Stop mousing around! Mouse settings to improve your personal performance

Have you considered how your mouse settings affect your personal performance, not just in SolidWorks, but also in any application? With mouse speed set to slow, you may be physically dragging your mouse too far just to access toolbar buttons or pulldown menus. If you are moving your mouse 6 inches just to click a toolbar icon, and then moving it another 6 inches to get back to were you where in the graphics area, consider improving your settings to increase mouse speed. Large movements of the mouse on your desk is a bad time waster. It is also potentially bad ergonomics.

For best results, mouse speed should be set so that you have access to all portions of your monitor(s) within a very slight physical movement of the mouse. On Windows 7, you can adjust mouse settings at Start>Control Panel>Mouse. (If Mouse does not appear when you open the Control Panel, click the View by: drop down bar in the upper right of the Control Panel window, and choose Large Icons. This will allow you to see all custom setting areas.) I have my mouse speed set so that I can access any point on my primary monitor within a 2 inch diameter of physical movement without triggering the speed threshold. The threshold is the speed you move your mouse to trigger faster movement of the cursor. I’m using a medium threshold. This allows me to quickly move my cursor between monitors with very little extra movement of my mouse.

Essentially, a faster mouse allows you to control your entire desktop with very little physical movement. It increases speed of operation. It is also generally more ergonomic.

If you are physically moving your mouse a lot just to access different points on the monitor, try experimenting with your mouse speed. You don’t have to set your mouse speed to be super fast right away. Incrementally improve mouse speed over a few weeks until you get to a point where you are comfortable with high mouse sensitivity. Happy mousing!