8. What Mouse Buttons Can Do For You

Your system comes with a three button mouse, and this mouse gives you the advantage of a couple of handy features.

You can use the left and middle mouse button to copy and paste text.

You will find that mouse-button copy and paste works with many text files and applications. The following example illustrates how to use it.

Suppose you want to copy text from an e-mail message into an HTML file, but the mail and HTML applications you are working with do not have commands that allow you copy and paste between them. You can simply do this:

1. Click and drag to select the text in the e-mail window.
   
   
2. Move the mouse cursor to the HTMLfile window and click down (with the left mouse button) at the place you want the text to appear. Then, click the middle mouse button. The text appears.

You can use the right mouse button to open pop-up menus.

For example, if you have an icon your desktop background (which is always a reference icon) and you would like remove from the desktop:

1. Select the icon. (It highlights when selected.)
2. Press the right mouse button.
3. Choose Remove. The reference icon is removed from the desktop background.

Many applications have right mouse button pop-up menus. If you don't know where to find a particular menu command, or if you want a shorter way for getting to a menu command, try holding down the right mouse button.