Question to the other left-handers out there

[Dragoon]

Just a curiosity question about changing the button clicking with computer mice. Do you actually do that with your mice? I've had a few of my right-handed friends wonder about that and I don't, just move the mouse to the other side and confuse people for some reason :smallbiggrin: so I don't really have an answer.

[Astrella]

Do you mean swapping the left and right mouse button?

I don't at least, but that's because while I'm left handed I just use a mouse right handed.

[Zherog]

I also use a mouse right-handed.

[old man mode]
Mostly because back when I started using a mouse on a computer, we didn't have any fancy shmancy option to change the buttons. We had one setting, and we liked it!

Now you damn kids get off my lawn!
[/old man mode]

[AMX]

I'm not a left-hander myself, but I happen to know the mousing habits of one.
Mouse on the left, buttons not reversed.

[factotum]

Even though I'm a lefty I generally use my mouse right-handed, but I'm capable of using it left-handed if I feel like it...I don't bother swapping the buttons around, though, so I end up left-clicking with my middle finger rather than my index finger.

[Jay R]

As a right-hander, I use a mouse on the left, to reduce repetitive stress. Since I use communal computers at work, I don't switch the buttons; I just move the mouse to the left side.

[Salbazier]

Not left handed, but I use mouse with my left hand (without setting change of course) quite often and it is just as comfortable.

Why does your friend got confused anyway? I'll be more confused with people who switch the setting. It potentially causing confusion with some manual/instruction while left-clicking with middle finger is just as easy.

[Dragoon]

The friend is confused by the button switching, not the placing the mouse on the other side.

Also, my grade school would attempt to make it so I couldn't switch my mouse to the left side, but I got sneaky. :smallbiggrin:

[Remmirath]

I use the mouse with my left hand (I'm rather poor at it with my right hand when I try), but I have never seen any reason to change the buttons. The whole left-click right-click thing is basically arbitrary anyhow, so it works just as well unchanged.

I actually once walked into a room and started using the computer, and somebody had left the mouse on the left side and had also changed the buttons. This threw me off, so I changed it back.

[horngeek]

Do you mean swapping the left and right mouse button?

I don't at least, but that's because while I'm left handed I just use a mouse right handed.

This. The mouse is one of the few fine-motor skills I do right-handed.

(In general, I'm more ambidexterous, as in fine motor stuff I do left-handed, gross motor skills I perform right-handed).

[Weezer]

left hander (mostly) who uses his right hand for the mouse. I just learned that way and the few times I've tried to change it's been weird.

[TheCountAlucard]

Physical mouse? I'll use it right-handed. Laptop touchpad? Lefty with reversed buttons.

[GnomeFighter]

The friend is confused by the button switching, not the placing the mouse on the other side.

Also, my grade school would attempt to make it so I couldn't switch my mouse to the left side, but I got sneaky. :smallbiggrin:

Why on earth would they do that?

All the left handed people I know use there left hand but keep the buttons the same, as far as I know. I personally think it would be confusing to swap them and have no advantage. You would still be talking about left and right clicking, but there is no gain, its not like your index finger is faster or stronger than your middle finger. Personally I use a track ball and use my thumb and ring finger for clicking. If you prefer it the other way then no problem, but I don't see a need for it.

[Kobold-Bard]

Why on earth would they do that?

...

For reasons I can't remember, my primary school tried to make me write right handed instead of left.

As for the OP's question, I use my right hand for a computer mouse, because it never occured to me to do otherwise.

[SiuiS]

Do you mean swapping the left and right mouse button?

I don't at least, but that's because while I'm left handed I just use a mouse right handed.

Yo.

Although, when working at a computer of someone who was more heavily left handed, I kept the mouse on the left and worked with it. I pride mysel on symmetry and flexibility, so I usually just roll with whatever.


For reasons I can't remember, my primary school tried to make me write right handed instead of left.

As for the OP's question, I use my right hand for a computer mouse, because it never occured to me to do otherwise.

It used to be a thing. Being left-handed was wrong, so they corrected you. My brother got this for a while before my Da came in, angry southpaw that he was, and convinced them to stop.

[Ebon_Drake]

Even though I'm a lefty I generally use my mouse right-handed, but I'm capable of using it left-handed if I feel like it...I don't bother swapping the buttons around, though, so I end up left-clicking with my middle finger rather than my index finger.

+1 this. I use a mouse pretty much all day and often switch between hands just to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome. Plus it confuses people and makes me feel more awesome.

[Astrella]

Yo.

Although, when working at a computer of someone who was more heavily left handed, I kept the mouse on the left and worked with it. I pride mysel on symmetry and flexibility, so I usually just roll with whatever.

Hi~

Yeah, I tend to do a lot of stuff with my right hand because it just works out that way myself.


