; the steps we describe in the following tips may be slightly different on your system. In some cases your mouse drivers may not have a given feature, or your mouse utilities may include options not listed here. Dig through your Mouse Properties and check out all your options.
Fine-tune your double-clicks. Double-click too slowly, and you may inadvertently change the name of your file, folder, or shortcut instead of opening the item you need. To match your mouse's double-click sensitivity to your finger's pace, open Control Panel and double-click (carefully!) the Mouse icon, or choose Mouse from your Control Panel menu. Click the Buttons tab (in some versions of Windows, this setting is under the 'Basics' or 'Activities' tab) and adjust the slider in the double-click speed box to make the double-click setting faster or slower (see FIGURE 1). Test your click speed on the accompanying icon until you find the rate that's juuuuust right. Click Apply.
If you simply don't like to double-click, period, you can greatly reduce your index finger's double duties. In any folder window, choose View, Folder Options or Tools, Folder Options, depending on your version of Windows. Select the General tab, and in Windows 9 x, click the Settings button. Under 'Click items as follows', select Single-click to open an item (point to select). (On some systems you can change this setting under the Mouse control panel's 'Buttons' or 'StepSavers' tab without changing Explorer's folder options.) You can underline all folder icons or only the folder icon currently under your pointer. When you click OK, your desktop and folders will act more like Web pages: A click will open a document, a folder, or an application. To select an icon, just move the pointer to it without clicking.
Drag the easy way. An exhaustive scientific study of myself and two friends finds that computer users are getting older every day. If you're one of the growing number of people who find it painful, annoying, or just plain bothersome to hold the mouse button down as you select blocks of text or other objects, or as you move selected items, your mouse drivers may provide you with an easy alternative. In the Mouse Properties dialog box, click the Buttons or Activities tab (depending on your software). If there's an option labeled Turn on ClickLock, check it and click Apply.
Now click and hold the mouse button for a few moments before you begin to drag, then release the button and move the mouse. Voilą! The click stays "locked," just as if you were dragging with the mouse button held down. Figuring out how long to hold the mouse button before the lock engages may take some practice. If you don't like the default hold time, return to Mouse Properties and click Settings in the ClickLock section. Set the slider at different positions until you have the hold time you find most comfortable.
Let the good times scroll. If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you may find that your scrolling requires too many spins to be useful. Or it may scroll too far with each turn. To fine-tune your scrolling, open Mouse Properties and click the Wheel tab. (You may also need to click a Settings button, or your scroll settings may be listed under the Buttons tab.) Enter a number from 1 to 99 to set the number of lines each turn of the wheel will scroll. Or select the One screen at a time option for high-speed scrolling. Click Apply or OK.
If you have a wheel mouse and you don't see a Wheel tab or options for customizing the wheel in your Mouse Properties, you may need to download new drivers from your vendor's Web site. You can get drivers for Microsoft's wheel mice from its site.
Bonus tip: The scroll wheel on some mice also acts as a button. Pressing it may activate a panning, or "AutoScroll," feature that lets you scroll the current window up, down, left, or right by moving the mouse in that direction. Press the wheel again to turn the panning feature off.
Change your mouse's pace. If your mouse pointer takes too long to move around the screen, or if you have to lift the mouse entirely off its pad to reposition it, you may need to adjust the mouse's speed. Go back to your Mouse Properties dialog box and click the Pointer Options tab in Windows 2000 and XP, or the Motion tab in Windows 9 x and Me (the Basics tab on some systems). Adjust the slider under 'Speed', 'Pointer Speed', or 'Select a pointer speed', depending on your mouse software. This setting changes how far the pointer travels each time you nudge your mouse. Experiment until you find the speed that works for you.
With many mice, you can make the pointer travel farther as the mouse moves faster. This lets you set the pointer speed relatively fast yet still be precise when you move the mouse slowly. To enable this feature, look for a setting in Mouse Properties labeled 'Acceleration'; you may have to click an Advanced or Accelerate button to see it. For some mouse drivers, this feature is named 'Enhance pointer precision'. Check this option (if applicable), and/or select a sensitivity level. Click Apply (or OK and then Apply).
Snap to it. To make the pointer appear poised over the default option when you open a dialog box, click the Pointer Options or Motion tab in Mouse Properties and check the box under 'Snap To' or 'Snap to Default' (in Windows 2000 and XP) or 'Smart Move' (in Windows Me). Then click Apply. Note that this may not work for every dialog box in every application.
