Rat Out That Mouse! Cursors Again!

One of the more annoying problems with Windows is not knowing where you are. You can move the mouse, change the pointer size, but all that really tells you is were you want to be. There are in fact two points: one (I’ll call the pointer, the one controlled by the mouse) is desire and the other (I’ll call the cursor, the one controlled by Windows) is reality.

Now there are a number of alternate representations for the pointer. If you are in the mood for being overwhelmed, you can go to Start>Settings>Control Panel>Mouse and from there, the tab Pointers. All of these represent the pointer in any given context.

Unfortunately, there is no way, apparently to change the cursor. You are stuck with a very fine vertical line that may be anywhere but where your pointer is. If the pointer does not agree with the cursor, you are changing, leaping, soaring to a location you had no desire to go. One of the delightful abilities of old (non-PC) computers was that you could in fact, change the appearance of the cursor, to flashing, underline, or block, so you really could know where you were. I guess that made it too easy and was dropped in the name of progress …

*** FLASH ****

Turns out there ARE some ways to change the thin vertical line, but it is dependent on the manufacturer of the mouse you are using! Of at least five mice I have used, I found one that has Accessibility Options with a Display Tab and Cursor Option. One can use the slider to make the cursor thinner or wider.

The only problems after making the cursor marker thicker is that it seems to cover the letter AFTER the place one would want to insert. Also, the application is not consistent across all programs; the cursor returns to its old form in, for example, browsers.

*** Now back to our irregularly scheduled program ... ***

The rule is, to change the position of the cursor, you must move the pointer then click it once. (Right or left does not matter, but "right-click" is probably preferable ...)

As I am not a big fan of the mouse (wait, I have a keyboard, with shift, ctrl, alt, windows, fn, and f-keys … now I have to take my hand away?) I would recommend becoming more proficient with the keyboard. In Word, for example, once you have the cursor in place, you can use your arrow keys with greater precision.

Some of the most useful key combinations:

Shift-arrow	selects letter by letter (if left or right arrow)
	selects line by line (if up or down arrow)
Shift-ctrl-end	selects document from cursor to end of document Handy when you have discovered the lovely idea of a template: Open a letter you have written, remove what you have already sent, save under a different name, and type
End	end of current line
Home	beginning of current line
Ctrl-home	put cursor at very top of document (before first character)
Ctrl-end	put cursor at very bottom of document (after last character)
Ctrl-a	select all (useful for cut/copy whole snippets)
Ctrl-x	cut(to move to another spot)
Ctrl-c	Copy (what you have selected, using the shift+arrows)
Ctrl-v	paste (into another letter or an email)

Web browsers:

Backspace	go back to previous window
Ctrl-p	print current page
Pg up/Pg dn	scroll up/down through window

There is another benefit to using keys rather than the mouse: you are more likely to remember what you did to get where you are.

Keys = steps, not motion.



Archie specializes in tutoring and training of seniors in PC security, Windows, Internet, and Microsoft Office. He holds the CompTIA A+ certification and is often featured speaker at Goodwin House in Alexandria; he can be emailed at ama3@tfci-us.com