Non-standard mouse - not entirely OT!

Since nobody came up with any bright ideas as to how I could get rid of most my ProTool Archives "en masse", I've been grinding my way through them (~1500 Tags at seven mouse clicks each to free them up) for the last day and a half.

As a result my wrist and, in particular, my middle finger are complaining bitterly! Thinking about it, it's perhaps not too surprising. The index finger and thumb are frequently used individually or at least independantly of the other fingers, the remaining three fingers, however, are usually used together to grip something. So the use of the middle finger for right clicking to open the context menu is obviously straining it a bit.

I'm fairly sure I've see a mouse advertised with a button or buttons on the side to be operated by the thumb. I feel sure this ought to be more comfortable than using the middle finger.

Has anybody ever worked with a mouse like this and if so, how does the theory translate into practice?

Logitec amd Microsoft both have a 5 button mouse in fact I use the microsoft one on my laptop. You can asign the buttons to what ever you want them to do. I like them gives me some flexability to do it the way I want them to work.

Regards,
Tom

How comfortable and natural do you find using your thumb to click with as opposed to the middle finger. Playing around with my normal mouse suggests it ought to be ok, but I can't help wondering whether there might be a tendency to skew the mouse sideways when clicking with the thumb. I'm working at 1200 x 1024 resolution and on the screen the button size on some of the control boxes is only about 5mm across which makes hitting them at all a bit difficult if you're trying to do things rapidly!

If deleting all those tags was repetitive, meaning that the clicks and mouse were always in the same location, you could have used a macro program. There are mouse macro programs which record the mouse position and clicks and allow you to playback the sequence. You can also set up the playback to loop.

The initial right click is not always in the same place because I'm working my way down the list a line at a time, but once I've got the context window open the remaining five clicks are always in the same place, so a mouse macro program would save a lot of effort. This is also where the problem of accuracy comes up when trying to keep up a good pace.

Do you know of any sources of macro S/W?

I'll go and have a Google in the meantime - thanks for the idea.

Edit:

That didn't take long, I got a good selection in Google, so I've downloaded a couple that look promising and will try them out tomorrow. I'll post my findings for those who might be interested.

Still interested in hearing about any other experiences and ideas though.

Cheers

Roy

If the program is C-based, then try "ptfb" which is made by "Panicware."

The name of this freeware app is "push the freakin' button," and I use it on all of my machines to avoid the incessant "are you sure?" messages from M$...

If I mess up, too bad... I'll either undelete it or re-create it... anything is better than 74 clicks to delete a file.

I can't remember what program I used, but you can try here -

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?qt=mouse+macro&tg=dl-20

I have a mouse with buttons on both the right and left side. I use them as "back" and "forward" in internet explorer. It is very easy to click with your thumb but I haven't used it to replace the normal left click either. Each mouse is different too, but mine is the best I've used and I love it. The one I have is a logitech mx-310 (I think, not positive on model number)

I like the Microsoft one a little better because the left and tright buttons ar mounted high on each side so when using either the right or left button, you can hold the mouse with the opposite finger to keep it from moving.

Regards,
Tom

Well, after playing around a bit, I finished up using this one. It integrates both keyboard commands and mouse clicks so I was able to automate the whole sequence, which means I should be finished deleting my archives sometime this afternoon - and no more RSI problems!

I was once told, if you want to find the easiest way to do something, you ask the laziest person to do it.

And I always thought people asked me to find an easy way to do something because I was smart.

Tark said:

And I always thought people asked me to find an easy way to do something because I was smart.

Click to expand...

Heh, I thought the same thing...lol

I was once told, if you want to find the easiest way to do something, you ask the laziest person to do it.

Click to expand...

I'm a great believer in that theory. The truly lazy person will organise things so that the end result is achieved with the minimum amount of effort!