I think I was born left handed, unfortunately I was brought up to be right handed. This was not uncommon in India 30 years back. Left hand usage was looked down upon.
However, the good thing is I am still ambidextrous (equal handed) in some things like using the mouse. For ergonomic reason I keep switching between left and right hand usage to ensure I do not wear out both my wrists with 12 hour daily computer usage.
The main problem I face when I switch and even otherwise when I am in left-hand mode is that most PC’s are configured for right hand use. In a course of the day I use many machines (upwards of 10) as I remote into data-center machines and even 3-4 local machines. The fastest way I have found to switch between left and right hand mouse is just run the following command either from the console or from WindowsKey+R
Basically this command calls the SwapMouseButton win32 function in user32.dll.
If you know of anything more brief either using command shell or powershell do let me know.
What I've done in recent years is simply train my left hand to use a right-handed mouse (ie left click with my left middle finger, and so on). This is so natural now that I can swap the mouse from side to side of the keyboard as if I was ambidexterous. This has resolved the RSI issue for me, and I can highly recommend it. It doesn't take long to get the hang of using the 'wrong' hand fingers to operate the mouse.
It also means that you don't need to swap the mouse button functionality for each side of the keyboard, and other people can use the mouse as normal. AND lefties can use other people's mice. I now play Deus Ex right-mouse with the left hand operating keystrokes, and browse the Net (eg Instructables) left-mouse so Page-Up etc are controlled with the right hand. An added advantage is mousing with the left hand while number entering with the right (so you don't have to keep shifting your right hand from number-pad to mouse), and wordprocessing left-mouse so you need not reach so far for the mouse.
It’s a right-centric world, with everything from pencils to computer mice expecting you to be right-handed. Here’s how you can train your mouse and cursors in Windows 7 and Vista to respect your left-handedness.
Using your Left Hand the Right Way
It’s easy to switch your mouse to left-handed mode. Enter “mouse” in your Start menu search, and select the first entry.
Check the “Switch primary and secondary buttons” box to make your mouse more left-hand friendly. Now your primary select button is your right button, and the secondary button (commonly referred to as right-click) is the left button.
But, it can still be awkward to select items on screen with your left hand using the default cursors. MSDN has a free set of cursors designed for left-handed users, that can fix this problem for you. These cursors are exactly like the default Aero cursors in Windows 7 and Vista, except they are reversed to make them better for left-handed use.
The cursors are available in 3 sizes: normal, large, and extra large. The normal ones are the same size as the default ones in Windows 7; feel free to choose the other sizes if you prefer them. Click each link to download all 6 cursors for your size (link below).
Click “I Agree” after selecting the cursors to accept the license agreement and download them.
Once you have all 6 cursors downloaded, select the Pointers tab in the Mouse Properties dialog. Click the cursor to change, and then click Browse to select the new cursor.
Browse to the folder you downloaded your new cursors to, select the correct cursor, and click Open.
Outlook data file cannot be accessed 0x8004010f. Do this for each of the 6 cursors to be changed. Strangely, the Busy cursor (the spinning blue orb) is a static cursor, so you may not wish to change it. All the other ones look and act like their standard counterparts.
Here’s the cursors to be changed, and their equivalents in the default cursors:
After changing all the cursors, click Save As… to save this mouse scheme so you can easily select it in the future. Finally click Ok to close the Mouse Properties dialog and accept the changes.
Now your pointers will be easier to use left-handed!
Conclusion
Whether you’re right-handed or left-handed, you can enjoy the Aero cursors in Windows 7 or Vista in the way that works best for you. Unfortunately, many mice are still designed for right-handed people, but this trick will help you make the best out of your mouse.
We included all of the 6 cursors for you in a zip file you can download Here. This will make it easier for you to get them all together without having to download them individually.
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I see that I can configure mouse and touchpad all in one panel (Ubuntu 13.10, defaults, Gnome). Which is to some extend. Namely, I want to have the touchpad differently configured then the mouse and ..
When I have an (USB) mouse attached I use it normally left-handed. Therefore I switch the buttons to left-handed. But when I use the touchpad I feel little bit lost with that kind of configuration. Therefore I wanna have it right-handed.
Is there a way to achieve the following: when I plugin a mouse (respectively when it is detected) automatically switch to left-handed and when I unplug it, switch automatically to right-handed?
Eric Carvalho
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LeOLeO
4 Answers
I understand your frustration, but this problem can be solved very simple with the help of
xinput tool.
First plug in your USB mouse, then run the following command:
to see the
id of your mouse. The output of above command it can be similar to:
In the above example the USB mouse has
id=11 . We will use this id in the following command which will swap buttons to be left handed only for the USB mouse (and not for tauchpad):
External dvd drive for laptop. In general:
To revert the change, use:
To make the change permanently, add the following command at Startup Applications (search in Dash for Startup Applications):
Update:
Since the id might change after reboot but the name of the USBmouse not, you could also grep for the name of the mouse and apply it. To skip the details reg. picking out the name the final solution looks like:
pack it into the above mentioned Startup Applications you'll get finally:
Radu RădeanuRadu Rădeanu
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There's an even simpler way than in Radu Rădeanu's answer.
xinput accepts the name of the input device as an alternative to its numerical ID. Since your USB mouse is probably treated generically, it's name is most likely USB Mouse . Therefore you likely don't even need to run xinput list .
Thus your
xinput set-button-map , with this name in place of the numeric ID, becomes:
This takes the place of
xinput set-button-map id 3 2 1 and should achieve the same thing, with 3 2 1 making it a left-handed mouse, just like when the numeric ID way is used. (And replacing 3 2 1 with 1 2 3 will still work to switch it to being a right-handed mouse.)
This has the advantage that, provided it works initially, it will continue to work across reboots, without having to obtain the device's ID number using long, complex commands.
How To Switch Mouse To Left Handed
Community♦
Change Mouse To Left Handed Windows 10
reedstrmreedstrm
I found that the startup command in the other answer only works if the id is a two digit number. Here are my modifications which should work for both one and two digit numbers:
In Startup Applications Mount and blade caravan guard.
robbierobbie
Here is a more verbose solution that solves two problems:
Switch Mouse To Left Handed Registry
matiascelascomatiascelasco
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Training to becoming left-handed when you are naturally right-handed is hard yet a fun and interesting challenge. If you manage to achieve it, you will become ambidextrous (a person who can use both hands with equal facility), just like many great historical figures such as Einstein, Michelangelo, Harry Kahne, Tesla, Da Vinci, Fleming and Benjamin Franklin. Some people are simply born ambidextrous, so there is absolutely no training. Of course no one has to be trained to be ambidextrous. However, there are many advantages to being ambidextrous. For example, ambidexterity has an advantage in snooker because some shots are set up to favor the right hand and others are set up to favor the left hand; and it has an advantage in tennis because hitting the ball backhand is more likely to get it out of bounds and you can't always run to the ball fast enough to get it on your dominant side and hit it forehand with your dominant hand. Learning to use your left hand will take time and patience, but it is achievable with a little effort and an open-mind!
Left-handers can also become right-handed by reversing the steps in this article. For some left-handed people, becoming right-handed has the additional advantage of avoiding the many inconveniences of being left-handed in a world designed for right-handers.
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