Can you change your mouse hand?

[ne0phyte]

Hey,

my right wrist hurts every now an then and at some point I tried to use my left hand for the mouse and found out that there is close to no difference for me. I was a bit less accurate at first but it worked really well (which I didn't expect).

Is it just me or can you use both hands for the mouse, too?

[Muirium]

Switching mouse hands can be a very good idea. Right handers like us get the extra benefit of finding out how awesome lefties get it: every keyboard is a TKL for them! Your mouse is right left there, where you need it.

[dirge]

I'm a lefty and use my right hand for mouse, so in later age my main hand isn't fucked. I can also take notes and navigate with the mouse. Just more logical to do things this way.

[HzFaq]

I used to switch every couple of months. I think the first week as a lefty was pretty frustrating (I'm a natural righty), but after that I was back up to full speed mousing and am now pretty comfortable using either hand to mouse. I haven't done it for a while as I'm using a right handed vertical mouse at work and want to give it a long term trial.

[JBert]

At work I might switch at any moment, maybe a couple of times a day, but I do reverse the buttons. That way, you have almost no adjusting period, index finger stays left click and middle finger is always right click.

Most of the time it is left side at work, right side at home (where the use of a model F XT means the mouse is closer anyway). I mostly tend to switch when connecting to remote desktops as Windows doesn't play nice with reversed mouse buttons on remote sessions.

[RC-1140]

Well, I usually use my Kensington Orbit trackball, which I can very well operate with both hands. But using a mouse in the left hand is difficult, but that might be because my mouse is not ambidextrously designed.

[ماء]

Hey,

my right wrist hurts every now an then and at some point I tried to use my left hand for the mouse and found out that there is close to no difference for me. I was a bit less accurate at first but it worked really well (which I didn't expect).

Is it just me or can you use both hands for the mouse, too?

So,Now you use the mouse Ambidexterity
I think, it is true, the standard keyboard layout more suited with the mouse in the left side

maybe,This is more suitable if the mouse is on the right side
http://www.dsi-keyboards.com/left-handed-keyboards.aspx

[HaaTa]

I'm right handed, but can use mice with either hand. FPSs are fine as well, trackballs or regular mice. Thinking about it I probably use my left and right hands interchangeably when using a trackpoint.

[Halvar]

As a leftie I usually use the mouse with my left hand, it's so much better to be able to use mouse and nav keys at the same time when editing texts. I have to use other people's or shared computers though from time to time, and that's the main reason I didn't start to swap mouse keys (just not worth it), and I'm fairly ok with using the mouse with the right hand, too.

You always face this question as a left-hander: do you buy left-hander scissors and can openers, swap the strings on your guitar ... or just learn to work with the right-hander tools as they are. IMO by using the special tools you get yourself in a dependency on them that doesn't really help you. So I think it's better to decide on your own compromises and try to learn and use the "standard" tools wherever possible.

[Muirium]

Great point, Halvar. I like to try using things as they were designed, for a bit longer than some folk I know, before fiddling with software preferences or rejiggering equipment; because the more customisation you do, the more on your own you are whenever faced by new versions or working with other people's setups. Context is everything, though. I run my Macs fairly stock, but my text editor is another story. Depends on how much interoperability matters with the specific tool. Besides, when text files are what you're actually sharing, there's no reason not to have a highly customised setup, so long as it speaks ASCII / Unicode!

The strong vote for mousing ambidexterity in this thread makes me wonder why so damn many mice are asymmetric. Does it do ergonomics any good to balance the certain harm of heavy right hand dependency? I like a little, low topped mouse instead of one that fills my palm, so I've always gone for symmetric ones. A "right handed mouse" doesn't feel right to me, even in my dominant hand.

[ماء]

maybe, because the population is right-handed too much(right hand is dominate) and for seems ergonomic

[ne0phyte]

The strong vote for mousing ambidexterity in this thread makes me wonder why so damn many mice are asymmetric. Does it do ergonomics any good to balance the certain harm of heavy right hand dependency? I like a little, low topped mouse instead of one that fills my palm, so I've always gone for symmetric ones. A "right handed mouse" doesn't feel right to me, even in my dominant hand.

Imo there is a huge difference. I had a few symmetric mice and I definitely prefer asymmetric ones.

This is what I use at work and at home (Logitech G400):

Spoiler:

[Muirium]

Guess it comes down to personal taste. I've also seen people use very different mousing styles.

I like my mouse "in my fingers" rather than "under my palm". I flick it about pretty quick, and use a low mouse speed (or as Ubuntu puts it: "high sensitivity"!) which works just perfectly for me. Gave me a huge advantage at sniping accuracy back in the Battlefield 2 days, that's for sure.

Meanwhile, a still active gamer friend of mine has the absolute most twitchy settings I've ever found and I can barely use his computer without hitting the screen edges! He's a mouse palmer, of course. Works for him.

[ne0phyte]

Hehe.

I have a friend with a 60x40cm mousepad and he uses the whole thing. Ultra-low-sensitivity gaming

Compared to that my mousepad is ridiculous. I even cut it because I barely need more than 20x15cm. My mouse is pretty fast as well. I need 4cm to move the mouse from left to right. That's 3200 pixel at work = 314ppi with 0 acceleration.

