Pistol Mouse First Impressions

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gulliver-trans
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Pistol Mouse First Impressions

Post by gulliver-trans »

I don't know about this pistol mouse, Gunter. (I picked one up at Fry's. There was a whole load of them -- $15 each.)

Anyhow, the fact that there are only 3 buttons sucks (I use my extra buttons for page up and page down). And this thing won't track on a glossy surface, whereas my Logitech MX100 is fine.

Also cords make me batty. And I'm having a hell of a time making mouse gestures that are recognizable. And this mouse is really slowing me down. I can't quickly get the cursor to where I want it to go.

Got any tips on making it useable?
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Gunter
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Re: Pistol Mouse First Impressions

Post by Gunter »

Well, I use the scroll wheel to scroll up and down the page. Or I click the scroll wheel to get the little "page scroll" cursor to appear... With the right software you could probably program the scroll wheel to do whatever you want.

As for getting better with it... practice?

You can twist your wrist to move it left and right instead of moving the whole thing left and right.

It is heavier than a standard mouse, so takes more effort to move. I guess you can slightly life up on it as you move it, but that might make your arm tired.

Play FvF with it. You get to shoot things!

Though I've been using mine just to navigate around windows...
I did have to turn my mouse sensitivity way down, because it is more sensitive than my normal mouse.
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Re: Pistol Mouse First Impressions

Post by gulliver-trans »

Thanks.

I think this is just going to be a toy for occasional play.

With a regular mouse, you can flex your fingers a bit to move forwards and backwards (up and down). But with the pistol mouse you have to do this with your elbow, pushing the mouse forward and pulling it back. Does that wear out your elbow? I think you lose precision because you can't brace your hand against the table. I guess if I had a decent chair with adjustable arms, it might be okay.

The trouble with the middle-click scrolling thing is that if I middle-click on a link when disabling the scrolling function, it will open the link. I guess I can right-click, but then the context menu pops up. [Edit: Nevermind. I guess you can hold down the wheel button, which causes the scrolling feature to function differently. That's not too comfortable, though.]

I really need to try this on a more solid surface.

My setup here is going to require a lot of changes before it becomes ergonomic: new chair, new keyboard, new mouse (maybe also a handheld trackball) , keyboard tray, wrist pads, etc.
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Re: Pistol Mouse First Impressions

Post by gulliver-trans »

I definitely need a keyboard with the numpad moved to the lefthand side (or elsewhere) to free up some space for the mouse.
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Re: Pistol Mouse First Impressions

Post by Gunter »

ImageImageImage <- Try my Pogo Piggle games for Android!
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Re: Pistol Mouse First Impressions

Post by gulliver-trans »

Haha.
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Re: Pistol Mouse First Impressions

Post by gulliver-trans »

So I got the Evoluent Vertical Mouse 3.

It's not bad. I'm not as precise as I was with my Logitech MX 1000, but close, and still adapting.

It is comfortable. No more wrist pain, once you adjust your ergonomic setup to the requirements of the mouse.

One minor complaint:

The mousewheel doesn't tilt, so you can't scroll from side-to-side that way.
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