Unhide your mouse pointer. Many applications automatically hide the pointer when you type so it's not blocking your view. You may just have to move the mouse slightly to make the pointer reappear, but if that doesn't work, or if your pointer is still lost in all the on-screen distractions, try this: Reopen the Mouse Properties dialog box and click the Pointer Options, Visibility, or Motion tab, depending on your mouse software (see FIGURE 2). Under 'Visibility' or 'Sonar', click Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key (or words to that effect) and then Apply or OK. Now when your pointer gets lost, press Ctrl to see animated concentric circles (like reverse pond ripples) that show the location of your pointer. I like to use this setting even though I seldom lose sight of my pointer--it just adds a little pizzazz to my screen.
If you have trouble spotting your mouse even when you know where it is (a problem more likely to occur on LCDs with limited refresh rates), check Display pointer trails or Show pointer trails and use the slider (you may need to click Settings first) to decide how many 'ghosts' follow your pointer each time you move your mouse. Click Apply to test your new setting.
Pick the perfect pointer. Another solution to lost pointers is to change your pointer's appearance. Click the Pointers tab in the Mouse Properties dialog box and choose a predefined scheme from the Scheme drop-down list, or select the pointer you want to change from the list at the bottom and click Browse. The dialog box should open to the Cursors subfolder in your Windows folder, where most of your alternate pointers and cursors are installed. You'll also find pointers on the Web; just enter mouse pointers or mouse cursors in your favorite search engine to find sites with free pointer downloads.
Windows 2000 and XP put a shadow under your pointer. If you prefer the 2D look, uncheck Enable pointer shadow under Pointers and click Apply.
Mouse with the keyboard. If you'd rather not mouse at all, tell Windows to control the pointer from the keyboard (the numeric keypad on desktops): Open Control Panel's Accessibility Options, click the Mouse tab, and check Use MouseKeys. You'll probably also want to click Settings and experiment with the pointer speed. And while you're in the 'Settings for MouseKeys' dialog box, be sure that Hold down Ctrl to speed up and Shift to slow down is checked. This option gives you an easy way to adjust the speed of the pointer from the keyboard, a lifesaver if your mouse ever suffers a major malfunction.
For tips on mouse maintenance, see this month's Hardware Tips.
Rename Multiple Files or Folders at Once
Sometimes you have a bunch of files or folders that you want to sequence with the same name followed by a number. For example, I organize my projects in folders named for the year (2002, 2003, and so on), and within each of these I have folders for each month, numbered 1 through 12. Or perhaps you have a batch of digital photos that you want to group and name for a date or an occasion. Windows XP lets you rename those files in a flash.
First, open the folder holding the files you want to rename, right-click an empty area of the folder pane, click Arrange Icons By, and make sure Auto Arrange is unchecked. Put the files you want to rename in one column. Now select the files to be renamed (press Ctrl-A to select all the files). Right-click the first selected file and type a name followed by a number in parentheses-- Junior's 2002 Birthday party (1), for example (see FIGURE 3). Press Enter, and presto! All the files are renamed at once, with a number (in parentheses) appended to the end of each. You can specify any number at the end of the first file's name (not just 1), and the names of the other files will be numbered sequentially higher. You can rename a group of files to number them from 1 through 20, for example, and later rename another group to number them from 21 onward.
If you rename too many files, press Ctrl-Z to undo the renaming of the final item. Unfortunately, undo reverses the effect only on the last ten files in the list when you press Ctrl-Z repeatedly.
Print Directory Listings Instantly
For years readers have been asking how to print Windows Explorer's file lists. Our solutions are usually a variation of some DOS batch file or ugly parameters entered in a command-prompt window. Thanks to Luiz Marques, those days may be over. His $15 product, STG FolderPrint Plus, makes short work of printing directory listings and folder trees, including as much or as little detail as you want. You can even print the extra details for MP3 files. STG FolderPrint Plus can filter the list by the date the file was created, modified, or last accessed. It can also sort by file size or type. The program gives you complete control over fonts and printing format, and it provides a bar chart that lets you know which folders are taking up the most space on your hard disk. Download your copy of STG FolderPrint Plus.
Send your Windows-related questions and tips to scott_dunn@pcworld.com. Windows Tips pays $50 for published items. Scott Dunn is a PC World contributing editor.