mouse posts

Filed under: Productivity, OpenOffice.org

OpenOfficeMouse boosts productivity with 18 buttons. Yes, 18. And a joystick.

by Sebastian Anthony Nov 8th 2009

I can see the conversation now:

Open Source Advocate 1: 'So, dude, we really should do something about this Godawful UI. I mean we tried our best to imitate Microsoft but it just... isn't working out.'

OS Advocate 2: 'There must be some other way... some way we can avoid paying any kind of skilled user-interface master to actually develop a sweet-ass interface.'

OS Advocate 1: 'I know! I KNOW! WE'LL MAKE A MOUSE! A homebrew mouse with enough buttons to map EVERY function to it! We'll simply do away with the usual interface! GENIUS!'

OS Advocate 2: 'Er... OK. Stop waving your Perl manual around like that. You're starting to scare me.'
...

Slashdot are reporting that OpenOffice.org has a new mouse -- the succinctly-named OpenOfficeMouse. Manufactured by WarMouse (the awesome naming never ceases), this behemoth has 18 buttons, a scroll wheel and, get this, an analogue joystick. You couldn't make this stuff up. It has macro support, storage for up to 63 profiles... 63!

I know what you're thinking: OpenOffice can't possibly fully-utilise this beautiful piece of (patented) technological mastery. This thing is for gamers.

Tags: mouse, open office, open source, OpenOffice, openoffice.org, OpenSource

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Windows x64

Edgeless removes screen borders, lets your pointer wrap around

by Lee Mathews Apr 21st 2009

Edgeless may be the hardest program I've ever had to screen capture. It's incredibly simple in what it does, but a static image just won't do it - hence the short YouTube clip.

It's a small, single-function application that allows your mouse to wrap from one edge of your screen to the other instead of stopping abruptly when you reach the end. Edgeless can save a bit of wear-and-tear on your mouse or trackpad since it's sometimes a shorter trip to wrap around than backtrack across your screen.

Launch Edgeless, and it hides out in the system tray. There's nothing to configure, save whether or not you want the application to run at startup. The application is also totally portable, weighs in at a scant 272Kb, and uses less than 1Mb of memory when running.

[via ShellEx City]

Tags: edgeless, mouse, pointer, portable

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware, Windows x64

X-Mouse Button Control gives your mouse super powers

by Lee Mathews Mar 5th 2009

If you're using a mouse with a slew of buttons, X-Mouse Button control provides a way to better utilize them in your favorite applications. Those of you with a crazy 38-button Razer, no, it won't support them all, but it can handle five buttons and a tilt wheel.

You're not locked in to one configuration - add as many apps as you like, and tweak settings for each as you see fit. A large list of commands are available, including cut/copy/paste, media controls, simulated keyboard input, print screen, browser commands, and a host of others. Vista users can assign Flip3d and show/hide sidebar to buttons.

X-Mouse's keyboard input setting is an excellent way to quickly execute an application's macros, scripts, or actions - I found it extremely handy in Photoshop.

Apart from the mouse button power-up it provides, X-Mouse can also save and restore your desktop icon layout with two quick clicks on its tray icon.

The developer offers X-Mouse as a free download for both 32 and 64-bit Windows.

Tags: hotkeys, mouse, mouse-buttons

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Troubleshooting, Windows x64

Kid Key Lock prevents accidental keyboard, mouse input

by Lee Mathews Feb 19th 2009

Accidentally hitting the wrong key or mouse button at the wrong time can be a giant pain in the butt - for example, when it causes you to tab out of your favorite FPS just as you were about to pull off a sweet headshot.

It's annoying for kids as well. I can't count how many times I've been watching my son accidentally bump a button and cause his Flash-based game to lose focus.

Kid Key Lock is a free application that disable sets of keyboard keys and lock down mouse buttons and actions (like wheel movement or double-clicking).

It's not fully customizable, but it allows disabling keys by groups: none, all, just system keys, or all but space, enter, and characters.

In case you accidentally lock all keyboard and mouse functions, the program supports a password - which you can enter to override the lock or enter setup or quit the app entirely.

Kid Key Lock is also handy for when you want to give your keyboard a quick cleaning without shutting down first. It's a free program, and runs on both 32 and 64-bit Windows.

Tags: keyboard, keylock, mouse

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware

Hot Corners adds OSX-style magic corners to Windows

by Lee Mathews Dec 9th 2008

I'm a big fan of applications that extend the power of my keyboard, but I like being able to to teach my mouse some new tricks as well.

