Thanks to resistive and capacitive touchscreens, we’ve gotten used to gestures. They have developed different habits. When it comes to our computers, we still rely on a good keyboard and mouse. Some will swear by keyboard shortcuts to increase productivity. But that requires learning different keyboard shortcuts for different apps. How about trying mouse gestures?
StrokeIt (version 9.7) is probably the actual tool to go for if you’re trying out mouse gestures on your Windows PC. If your hand rests heavily on the mouse next to you, StrokeIt offers you nearly 80 gestures to optimize the way you browse and use your computer. (image credit: afu007)
Cool Tip: Did you know that you can also use facial gestures to control your computer?
What are mouse gestures?
Mouse gestures are nothing but patterns you draw on the screen with your mouse. It can be anything from a simple circle to an infinity symbol. The StrokeIt application running from the system tray recognizes these patterns and shapes and converts them into the actions each pattern represents. So if you use a fast mouse, you will increase your productivity significantly.
StrokeIt in action
StrokeIt shows up as a white arrow pointer on the System Tray. Clicking on it will launch the main interface. The StrokeIt screenshot of the main window gives you an idea of the 80+ actions the app supports by default.
Global actions are common to all applications. Application specific actions are covered in their respective categories. You can view each issue in detail by clicking the “plus sign”.
Every action has a gesture
An action is a set of commands that run when a gesture is performed with the mouse on the screen. You can draw gestures using the right mouse button (this option can be configured from Interest). You can press the CTRL key to override the StrokeIt and ignore any drawn gestures. For example, if you are doing something in a photo editor and need to use the right button.
To see StrokeIt in action, try a few mouse gestures for Google Chrome. To go back in history, draw a horizontal line (going from right to left) with your mouse in the Chrome window. To go forward, draw it from left to right. To open a new browser tab, draw a backslash from top to bottom.
Learn Gestures
StrokeIt has a very handy Learning Mode that tells you what each gesture means and whether the app recognizes how you draw gestures on the screen. Go Edit – Learn Gestures from the menu bar. Draw gesture on top of dialog and check if StrokeIt recognizes how you draw correctly.
You can keep practicing until you get it right or otherwise; you can “teach” StrokeIt to recognize your own particular style.
Create your own gestures
You can follow the steps below to create a new gesture:
1. For specific application, right click and select New Action. Give it a name. (I selected “Refresh”)
2. From the Gestures drop-down list on the right, select a gesture and click More Gestures. (I chose “3”)
3. Now, to link the command to the action, right click on the action and select New command.
4. The Chrome command to refresh a page is CTRL+r. So select Key – Hotkey from the pull-down menu for commands and press CTRL+r on your keyboard to insert it in the Hotkey field.
Your new gesture is ready to try!
Shaky hands and uneven surfaces sometimes tend to mess up the gestures. But with some practice, you’ll get it right. Let us know if you use mouse gestures to improve your productivity.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