It used to be a thing. Being left-handed was wrong, so they corrected you. My brother got this for a while before my Da came in, angry southpaw that he was, and convinced them to stop.

Yeah... Catholic schools used to be pretty harsh about it around here until about a generation ago. I have an uncle who was 'corrected' to writing with his right hand.

[TheThan]

I also use a mouse right-handed.

[old man mode]
Mostly because back when I started using a mouse on a computer, we didn't have any fancy shmancy option to change the buttons. We had one setting, and we liked it!

Now you damn kids get off my lawn!
[/old man mode]


I also use my mouse right handed. It was far easier to train myself to use a mouse right handed since i was switching computers alot when i was learning.

[old man mode]
Ehhhh those were the good ol' days

Now what are you damn kids still doing on the lawn!
[/old man mode]

[JoshL]

I'm right handed, but use the mouse with either hand when working on music. Sometimes you need to mouse while you're playing a right hand melody on a keyboard, so I learned to do it. I sometimes use a pen input device too, and I'll use that with both hands (though I can't write with my left hand, so not fully ambidextrous)

[Emmerask]

I also use a mouse right-handed.

[old man mode]
Mostly because back when I started using a mouse on a computer, we didn't have any fancy shmancy option to change the buttons. We had one setting, and we liked it!

Now you damn kids get off my lawn!
[/old man mode]

You younglings! In my days we did not have computers and the only mice we had where the ones we ate during the hard winters and we liked it

Sorry I just can´t pass by an old man bragging contest they are too good :-/

Oh yeah right handed use too ;)

[Dragoon]

Why on earth would they do that?

All the left handed people I know use there left hand but keep the buttons the same, as far as I know. I personally think it would be confusing to swap them and have no advantage. You would still be talking about left and right clicking, but there is no gain, its not like your index finger is faster or stronger than your middle finger. Personally I use a track ball and use my thumb and ring finger for clicking. If you prefer it the other way then no problem, but I don't see a need for it.

Well the reason they said was because there isn't any room if I moved the mouse over. But it could be because it is evil to use your left hand. :smallbiggrin:

Thanks for the answers people.

[noparlpf]

Most lefties I've met use mice right-handed.

I'm right-handed, but sometime a year or two back I switched to using mice left-handed for no real reason. I switched the buttons, including the forward/back buttons on the sides of my mouse. The only time I've ever had to switch and use it right-handed was to write some math stuff out using the mouse. It turned out very slightly less illegible when I tried right-handed. When I play games, I stick to lefty mouse, and have to reconfigure the entire keymap.

At my internship last year, I switched the mouse buttons on the computer I was using, which confused the heck out of my boss whenever he came to check on me and tried to use the mouse. I switched it back every evening before leaving, though.

It's pretty handy to use it with my left hand, because I'm right-handed and tend to hurt my right hand more (including punching hard objects like huge blocks of ice with it more often; yeah, that happened more than once, despite the injuries the first time).

Edit:

Why on earth would they do that?

All the left handed people I know use there left hand but keep the buttons the same, as far as I know. I personally think it would be confusing to swap them and have no advantage. You would still be talking about left and right clicking, but there is no gain, its not like your index finger is faster or stronger than your middle finger. Personally I use a track ball and use my thumb and ring finger for clicking. If you prefer it the other way then no problem, but I don't see a need for it.

I remember reading at some point that the index finger is actually dominant to the middle finger, but I don't have a source right now.


Well the reason they said was because there isn't any room if I moved the mouse over. But it could be because it is evil to use your left hand. :smallbiggrin:

...Just push the keyboard six inches to the right, into the space where the mouse previously was. Now there's a space for the mouse on the left side.

[CoffeeIncluded]

I'm a lefty, and I use the mouse right-handed. I sometimes use a touchpad with my left hand, but I prefer using my right hand. It's what I'm used to.

[Marnath]

I suspect that a huge number of us use it right handed, because for most of us that was the only option when we learned how to run a computer and now we are in the habit of doing it that way. I'm not as old as some of you who got in on the ground floor so to say but I learned on some really primitive tech by today's standards, and I'm only 25. I'd been using computers for 8 years before I even came across a software function to switch the keys around.

I suppose I could have just used it backwards like some of you but 20 years ago that wasn't the kind of thing you did, at least not around here. I didn't get beat and have my left arm tied to the desk until I mastered writing right handed like Grandma did, but I was still made to understand that being left-handed was backwards and shameful and I was never taught to write sideways like some of you can do. I spent most of grade school with my hand covered in pencil lead, haha.

[Star Eater]

Hi fellow left handers.

I use my intuos with my left hand, naturally...but always been using the mouse right handed. Never thought to change it. I suppose with the mouse I have now its easily ambidextrous due to its shape, but growing up a lot of mice I used were inclined towards right handers.

