Re[2]: Keyboard vs. mouse

["Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

> We suspect that using the keyboard is faster than using a mouse.
>Does anybody know of a study or article that sheds light on which
>is faster?

I missed the first part of this thread, but I won't let that stop me from
shooting my mouth off. (Or do I have the gun pointed at another portion of
my anatomy? ;{>} )

I'll give you a rousing "It depends." When I'm creating, it sometimes costs
me time to take my hands from the keyboard and use a mouse. But when I'm
reviewing and revising, the mouse is a muich faster way to navigate (compare
taking your hand off the keyboard and highlighting text to cut/copy with
using arrow keys to move the cursor to the location, hitting whatever the
keys are to start selecting, then arrowing through the text, keyboard
shortcutting the cut/copy then arrowing over to the spot to paste, and
keyboarding the paste).

I find that during revisions I will sometimes shift to keeping one hand on
the mouse and using the other hand for fill-in typing. I'd it divide along
data entry and navigation lines, with data entry having a heavy keyboard
focus (with mouse equivalents) and navigation having a mouse focus (with
keyboard equivalents for the rodent-challenged).


Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 124

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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