A mouse is a hardware input device that was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1963 while working at Xerox PARC, who at the time was working at the Stanford Research Institute, which was a think tank sponsored by Stanford University. The picture is of a Microsoft IntelliMouse and is an example of what a computer mouse may look like. 

The mouse allows an individual to control a pointer in a graphical user interface (GUI) and manipulate on-screen objects such as icons, files, and folders. By using a mouse the user doesn’t have to memorize commands, like those used in a text-based command line environment such as MS-DOS. For example, in MS-DOS a user would have to know the cd command and dir command to navigate to a folder and view the files. However, in Windows the user only has to double-click on the folder to view all the files.

The Mouse was originally referred to as an X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System. Xerox later applied the mouse to its revolutionary Alto computer system in 1973. However, because of Alto’s unfortunate success, it was first widely used in the Apple Lisa computer. Today, a pointing device is found on virtually every computer. 

Move – Using your right or left hand drag the mouse up, down, left, or right to move the mouse pointer on the screen. If you reach the edge of your mouse pad, pick up the mouse and move it to the opposite side and then continue dragging the mouse in the direction you want the mouse pointer to move. 

Select – When your mouse pointer is on top of an object on your screen (e.g. an icon) click the mouse left button once to highlight the item. If you want to select text, click the left-button at the end of the text you want to select and then while continuing to hold down the button drag to the mouse to the left. 

Open – Click the left mouse button twice quickly (double-click) to open the icon, program or document. 

Viewing properties – To view the properties of anything on the computer select the object or text with your left mouse button and then click with your right mouse button (right-click) to view the properties. If you view the properties of text you’ll be given a menu with options such as cut, copy, and paste.