Hot Corners is a application that allows you to assign a number of actions that occur when your mouse hovers over the corners of your desktop. Choose to show your desktop, lock your workstation, activate a screen saver, or launch any program on your computer.

In addition to assigning actions to the four corners of your screen, Hot Corners can add four mouse gesture actions. Hold the Windows key and tap X, and your pointer will move to the center of the screen. Mousing left, right, up, or down executes your pre-defined action.

A system tray icon provides quick access to disable your corners, gestures, or both.

Hot Corners is written in AutoIT3 and full source code is available for download from the author's site. It's freeware for Windows only, and is portable - just drop the program files directory onto your flash drive.

Update: Due to all the comments, I tested the download again. ClamWin reports it clean, as do VirusTotal and NoVirusThanks.Org. Those of you reporting positives, what AV are you running?

Tags: gestures, mouse

Filed under: Design, Utilities, Windows, Freeware

SlowMousion: For when mouse precision is more important than speed

by Brad Linder Aug 28th 2008

Sometimes you want your mouse to be zippy as possible, allowing you to scroll back and forth across a screen for a quick game of Pong or Arkanoid. But when you're trying to make precise movements in an image editing application, precision might be more important than speed. If your mouse is too fast, you might have a hard time drawing straight lines, for example.

That's where SlowMousion comes in. This free Windows utility allows you to select a hotkey on your keyboard or your mouse to hit when you want your mouse cursor to move very slowly. When you try dragging your mouse with the hotkey depressed, no matter how quickly you drag, the cursor will move veeerrrry slooowwwly.

There does not appear to be a way to make the slow movement the default and hit a hotkey for faster motion, so it doesn't look like SlowMousion will do you much good in the practical jokes department. But if you need all the help you can get trying to draw straight lines, this little app could come in handy.

[via Lifehacker and Freeware Genius]

Tags: graphics, mouse, slowmousion

Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Browser Tips, Browsers

Dogs hide bones, Firefox hides useful tricks

by Kristin Shoemaker Aug 15th 2008

~~Firefox is like a box of chocolates--~~

No, let me try that again. Firefox is one of those applications that's so hard to write about, because there may be little tricks and shortcuts I've been using for some time, and someone will discover one and say, "Hey, that rocks! Why didn't anyone tell me?" Then light dawns over my marblehead that it is a useful trick, and I should have pointed it out.

So Sean Privitera kindly reminded me that searching Google on Firefox is easier than it appears. Ever been reading something on the web and you have no freakin' idea what the word or phrase means? Select the word in question (if you really want to try it out, select this word: geoduck. It's not a Pokemon), right click, and wonder of wonders, there is an option there to search Google for the selected word.

See a nifty bit of formatting on a website, and you're wondering how it was done? Select that formatting, images and all, and right click. Then click "View Selected Source" and a window will pop up in Firefox showing you (brace yourselves!) the HTML formatting of the parts in question.

I've learned to love my right mouse button. Seriously, developers hide all the interesting stuff there. Of course, the right mouse button in Firefox will allow you to open a link in a new tab or window. But it can also calm some fears about what you might be opening (and how it behaves). Right clicking while hovering over a link can tell you if it opens in a new tab, what the URL is, and allow you to send or copy link location.

It is the little tricks like these that make a browser really useful, and more than just a vehicle for surfing the web. But like geoducks, sometimes you need to do a little digging to find them.

Tags: browser, Firefox, Google, mouse, right click, RightClick, search, tips, tricks

Filed under: Audio, Utilities, Windows

VolumeTouch: Adjust your PC volume with your mouse

by Brad Linder Jun 7th 2008

VolumeTouch is a utility that replaces the sound icon in the Windows system tray with a volume meter that gives you a live preview of your volume settings. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The program also lets you adjust your system volume using your mouse.

Here's how it works, you hit the Ctrl+Shift buttons and then move your mouse scrollwheel up and down to adjust the volume. If you don't like those button combos, you can choose a different key combination, or choose a different mouse behavior. VolumeTouch lets you control the volume by moving the mouse up and down or left and right as well.

You can also choose one of 5 skins for the tray icon. Some skins look better than others, but each gives you a real time view of your volume level.

[via Freeware Genius]

Tags: mouse, volume, volumetouch

Filed under: Hardware, News, Windows, Microsoft

Microsoft macks-out Vista ready hardware

by Ryan Carter Sep 16th 2006

Microsoft has just announced a bunch of new peripherals including an expensive ($250) wireless keyboard and mouse set due out in time for Vista. The set features Bluetooth connectivity (30 feet), back-lit keys, rechargeability and easy navigation buttons. There is a less-pricey version without the sexy trim for $150. This is part of Microsoft's plan to help users transition to Vista, by having the navigation options right on the keyboard. Also, just released from Microsoft are a new web cam, a new presentation mouse, and a new wireless gaming device. I can't wait to get my hands on the new hotness to test-drive it, but they don't come out until at least January next year, just in time for Vista's mainstream debut.

