One way of documenting mouse clicks...

[Valarie <TASSARI -at- CGI -dot- COM>]

>>Chuck Martin <techwriter -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com> writes:

>>I'm interested in finding out how my fellow tech-whirlers handle describing
>>the mouse buttons when writing thier documentation.

>>Question:
>>How best to describe the primary and secondary (and even tertiary and more)
>>mouse buttons?

>>Some do use primary and secondary. We seem to want to move to a "mouse
>>button 2" term, which to me seems awkward. And on a 3-button mouse, which
>>one is "mouse button 2?"

--------------------------
My Answer:
Our system operates on a Sun workstation using a three button mouse.  We
use all three buttons to operate the system.  We also use single and double
mouse clicks to activate different commands.  The naming convention that
was decided upon prior to my arrival as a writer for the software is:

        MOUSE-LEFT-1 = Single Click Left Mouse Button
        MOUSE-MIDDLE-1 = Single Click Middle Mouse Button
        MOUSE-RIGHT-1 = Single Click Right Mouse Button

...where the "1" is changed to "2" to indicate a double mouse click.
This seems to have worked well for our users without confusion.

We have also used the convention of:

        Left mouse = select
        Middle mouse = movement within the interface
        Right mouse = advanced features, window menus, etc.


Hope this helps.

Val Tassari
Carnegie Group, Inc.
tassari -at- cgi -dot- com