[Avilan the Grey]

I suspect that a huge number of us use it right handed, because for most of us that was the only option when we learned how to run a computer.

Exactly. I started using a mouse on my Amiga 500, and there was no option (that I knew of, at least) to switch the buttons.

When I game, I use my middle finger for left click and my index finger for right click. When I surf or work, I use my index finger for both, just moving it back adn forth.

I also hold my hockey stick as a right-hander. I have always preferred it that way.

[Taffimai]

You guys are making me feel bad about getting my left-handed son used to having his buttons reversed. It just seemed like the obvious thing to do :smalleek:

[Tegannie]

My mom is left-handed and has the mouse on the other side and the buttons switched.

So when I use her computer (I'm a righty), I just move the mouse back to the usual side, but don't switch the buttons. (Which made going back and forth from her computer to a school computer during the semester of college I lived with her kinda wierd)

[Tengu_temp]

Right-handed mouse here. I heard about using a left-handed one since I was a kid, tried doing it and didn't like it.



It used to be a thing. Being left-handed was wrong, so they corrected you. My brother got this for a while before my Da came in, angry southpaw that he was, and convinced them to stop.

Man, I know this happened in the past, but I had no idea that it happened so recently. I prefer to interpret this as jealousy over the fact that southpaws tend to have higher IQ, and higher percentages of scientific and artistic geniuses.

[Kobold-Bard]

... southpaws tend to have higher IQ, and higher percentages of scientific and artistic geniuses.

See now I feel bad for letting the team down.

[Avilan the Grey]

I prefer to interpret this as jealousy over the fact that southpaws tend to have higher IQ, and higher percentages of scientific and artistic geniuses.

I compensate by being lazy and scatterbrained.

[Amidus Drexel]

Man, I know this happened in the past, but I had no idea that it happened so recently. I prefer to interpret this as jealousy over the fact that southpaws tend to have higher IQ, and higher percentages of scientific and artistic geniuses.

Those are myths... the correlations between the two (left-handedness and IQ/scientific or artistic genius) are pretty weak. There are also supposedly correlations between left-handedness and a higher suicide rate, along with a bunch of mental illnesses - all things without a great deal of conclusive proof.

[Marnath]

Those are myths... the correlations between the two (left-handedness and IQ/scientific or artistic genius) are pretty weak. There are also supposedly correlations between left-handedness and a higher suicide rate, along with a bunch of mental illnesses - all things without a great deal of conclusive proof.

If there's no correlation between handed-ness and intelligence, why have 5 of the last 7 presidents been left handed? :smalltongue:

[Amidus Drexel]

If there's no correlation between handed-ness and intelligence, why have 5 of the last 7 presidents been left handed? :smalltongue:

Well, he wasn't arguing that left-handers had a lower IQ. :smalltongue:

[Emmerask]

If there's no correlation between handed-ness and intelligence, why have 5 of the last 7 presidents been left handed? :smalltongue:

5 out of 7 is hardly representative come back once you have a list of 1000 :smalltongue:

[Marnath]

5 out of 7 is hardly representative come back once you have a list of 1000 :smalltongue:

If you go back further it's 6 or 7 out of 14. Before that no data is available because being left handed was just as frowned on as being gay so anyone who would have been left handed was "corrected."

I'm not sure what 1000 you are referring to, but if you're talking about presidents still we may have to wait just a bit for your theory to pan out. :smallamused:

[Deepbluediver]

My dad is left-handed; now I'm all curious to check out the set up for his computer next time I visit. It's something I've never paid attention to before.


Also, I manage to mess with both lefties and righties: in college my desk was small, and my computer was on the extreme right edge- so I had nowhere to put a mouse. I got a wireless one and kept using it with my right hand, but with my arm rotated at the elbow so my mouse-hand is crossed in front of me. This means my mouse gets turned 90 degrees counterclockwise. To move the pointer "up" on the screen I move my arm left, to move the pointer "right" I push the mouse towards my computer.

Since then I've discovered that even with a bigger desk, this is a more natural-feeling position, and it keeps the fleshy part of my forearm from having to rest on the sharp of edge my desk. You just need to not think about how the mouse is moving. Seriously, when I don't pay any attention it works fine, but if I stop and look at the mouse while trying to get it to do something, I suddenly cease being able to function.

And of course, anyone who tries to use my computer spends 10-30 seconds being frustrated, then picks up the mouse and moves it to either the left or right sides of the keyboard.



If there's no correlation between handed-ness and intelligence, why have 5 of the last 7 presidents been left handed? :smalltongue:

You're attempting to find causation between raw intelligence, hand-preference, and politics. I'm not even sure where to start with figuring out how many ways that's wrong.

Also, I would take the approach that the truly intelligent people take one look at all the shenanigans involved with public office, and run as FAR AWAY as they can. :smallbiggrin:

[pendell]

I haven't switched the buttons. I've simply adapted to living in a right-handed world.

