Tip #4071 - StrokeIt
Printer Friendly Version | E-Mail This Tip
StrokeIt
We all have heard
a lot about keyboard shortcuts, but have you ever thought about mouse
shortcuts? They really can be very useful! You don't even have to look
down at your mouse. You just draw whatever you need to with your mouse.
It's so cool! Not only does this make you look very professional, but
it can save you loads of time too. Now, you might be thinking, "Where
can I get a program that lets me do all of that?" Well, don't stop
now. Keep reading to find out!
I stumbled across
a great program called StrokeIt by pure coincidence and
let me tell you, I am so glad I did! StrokeIt allows you to program different
mouse gestures so that you can perform common functions, right within
all of your favorite programs!
To get started:
1.) Click here
to download StrokeIt.
2.) After you install
the program, you will be prompted to restart your computer, so go ahead
and do so.
3.) When your computer
restarts, open StrokeIt and the program will look like this:
4.) As you can see in the left pane, there is a list of several programs
you have on your computer. Internet Explorer should be listed there as
well. Click the listing for that and two sub-entries will appear. They
should say Back and Forward.
5.) Click on the Back link and in the right pane, you
will see this:
The programmed gesture for Back is drawing a line to the left. If you
click the Forward link, you will see that the gesture
for going Forward is drawing a line to the right. Let's test those shortcuts
out, shall we?!
6.) Minimize StrokeIt
and it will appear in your taskbar like this: 
7.) Open Internet
Explorer and visit two or three Web site. Then hold down the right mouse
button and draw a fairly straight line to the left and release the button.
A blue line should appear. When you let go, the page should go back to
the previous site you were on.
8.) Try the same thing with a line to the right. The browser should go
forward. See how easy mouse gestures can be?! You're starting to get the
hang of mouse shortcuts now, aren't you? That's great! By the way, all
you Firefox fans, these same shortcuts work with Firefox as well.
Now, there are a lot
of gestures programmed into StrokeIt, but it's a good idea to familiarize
yourself with them right from the start.
1.) To do so, open
StrokeIt and go to Edit and then click Learn
Gestures.
Try drawing a line
to the left and StrokeIt will recognize it as Left.
2.) Next, draw an
A and, if you do it neatly, StrokeIt will recognize it.
3.) Now, close that out and then look over the list of programmed gestures.
You'll probably see some of your most used programs, like WinZip and Windows
Media Player. You can click on them to see the actions and the mouse gestures.
How cool is that?!
Next, go up to the very top and click on Global Actions.
A large list will then come down, like this:
These are going to be your favorite gestures, because they work in all
programs! For example, up is copy and down is paste. Or, a down slash
(/) for minimize and so on. There are so many more too. You just have
to check them all out!
Have fun with this
tip!
~ Neil Patel
Want To Comment On This Tip? Click Here! We'd love to hear from you :-)
Like These Tips? Get 'Em Free In Your E-mail
