Tom’s Tuesday Tech Tip: Throw Your Mouse Out of the House (or at Least Out of Your Legal Nurse Consulting Office)

This week’s tip is a quickie and deals with one thing and one thing only. That pesky critter we all know as a “mouse” or in geek speak “pointing device.” Mice aren’t new and aren’t an Apple^® invention as some people believe, they date back to 1981. However, some legal nurse consultants are stuck back in the ‘80s (and I don’t mean with your hair or taste in music). Are you someone still using a standard mouse? Possibly an old “mechanical mouse?” One with a rubber ball in the bottom that needs a tactile surface like a mouse pad to work efficiently.

I know some Certified Legal Nurse Consultants have pulled themselves into the ‘90s by upgrading to a mouse with a scroll-wheel or an optical mouse that uses a tiny laser diode to mark its spot and which needs a no-reflective surface or laser mouse-pad to work correctly. Nice, but we’re a decade past the ‘90s!

Today’s smart Certified Legal Nurse Consultant uses a trackball mouse, such as Logitech’s Trackman Marble Mouse which not only helps guide the mouse more accurately (and is ambidextrous) but also helps reduce or eliminate carpal tunnel syndrome (from mouse use). I’ve replaced all the mice on the desktop computers at LegalNurse.com with trackballs. Once you get used to using one of these, they’re wonderful – no more lifting the mouse up when you track to the top of a page or moving it back to the base of the mouse pad. You simply roll that trackball like it’s going out of style! They are especially handy if you have dual monitors. Trackballs are also easier to clean and maintain and don’t require a special pad or non-reflective surface like a laser mouse. (As a side-note, I travel with a laser mouse because I don’t like the touchpad or pointing stick on the laptop but I do have to scramble for a piece of non-glossy paper to put under the mouse when I’m working on a glass or highly polished surface.)

Consider a trackball – your wrist will love it and once you get used to it, you will too.

Keep on techin’,