Using the Mouse to Select
Computer Basics
for WIT 2001
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Using the Mouse to Select

You use the mouse to select (or highlight) stuff. This is important because:

What you Select
Is what you Affect
And what you affect is what you want to do! If you want a particular icon to change you have to select that icon and not that icon over there! (I know that sounds simple, but ifyou don't get it right, it won't do what you expect.)

When you select or highlight an icon, it "inverts" that icon. (To "invert" means to highlight or select or darken the icon.) The mouse is your primary (although not your only) tool to select.

An unselected icon (of the Trash)

 

A selected icon (also known as "highlighted" or "inverted")

To deselect an icon you can click on another icon or you can click on an empty place on
the desktop where there are no icons.

And What Is A Click?

A click means you:
  1. Roll the mouse so the pointer is over the thing you want to select.
  2. Then, without moving the mouse
  3. Press down and immediately lift up your finger on the mouse button.
Like all hand-eye coordination things, this takes some practice.

The mouse button will make a clicking sound. (For Windows users, a "click" always refers to the left mouse button. A "right-click" will always be specified. More on how Windows mice have two buttons soon.)

Activity 1-Click that mouse!

Try these steps:
  1. Roll the mouse around so the tip of the arrow is over the picture part of the icon of the trash can. (On the Mac this has the label Trash. On Windows this icon has the label Recycle Bin.)
  2. Click the mouse button. (On the Mac there's only one button, on Windows you click the mouse button on the left.)
You'll notice that when you do this the icon inverts. You've done it! You've selected (highlighted, inverted) an icon!

Activity 2-Select / DeSelect

  1. Now click on the icon of the hard drive (On the Mac this will be in the upper right hand corner. On Windows this will be toward the upper left and have the label My Computer.)
When  you do this two things happen: Your action deselects the icon of the trash can and selects the icon of the hard drive.

You can click between these two to your heart's content. Try clicking on other icons and the desktop itself!
 
 

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