[Via ComputerWorld]

Tags: 8000, hardware, keyboard, mouse, rechargable, Vista, Wireless

Filed under: Audio, Utilities, Windows, Podcasting, Freeware

Volumouse - control volume from your mouse wheel

by Jason Clarke Aug 29th 2006

As a laptop user, I work in many different environments, sometimes with external speakers, sometimes with headphones, and sometimes (sadly) using only my laptop's tinny little speakers. In each of these different configurations I have different ways of controlling volume, or at least I did. Now I use Volumouse. Lifehacker pointed to this extremely useful little utility, which allows you to use your mouse wheel to control the volume of your system (or specific applications) depending on how you have it configured. It doesn't interfere at all with the regular use of your mouse wheel, and seems to be totally compatible with my other favorite mouse wheel utility, KatMouse.

Wendy at LifeHacker suggested configuring Volumouse to control your volume when the mouse pointer is anywhere on your taskbar, and I personally find that to be the ideal configuration.

Tags: mouse, sound, system volume, SystemVolume, volume, volume control, VolumeControl, Volumouse

Filed under: Fun, Games, Text, Windows, Productivity, Commercial, Freeware

Triggerfinger lets you use a joystick as a keyboard

by Jason Clarke Aug 18th 2006

I'm not really sure what to make of this one yet, but that said I suspect it's going to make a welcome addition to many Windows Media Center PCs out there. Triggerfinger is an application that was developed to allow a game controller to be used in place of a keyboard and mouse. This could also be very useful to UMPC devices that don't typically have a keyboard, and I could even eventually see a use for this sort of thing with Pocket PCs.

Learning to use Triggerfinger looks like it would be a relatively slow process, since there's a completely new layout scheme to memorize, but once memorized, I can imagine it could be fairly useful.

[Via JKOTR]

Tags: game controller, GameController, joystick, keyboard, mouse, Triggerfinger

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware

KatMouse: Scroll anywhere

by Jordan Running Jul 26th 2006

KatMouse is a useful little application for Windows that makes your mouse's scroll wheel even more useful. It changes the behavior of the scroll wheel to let you scroll any window on the screen, not just the active one. So if you're, for example, entering text in one window while reading from another, you can scroll down in the latter without changing the focus away from where you're entering text. KatMouse also has useful feature for task-switching that lets you use wheel-clicks (I've met a surprising number of people who don't realize the mouse wheel is also a button) to "push down" the current window, i.e. clicking on the current window with the mouse wheel will make whatever window is below it pop to the top. However, this function takes over the wheel-click functionality entirely, which will annoy you if you're used to using it for other things, like opening and closing tabs in Firefox. Fortunately, this function can be turned off. You can also specify a list of applications that won't be affected at all by KatMouse. KatMouse is among those great applications that are completely invisible (well, except for an icon in the system tray) but make your life easier, and it's free, too. Update: Fellow Download Squadder Jason Clarke informs me that we've covered KatMouse before. OMG dupe! Oops.

[Thanks, Roxy!]

Tags: katmouse, mouse, mousewheel, productivity, scroll, wheel

Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Windows, Freeware

OdoPlus Mouse Odometer

by Jordan Running May 1st 2006

I think "mouse odometer" apps, which track how far your cursor has traveled plus other useless but somehow fascinating data, have been around about as long as the mouse itself. OdoPlus such an app for Windows. In addition to tracking your cursor's travel in pixels and meters and counting how many times you click with each mouse button, OdoPlus generates a cool graphical click distribution map that shows what regions of the screen you click on most. You know, just in case you need one.

[Via Joey Day]

Tags: app, cursor, free, freeware, fun, mouse, odometer, odoplus, windows

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity

Guide to mouseless computing

by Jordan Running Mar 28th 2006

We've featured more than one tip on how better to make use of your PC without being tied to your mouse, but Life Without Mouse is probably the most comprehensive guide I've seen to ditching your mouse entirely. The author starts us off with some shortcut key tips, gets a little more advanced with some apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux that let you create your own time-saving shortcuts, and then goes into mouseless browsing. Even if you have no interest in ditching your mouse entirely, there are some good tips to be found.

[Via Lifehacker]

Tags: guide, howto, keyboard, mouse

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