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number mouse

Jump to specific links and buttons with a special click
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The idea is simple: a mouse or trackpad with 4 or 5 buttons, each labeled with a number (1,2,3,4,5) in addition to the usual right and left clickable mouse buttons.

Why? If you use the same websites over and over again like I do, merchants, banking sites, etc, you often just want to get to the textbox to enter some data and to the Submit button.

If you prefer to use a keyboard as much as possible, you'll find that on most sites you cannot easily press Tab to reach the links, buttons or boxes mentioned above. You may have to tab twenty times to reach the Submit button sitting halfway down your screen.

You might press control-F and search for a link halfway down the screen, but that is cumbersome and will not work for text on buttons. (You can't search for "SUBMIT"). You will probably give up and use the mouse to drag the cursor to where you need it before going back to your keyboard.

Enter the Number Mouse. It would be fairly easy for web designers to simply assign numbers to the most heavily used links, boxes and buttons on a page. Of course, in addition to the underlying code there would also have to be a number displayed next to those screen buttons so that you know which mouse number will bring you to which place on the page.

For example, you reach a page that has your username saved, but you need to enter your password, which isn't stored. There's a red "3" next to the password input box on your screen. You press the "3" on your Number Mouse, and through the magic of HTML, your cursor is now in that box and you can type your password. Yes, you still had to use your mouse, but you didn't have to drag the cursor across the screen. It's the next best thing to having a touchscreen on which you could have touched the input box.

Why not just use keyboard commands to get to these boxes? Not a bad idea, but these are usually taken up between your operating system and your browser. If every website were set up for keyboard commands like, say, gmail, where you can hit 'c' to compose a new letter, that might work.

The keyboard and special kbd commands have many uses. The mouse has one use -- to navigate you to specific places on the screen. Why not have some preset buttons to speed things along?

tharsaile, Feb 25 2011

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       eek!
po, Feb 25 2011
  

       //It's the next best thing to having a touchscreen on which you could have touched the input box//   

       Hey, I have an even better idea...
pocmloc, Feb 25 2011
  


 

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