Right Mouse is Your Friend (Copy/Paste and Drag/Drop)

When I teach basic genealogy classes, it always comes about that patrons do not know and understand how to do many functions on their computer that would be helpful in their genealogical work.  I always end up with a basic computer class to help teach some of these skills. 

Some of the most important functions to use when doing genealogy are:
     1.  Copy and Paste
     2.  Cut and Paste
     3.  Delete
     4.  Insert
     5.  Save as (especially for pictures)
     6,  Rename
And many more.

My favorite expression is "RIGHT MOUSE IS YOUR FRIEND".  When you look at your mouse, you generally see three parts - the left side (which is the side used to do almost everything), the center wheel (which will allow you to scroll up and down your document), and the right side (which gives short cut functions).

When you are in a program, you generally have a variety of ways to access or perform functions.  Most often you can go up to the Menu Bar and find ways to alter your document.  There are generally icons somewhere on the program that will also allow you to do the same thing.  The easiest way would often be to just use your mouse to assist you.  Remembering that the RIGHT MOUSE IS YOUR FRIEND, click on the right side of your mouse to see what commands are available.

Many times you will need to HIGHLIGHT words, folders, or whatever you wish to work on before you click on the right side of the mouse. 

So if I wanted to copy and paste something, I would first highlight the item by placing the cursor over the beginning of where I wish to highlight then keeping the left side of the mouse depressed, I then would slide the cursor over the item to be highlighted. 

Once it is highlighted, I then release the left side of the mouse (highlighting will remain) and depress the RIGHT side of the mouse.  The functions to COPY, CUT, DELETE, etc. will appear.  I will then select to COPY the item. 

I then move the cursor to where I would like the item to appear (which will be a new location or can even be in another program) and depress the left side of the mouse to insert the cursor to that location (note:  You can move around using the left side of your mouse and not worry about losing the copied item because the item is held in the memory until the new function of paste or delete or whatever is selected).

I then click on the RIGHT side of the mouse again and select PASTE.  The copied item will then be inserted into the new location.  (note:  By copying, the original item is still in the original location as well as now in the new location.  If I used CUT, the item would no longer be in the original location.)

I would use this same idea, "RIGHT MOUSE IS MY FRIEND", to do a variety of functions.  If you are in a program and can not remember how to do something or where to find a specific function key, remember the phrase RIGHT MOUSE IS YOUR FRIEND.  Click on the right side of the mouse and see if what you are looking for is there...more ofen than not, it will be.