[Muirium]

Zero acceleration! Yaargh! My mouse-twitching friend uses ultra speed and acceleration, which I suppose is worse for a shuffler like me. It's not just speed I find maddening on his system, but anticipating how it'll rack up.

Default acceleration is all I use. With a light mouse and low speed setting, I can hit precise pixels better than anyone I know, without feeling compromised on general movement. Quite effective for me, on Mac and Windows, but Ubuntu gets it completely wrong.

[ne0phyte]

The mouse speed doesn't really matter to me but I just can't work/play with mouse acceleration. It just feels completely wrong and people who play FPS games with mouse acceleration are either insane/pro or new to gaming (no offense)

I guess it heavily depends on the game and ones play style. When I play short range firearms I just flick the mouse and shoot when the crosshair is over the enemy and I get 75%+ accuracy by doing so. That fast flick is linear and predictable without acceleration.

[Muirium]

The mouse speed doesn't really matter to me but I just can't work/play with mouse acceleration. It just feels completely wrong and people who play FPS games with mouse acceleration are either insane/pro or new to gaming (no offense)

None taken! I honed my FPS skills back when Quake introduced the dual keyboard + mouse control schema in the first place. I'm definitely not new, and I wouldn't say pro either, so the remaining option will do!

I guess it heavily depends on the game and ones play style. When I play short range firearms I just flick the mouse and shoot when the crosshair is over the enemy and I get 75%+ accuracy by doing so. That fast flick is linear and predictable without acceleration.

Yes, rapid movement is something I do by flicking the mouse around further from the centre of my hand. I skate the little buggers pretty damn quick when I have to, actually, but haven't yet lobbed one right off my desk! Close up spray & pray feels as predictable to me as it does to you because that acceleration is burned into my brain through decades of use, in games and far more besides. But I do feel awkward in an FPS knife fight. The mouse could be a part of it, but the whole screen = gunsight model breaks down for me when your arms come into play.

Besides, grenades!

[Grond]

I could never use my mouse with my left hand, but since I switched to trackball I found out I could easily use it with my left hand, which I steadily do now.

[matt3o]

my wife is ambidextrous and she uses the mouse on the left hand so when I'm on her PC I use the lefty mouse. No big issues.

[davkol]

I'm left-handed. I use the trackpoint, tablet pen, stylus, rollermouse etc. only with my left hand, and I guess I can use finger trackball with either hand—I actually swap hands when using the Logitech TrackMan Marble.

However, I've never completely switched to left-handed mousing, although I've been trying hard for last 1.5 year, because I had experienced pains in my right index finger, and my right middle finger was malformed, thus basically unusable for controlling a mouse wheel. Left-handed mousing would also allow me to use full-size keyboards (they're too wide for my tastes when it comes to right-handed mousing). The problem is that there are hardly any left-handed mouses suitable for high-sensitivity fingertip grip, and the ambidextrous ones aren't vertical at all by definition—rotating my forearm/wrist to be in horizontal position feels sooo uncomfortable... In the end, I always switch back to CM Storm Xornet, which has nice shape, light buttons and perfect surface.

[ne0phyte]

Hm interesting. I didn't expect lefties to be used to right handed mice but it sounds like you are having a harder time finding suitable peripherals than getting used to doing tasks with the nondominant hand.

[7bit]

I use the RollerMouse with the left hand and the SGI Granite mouse with the right.


Don't know if I can ever change this.

[ماء]

whether you're a lefty also 7bit?

[Compgeke]

Trackpad\Trackpoint\Trackballs? Yes, I have no problems at all, except for the Microsoft Trackball Explorer.

With a regular mouse (even more so my main mouse), no. Main problem is most of my mice are designed for the right hand, and it just feels odd using it with the left. I rarely run into people using the mouse on the left anyways, my mom is left handed and uses a right hand mouse, as do most left handed people I know.

[bhtooefr]

I voted no, because it gets pretty ugly left-hand mousing, but I can kinda if I have to. I do typically mouse at an angle, though, which makes matters worse as far as left-hand mousing.

TrackPoints, I can do some with my left hand, and touchpads, I can do fine.

[vatin]

Good idea to alternate hands. I can do it either mouse or trackball.

[Muirium]

The golden rule of ergonomics, posture and all exercise: mix it up.

[vun]

The golden rule of ergonomics, posture and all exercise: mix it up.

This is what I do; I have a fairly decent collection of mice I switch between on my right hand and a trackball on my left. So I do sorta switch mouse hand, but not in the way OP was thinking of. I merely rest my right hand and use a trackball with my left hand, I haven't bothered trying mousing with my left hand.

Works great as a justification for buying even more mice.

[Muirium]

Smart! Must somehow adapt this excuse for MORE KEYBOARDS!

[vun]

Smart! Must somehow adapt this excuse for MORE KEYBOARDS!

It's difficult since it only works if the keyboards you want are shaped differently in some way, which is really why I'm more interested in mice than I am in keyboards. Interesting keyboards are often expensive and can be impractical in some ways, whereas there's loads of different mice to choose from with all sorts of interesting shapes and features.