Ergo Training
Posted by Phil Aaronson at 2:20 PM
The ergo folks really want you to left-mouse, that is, use your mouse with your left hand instead of your right. The reasoning being, on standard keyboards the mouse is much closer to your center on the left than it is on the right (where there are arrow keys and the numeric keypad). Having it closer in causes less strain on your rotator cuff, your hand, wrist and so on.
I tried it a month ago when they first suggested it, but could never get the hang of it and switched back. Today I had my in-person ergo evaluation I realized I missed a key step, I didn't swap the buttons on the mouse. In other words when left mousing right-click is really a left-click and vice versa. The trainer showed me how to swap the buttons on Windows, but didn't know how to do it the Mac.
Two button mice are supported by OS X but swapping the left and right clicks is not supported directly. If you're using a Logitech mouse, then you can install their controller which has this feature. I'm sure other vendors are similar.
Once installed, the controller will show up in the System Preferences where you can configure what each button/scroll wheel does. I set the right mouse button to be "click" and the left mouse button to be "right click" and I was off to the races. Didn't even know I could do that! I also set the scroll button to be paste (actually the key equivalent of Cmd-v), so its more like the old X window three button mice. Nice.
Left-mousing still feels pretty awkward, but I'm giving it another shot.
[Update: 8/9/2005] Swapping the left and right clicks is now supported in OS X 10.4, Tiger. So no need to install third party mouse drivers. If you have a two button mouse you'll see the option under System Preferences, Keyboard & Mouse, Mouse. Note that with Apple's standard one button mouse, the option is completely hidden.
And I'm still left mousing full time. It feels completely natural.
I tried it a month ago when they first suggested it, but could never get the hang of it and switched back. Today I had my in-person ergo evaluation I realized I missed a key step, I didn't swap the buttons on the mouse. In other words when left mousing right-click is really a left-click and vice versa. The trainer showed me how to swap the buttons on Windows, but didn't know how to do it the Mac.
Two button mice are supported by OS X but swapping the left and right clicks is not supported directly. If you're using a Logitech mouse, then you can install their controller which has this feature. I'm sure other vendors are similar.
Once installed, the controller will show up in the System Preferences where you can configure what each button/scroll wheel does. I set the right mouse button to be "click" and the left mouse button to be "right click" and I was off to the races. Didn't even know I could do that! I also set the scroll button to be paste (actually the key equivalent of Cmd-v), so its more like the old X window three button mice. Nice.
Left-mousing still feels pretty awkward, but I'm giving it another shot.
[Update: 8/9/2005] Swapping the left and right clicks is now supported in OS X 10.4, Tiger. So no need to install third party mouse drivers. If you have a two button mouse you'll see the option under System Preferences, Keyboard & Mouse, Mouse. Note that with Apple's standard one button mouse, the option is completely hidden.
And I'm still left mousing full time. It feels completely natural.
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