Maximizing Mouse (Not Keyboard) Potential

People sometimes think using a mouse is clumsy and should be eliminated. The truth is, it's inefficient because you're not good at using it.

There are things a mouse is fundamentally good at:

• Scrolling

• Drag & drop

• Pointing

• Fallback for tasks difficult with a keyboard

Keyboard and mouse, two paths to digital mastery. In balance, find true power. For they are as light and shadow, as body and mind. The true master adapts to the flow, so does not focus on one to the exclusion of the other

Start with a Quick Win

Set your cursor to the largest size and invert the colors. The cursors are usually small and hard to find. Even if you don't consciously look for it saying, "Where's the cursor?!", every time you try to use the cursor, you're unconsciously spending time finding it. The reason you can't make the cursor bigger is that it would obscure what's behind it, but inverting the colors can mitigate this

• How to set it:

  • Windows: See this

  • MacOS: Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to implement this setting

Hardware

1. Use a trackball mouse

   The default mouse that you move around has several drawbacks. The distance between your hand and the mouse has to be far, making it hard to switch between keyboard and mouse. You also have to move a lot more to adjust the cursor. The solution is to use a trackball mouse and place it right next to the keyboard.

   • Tip: With a trackball mouse, unlike a regular mouse, you can independently control moving the cursor and clicking. That is, you can press the mouse buttons without affecting the cursor position at all. You can use this characteristic when you need to fine-tune the cursor.

2. Use a mouse with as many buttons as possible

   For your reference, this is my mouse.

   

   Elecom M-HT1URBK

   I chose one with especially many buttons among trackball mice. Especially, the wheel can be tilted left/right to trigger actions, which is very convenient.

   • How I use each button

     • Basic functions (click, right-click, back, forward)

     • Page up/page down: Assists when scrolling with the mouse

     • Tilt wheel left/right function: Highlight the selected text / Request ChatGPT to act on the selected text

     • Button for using mouse gestures

3. Use a shorter keyboard

   If you place the mouse to the right of the keyboard, it's best to use a keyboard that's as short as possible on the right side to get the mouse as close as possible to the default hand position on the keyboard, which is the letters section. I use a 60% keyboard.

   

   • Tip: The problem of lacking keys on the keyboard can be supplemented by creating custom hotkeys using tools like AutoHotkey

4. Make the motion of switching between keyboard and mouse a sliding motion

   When people normally use a mouse, they lift their hand off the keyboard into the air to grab the mouse. It's a problem because it's too unstable. So the motion of switching from keyboard to mouse should be a sliding motion. Set up the wrist position when using the keyboard and the wrist position when using the mouse to be aligned in a line, using keyboard wrist rests and other tools to facilitate a smooth sliding transition between the two.

Here is the photo of my settings as an example of applying these items

Software

1. Set the cursor speed to the maximum Adjust both the OS settings and the mouse settings to the maximum speed. Just adapt to that speed.

2. Browser mouse gesture extension

   I use the crxMouse extension in Chrome. I'll introduce my settings for reference

   1. With the right button held

2. With dragging

3. Global mouse gestures

   You can have a separate button on the mouse dedicated to this, or create custom hotkeys to use it in combination with specific keys on the keyboard I'll introduce my settings for reference. They're all functions for window manipulation

4. The problem of fine control

   • With a trackball mouse, it's easier to click while keeping the mouse position still, it makes fine controlling the cursor easier.

   • Custom hotkey settings for cursor adjustment can also help, such as setting up a key to move the mouse cursor by just 1-4 pixels when pressed.

5. Hotkey to move the cursor out of the way

   To prevent cases where you want to do something with the keyboard but the cursor is in the way and it's inconvenient, set up a hotkey to instantly move the cursor out of the way without breaking your keyboard flow. If you use 2 or more monitors, have the hotkey move the cursor to the other monitor.

6. Use layers on mouse buttons

   Set it up so that when you hold down a certain key and press a mouse button, it performs a different action. This way you can greatly increase the number of actions you can perform with the mouse.

7. Miscellaneous

   Cursor Position Highlighting / Mouse Click Highlighter (to clearly indicate that the click button is pressed properly) / Mouse Pointer Crosshair / Borderless Mouse (for cursor movement across multiple devices).

• Tip: Hotkeys you use with the mouse should use keys on the left side of the keyboard because they need to be used with the mouse on the right side

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