Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Computer Skills - Right Click for Control

A right mouse click gives you a context menu no matter what you are clicking. My favorite expression is, "The right mouse button gives you choices. The left mouse button makes things happen!"

The right mouse button can give you a lot of extra control. Instead of a wobbly drag and a "God knows where you'll drop it," when you are trying to copy a file from one location to another, try right clicking the file in question first. Choose copy. Then navigate to where you want to put the copy and right click there. Choose paste. It really is that easy, and it doesn't matter if you are copying from one folder to another, or from one drive to another (like the documents folder on your Kindle). It doesn't have to be only files. Try your right click inside your favorite software. It is amazing what you can learn by poking around and right clicking. Where you right click (or Control+click if you use a Mac) will determine what your choices will be.
Mac users: You have a "right click" too... hold down your Control key while you click something. You will see choices all over the place. Choices are good.