Mouse chording

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Mouse chording is the capability of performing actions when multiple mouse buttons are held down, much like a chorded keyboard.

Notice that chorded actions may require more training to learn if the pressing of one button does not provide feedback hinting that pressing another button will get a result.

One of the most popular applications of mouse chording is found in Opera and in mouse gesture extensions of Mozilla Firefox. For example:

  • Holding the left button and clicking right moves forward.
  • Holding the right button and clicking left moves backward.

The operating system Plan 9, Oberon and the acme development environment make heavy use of mouse chording.

  • The left (button 1) selects.
  • Holding the left and clicking the middle (button 2) cuts.
  • Holding the left and clicking the right (button 3) pastes.

Copying is effected by holding the left, then clicking the middle and right in succession. This behavior is common to all text windows under Plan 9 but can have different capability under different contexts.

In Plan 9's acme programming environment some extensions of the basic chording principles are implemented. For example, sweeping while holding a mouse button can have these effects:

  • Button 1 selects.
  • Button 2 performs an action or executes a command.
  • Button 3 performs search or other context-based actions.

OS/2 Presentation Manager can also use chording to copy and paste text using two buttons. However, Common User Access key combinations are more frequently used.

Emacs Supports mouse chording to copy and paste text:

  • Double clicking the left button marks a region. If working with lisp double clicking on the left paren marks the sexp.
  • Double clicking the right button cuts the region.
  • A single click of the middle button to paste.

[edit] Applications that support mouse chording

[edit] External links

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