ETA: Use the mouse right-handed. I can't WRITE with my right hand at all but the mouse isn't much different from pointing. I find typing more difficult and requiring more dexterity. So I keep my left hand for the keyboard and my right hand for the mouse.


Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Desktop mouse. Use in my left hand with normal/right oriented buttons. Doubtless because I learned to use a computer to start with by clicking with my middle finger. It was only years later when actually started messing around with options enough to actually do change the mouse around. By which time I would not have bothered to take the time... and was generally on shared machines so it would have been counter-productive socially.

Oddly on laptops I use my right hand on the touch pad more often then not. Not uncomfortable with left though just one of those things. And I only use one button 95% of the time anyways.

[ForzaFiori]

I usually just use a mouse on the right side, if there is a mouse (I don't have a desktop in my house anymore, so I rarely find myself using mouses anymore) however I can use one either way - I do switch the buttons though. In my brain it isn't left and right click, but index and middle. I could never get use to a left handed mouse with regular buttons.

[noparlpf]

I usually just use a mouse on the right side, if there is a mouse (I don't have a desktop in my house anymore, so I rarely find myself using mouses anymore) however I can use one either way - I do switch the buttons though. In my brain it isn't left and right click, but index and middle. I could never get use to a left handed mouse with regular buttons.

No mouse? Eek. I even have a small wireless mouse that I bring around with my netbook.

[Logic]

As a third generation southpaw, I am probably the most ambidextrous of the bunch, though all the lefties of my family are at least mildly ambidextrous. My family also happens to have greater than average number of lefties (Normal percentage is about 10%, but both sides of my family have lefties at a 25%, most of those were arbitrarily converted to righties.)

[Trog]

I also use a mouse right-handed.

[old man mode]
Mostly because back when I started using a mouse on a computer, we didn't have any fancy shmancy option to change the buttons. We had one setting, and we liked it!

Now you damn kids get off my lawn!
[/old man mode]
This. Including old man mode. And the thing about the lawn. I'm a lefty but righty on a mouse. Thus allowing me to pull the old Princess Bride thingy about not being right handed whenever anyone comments on my digital art and such. (yes, I know in the movie it was 'I am not left-handed' not right handed. =P)
No idea how to change the handedness of a mouse, sorry. I did once know, however, how to rewire Atari 2600 joysticks to be left handed. 'Twas long ago, though.

[Avilan the Grey]

As I said I hold the mouse with my left, but without changing buttons.
It takes some time remapping the keys to work around the arrow keys in games, but quite frankly it seems to be a better layout than the WASD layout anyway.

A typical mapping for me is Arrow Keys for movement, Keypad 0 for sprint, Right CTRL for either crouch or "activate" (usually I leave activate on E, but in fast games like ME2 and 3, it is combined with the Take Cover function and so is on CTRL) and Right Shift and Enter for other things.

[Totally Guy]

I use a mouse like a right handed person.

The hardest thing to do was use the Wii controller with the nunchuck.

On game pads the stick or D-pad has always been on the left and the action buttons on the right and I'm cool with that.

With the Wii I had to use my left hand to direct the pointer at the screen. This meant that I had to use my right hand to use the directional stick on the nunchuck. Which I couldn't do. So I had to swap hands all the time depending on which control I wanted to prioritise. Wrist strap? What wrist strap?

[noparlpf]

As I said I hold the mouse with my left, but without changing buttons.
It takes some time remapping the keys to work around the arrow keys in games, but quite frankly it seems to be a better layout than the WASD layout anyway.

A typical mapping for me is Arrow Keys for movement, Keypad 0 for sprint, Right CTRL for either crouch or "activate" (usually I leave activate on E, but in fast games like ME2 and 3, it is combined with the Take Cover function and so is on CTRL) and Right Shift and Enter for other things.

I use the number section. So, 8456 for wasd, right-arrow tends to be jump, Num-1, 0, 7, and 9 tend to be frequently-used things, and then other nearby keys for slightly-less-used things.

[Anarion]

Funny slightly relevant story. When I traveled in China a few years ago, I kept a travel journal and stopped to write in public sometimes. Every time I started writing in public, I got a small crowd who were equal parts entertained and mystified that I was using my left hand to write.

Anywho, I'm one of the right-handed mouse users because I learned on my Dad's computer back when there was just one button and he had the mouse on the right. Personally, I think it's an advantage. My dominant hand is the one that needs to move around and push all the buttons in games like League of Legends and Starcraft, and my mouse precision is fine.

[Velaryon]

I use a touch pad 99% of the time, with my right hand. When I do use a mouse, that's also with my right hand. It's not a particularly difficult motor skill for me, and even after I learned that the buttons could be reversed for left-handed use, it seemed like more trouble than it was worth.