My mouse hurts!

[Airfix9]

Hi all,

Like many users, I use the central scroll wheel quite regularly and it's causing me a problem in my right index finger - by the end of the week there is a sharp pain in my finger pad. I have put this down to the mini-clicks that the wheel produces when you scroll which is irritating the nerve-endings in my finger and this has been confirmed by my doctor.

So, to my question... does anyone know of a mouse (or similar pointing device) which will enable you to move a spreadsheet around? Many trackball-type mice use the ball to move the cursor. I want to be able to move the cursor or the spreadsheet itself - I decide which, obviously.


Any advice gratefully revceived.

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[Domski]

Hi,

Don't know if it's standard with scroll wheels but with mine if you press the scroll button in the pointer changes to a four-way scroll arrow and you can cruise around the spreadsheet (or whatever else you're viewing) using that.

Personally I usually find it way easier to use the keyboard for most of the work I do in Excel anyway including navigating the workbook.

Dom

 

[Airfix9]

Mine offers that as well, and it zips around at the speed of light! I would like to retain some element of control...

Maybe I just need to consider a new way of working...

 

[Oaktree]

You can always use the keyboard instead... Page up/Page down to scroll vertically or ALT+Page up/ALT + Page down to scroll horizontally. Or, CTRL+arrow key to move to the last non-blank cell in any direction... or, F5 (GoTo) and type in the cell reference you'd like to zoom to.

 

[Von Pookie]

Page up/Page down to scroll vertically or ALT+Page up/ALT + Page down to scroll horizontally.

You can also use the space bar to scroll down and shift+space bar to scroll up. Not sure about horizontal, though--never had to use/try it.

I tend to use that when viewing a list of links, say when I'm looking at Slashdot or Digg for example. I can have one hand on the keyboard and scroll with the space bar and just click on things with the mouse

 

[Domski]

You can also use the space bar to scroll down and shift+space bar to scroll up

Space bar to scroll? How's that work then? Shift + space bar selects the current row(s) and ctrl + space the columns but not come across being able to move around using it.

 

[Von Pookie]

Eep! Sorry--I spazzed out and was talking about using IE or Firefox--not Excel

(It's gonna be a looooong week at this rate...)

 

[Lewiy]

My mouse is just a cheap thing I picked up but the wheel movement is quite smooth. Not sure what make it is, just says "3D optical mouse" on the bottom. I've used ones with harsher "clicks" and I can see how this could cause pain/annoyance! Perhaps shopping around for a smoother action on the wheel could be worth doing.

The other tip I have is to increase the number of rows which the wheel scrolls with each turn. I currently have it set at 10 rows (I think the default is 2 or 3). This allows me to whizz down a large sheet with little effort.