How Well Do You Know Your Mouse?

How Well Do You Know Your Mouse?

Did you know your mouse wheel is good for more than just scrolling?

Did you know you can use your mouse wheel as a button?

Pressing down on the wheel will act like a third mouse button. You can open a link in a new tab by clicking the wheel on any link. You can close any browser tab by clicking the wheel on any open tab.

Zoom in and out on a web page, word document, excel spreadsheet, and more

Hold down the Ctrl key and move the mouse wheel away from you (up)to zoom in and enlarge the text and content on web pages and most emails, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets. Conversely, more the mouse wheel toward you (down) to zoom out and make text and content smaller.

Resize your desktop icons

And, if you want to make your desktop icons really big, go to your desktop, click on an empty area of your desktop, hold down the Ctrl key and move your mouse wheel away from you to enlarge the icons or move the mouse wheel toward you to make them smaller. Really easy!

Open new instances of programs or apps

Opening more than one program window or app is called opening a new instance.  OK, for instance, 🙂  if you want to open two Notepad windows, with one Notepad window open, click on the Notepad icon in the taskbar using your mouse wheel as a button and a second Notepad window will open…click with your mouse wheel again and a third Notepad window will open, and so on.

You can open as many new program windows as you like. Most, but not all programs/apps, allow you to open more than one instance of the program/app. 

Some mouse wheels can do even more…

And did you know that some mouse wheels can be pushed left or right to also move backward and forward on a web page?

Don’t overlook your mouse wheel. It can do a lot more than you think.

Go do some wheelies!