Windows Low Vision: Mouse Settings

Hi, I'm Vikki Vaughan, and together we'll explore tools for customizing our mouse pointer. For many people with low vision, using the mouse can be an exercise in frustration. In its normal mode, our mouse pointer is small and difficult to find, especially against a busy background. Thankfully, Microsoft has built in options that let us quickly customize our pointer so that it's easier to see. We find these options within the ease of access tab.

In our workshop Enlarging Pointer and Cursor, we learned how to change the size and color of our pointer to meet our needs. Today, we'll look at other males options that help us use it more effectively. Let's start off by opening our ease of access tab. We use the keyboard shortcut of windows and the letter U to activate the tab. Let's try that command now. First, we'll hold down the windows key and then tap and release the letter U. A handy tip, think of the word useful. Since ease of access options make our computer more useful, this tip will help us remember our shortcut.

On the left side of our screen under settings, we find a list of customizing tools. Let's scroll down to the mouse near the bottom of our list. When we selected this option on the left side, various males controls up here on the right side. Now, we're looking for the change other mouse options link. Let's select it now. Now, stay with me as we select additional mouse options on the right side. By selecting this link, we open a mouse properties dialogue box.

Today, we'll use the controls on the pointer options tab, so let's make sure that tab is front and center. I'll select it to bring it into focus. Our first control guides the motion of our mouse pointer. It is a slider bar that lets us slow down or speed up our pointer. By selecting and dragging the control to the left, we slow down the response. If we wish to speed it up, we select and drag the control to the right. Let's have a look at the speed at both ends of the control.

First, I'll slow it down by dragging the control to the far left. Now, I'm moving my mouse at a normal speed, but we can see that the response time is slower with this setting. Next, let's have a look with it sped up. I'll drag the slider control to the far right, my pointer has a much faster response time at this setting. Since I like my pointer to respond somewhere in between, I'll move control right to the middle of the slider bar.

Now, let's have a look at the control called snap to. When this check box is checked, it automatically moves the pointer to the default button in an open dialogue box. Let's try it out. First, I'll check the snap to check box. To watch it in action, I'll bring up my save as command in a word document. We can see our mouse pointer automatically moves to the say button. This tool can be a time saver for some users, as it means we don't have to drag the point or halfway across the screen to select our default button. Some people don't use this option because they find it makes them sometimes select a default button that's just popped up instead of the button they intended. You might just want to try it out and see if it works for you.

Our final group of controls deal with the visibility of our pointers. The first is a check box that when selected, displays trails as we move our pointer across the screen. When we check the box, it activates a slider bar that lets us control the length of the trails. Sliding to the left makes the trail short, while sliding it to the right makes it longer. Let's check this control to have a look. I will slide the bar to the far right to select longer pointer trails. We can see that our pointer now displays trails that help us locate it on a busy screen.

Our next control is a checkbox that hides the pointer when typing. This control is activated by default, meaning it's already turned on when we turn on our computer. When we use this option, the pointer doesn't block our view whenever we're entering text in a document or a web page.

Our final control is also a check box. When selected, it shows the location of the pointer when we press the control key. Let's see how it works. I'll check the box and then we'll open a busy webpage. When I press the control key, we see a bullseye focus on our pointer. This option helps us find our pointer on a busy website or within a document.

Once we've selected the options that work best for us, we selected the okay button to finalize them and close the mouse properties dialogue box. Today, we learned about various mouse settings that let us customize our pointer to meet our personal preferences. I'm Vikki Vaughan and I thank you for joining me today as we looked at Windows mouse options.