Just about every program ever written has keyboard shortcuts built in. Once you learn those shortcuts you can run your computer faster than someone who just uses a mouse. So the theory goes. I tried, as an experiment, to use my computer as mouse free as possible. It was a very hard thing to do because just about all users from windows 3.x days and before have been conditioned to use the mouse.
As I use Linux (isn't it obvious? :) I installed a window manager, called Ratpoison, which is optimised for the keyboard. While there was the obvious learning curve and straining of memory cells that had started to atrophy, I soon got the hang of it. Many times the hardest thing was not automatically reaching for the mouse. Get the hang of it I did, yet I still had problems.
Not so much with the window manager but the programs I was trying to run. It seems that the current thinking of modern window based programs is that the mouse is just going to be there and programs are written on that assumption. This means that for some commonly used functions there are no keyboard shortcuts. There are not even any menu items. These functions can only be accessed via context menu's, which appear when you click the right mouse button.
I am not going to mention any specific program names because it happens across a wide range of programs. Even programs that allow you to specify keyboard shortcuts don't have an option to specify a shortcut for these functions. I guess it is easier to program for a mouse button than to program for a keyboard shortcut. Personally I don't think so.
So no matter how hard I try and keep both hands on the keyboard (I am a touch typer, not a hunt'n'pecker) I am finding my hand is being forced to stray to the mouse for some functions. This doesn't do much for both my concentration and interrupts the flow of what I am doing at the time. Not to mention a little thing called RSI.
How many of you are able to forgo the mouse entirely? I have tried and failed. I want to hear some success stories here. I also want programmers to think a little bit more about those who, for any reason, can not use a mouse and find the keyboard to be the best means of controlling their computer.
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I have recently been trying
I have recently been trying to use the mouse as little as possible, but I find it very difficult because if you can't use the mouse to begin with and you have no manual about key commands it is practically impossible. I don't know how to open any applications without my mouse. Once the computer starts up I am at a loss. The only thing I can think of is Ctrl O (open) but nothing happens. When the screen saver comes on I am pleasantly amused for quite some time but then I start trying to hit every button I know to get something to happen, sheer agony. I don't know where to go or who to ask about anything. The only thing I know how to do (once I cheat and use my mouse to open the program) is record music on my software, but that is only because I have really studied how to use the software. In all other applicatons I rely almost wholly (word and excel excluded) on the mouse and the POWER it brings. I really appreciate the mcitp mouse now, because all you need to remember is point and click, not ctrl-alt-shift-q etc.