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Ridiculous right-click argument

ArcadeKid

ArcadeKid

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 15, 2008
9
0
Can some one set up a site about the ridiculous right-click argument pc users try to use. I want a link to post on a forum to tell them to shut up.

taken from a recent comment I read:
Any company that assumes the user is too stupid to figure out 2 mouse buttons can't be good. But i guess there R&D paid off. =)

Seriously, how can you be more productive with one mouse button? are there 2x more menus in all the programs or something?
Click to expand...

They are soo ignorant. I want a site to forward them to stating that there are many more convenient ways to perform a "right-click" using a mac.

With a MacBook just simply put a second finger on the trackpad when clicking the button.

With a Mighty Mouse, just use your right finger.

If anyone knows of something similar it would be greatly appreciated.
 
The single mouse button was Apple's effort to make the OS simple enough for Windows users to understand.
 
It's not worth arguing with idiots (like this one): they'll just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. Just ignore them.
 
Right click is confusing

Most new users are confused by the right click. I have seen many people struggle with it on Windows. Also, when my dad first got his iMac I enabled the right click on the MM and he had no end of trouble understanding right and left click so I turned it off.

The Apple way is the best. Single click can do most things and you can introduce secondary click as and when. With Windows, users immediately have to use it since so many programs hide functionality in the right click where Mac versions don't make that assumption.

Of course, a stab back at Windows users is the fact that I came from UNIX and X Window so I found Windows appalling since it lacked the three button mouse functionality. Sure, it has gained some of it now but really, the X11 cut and paste is so nice. Glad that Terminal.app now supports highlight and middle button paste as a single operation too.
 
If anyone wants to make video tutorials on using a MM and right-click in Mac OS X, I can get a site coded ;)
 
The first thing I do setting up my Mac is enabling the right-click contextual menu. I find being able to right-click (or two finger click on a track pad) very handy. I use the right button on my Mighty Mouse all the time.

I started using Macs in the 80s, switched from OS 9 to Windows in the late 90s (for professional reasons), and switched back to Mac OS X a year ago. I think the Mac is overall vastly superior, but it isn't better at everything -- e.g. I think the Finder is clunky to use compared to Windows Explorer (especially in terms of copying/moving files around). I immediately liked right-click to get contextual menus when I went to Windows and was glad to see Mac OS X has it when I switched back.

How is using your right finger to click the button on a Mighty Mouse any different than using the right mouse button on Windows? :confused:

my 2¢
 
Think about what the fact that someone wants to spend their time arguing about which operating system is "teh best" says about their personality, intelligence, character, etc. Let alone arguing the point with them, why are you associating with these people at all? :p
 
I was a hard-core PC user, since forever. A month ago a mate showed me his MacBook. A month later I own a MacBook Pro AND a MacPro.

PC users spend their lives beating their PCs into submission. Mac trains you to use it, you quickly succumb, it's like a fat dose if opiates.

It's the elegance and natural intuitive style of the Mac OS. The Global Menu, the unnecessary context menu (right click). In fact, if I had employees and I wanted them to be productive, I'd give them Macs, not PCs.

I spent 2 years hacking away at capturing my HD content to edit on a PC. 2 Years of wasting time. In one month on a Mac, I've made all that time back.

Forgive them, for they know not what they do.
 
Meh I've always been a big fan of the right click. My Amiga in 94 had 2 button mice and since that was my first exposure to computing it just stuck with me. But I do like the 1 button my PowerBook. Sure it's a pain doing the alt+click but for basic web usage and document typing it's no problem.
 
raggedjimmi said:
Meh I've always been a big fan of the right click. My Amiga in 94 had 2 button mice and since that was my first exposure to computing it just stuck with me. But I do like the 1 button my PowerBook. Sure it's a pain doing the alt+click but for basic web usage and document typing it's no problem.
Click to expand...

I hear ya. I cannot stand using various PC laptops, because I try to click and I wind up hitting the button right in the middle and right-click as often as not. The two-finger click is 9380294x more convenient.
 
Since I started using Macs in 2003/2004, I've been merrily right-clicking my way through life. In fact, when I got my own Mac in 2005, I wouldn't even have known that, supposedly, "Macs don't have a right click;" I was just right clicking like mad with my mouse!

I still see YouTube videos pop up saying, "Why don't Macs have right click buttons?" Only possible excuse for that kind of blatant lack of readily available information is if they are referring to the laptops, but then it's still wrong.

Regardless, people will still criticize the Mac for "not having a right mouse button/click ability," and we'll keep right clicking away :cool:, directly or indirectly. :p
 
I come from a Window environment. It's been only since December I've had a Mac, so right-clicking was indoctrinated in me since the beginning. I remember when I started using Windows the to buttons took a bit of getting used to, and my parents both when they started had more trouble than I did in understanding.

However, since I got my Mac and a Logitech mouse at the same time, I haven't had to use just one mouse button.

When the 'rents switched to a Mac last month, they kept trying to right-click on the Might Mouse, which of course by default is disabled. Once I enabled the right button they've been great.

I say whatever you're used to using, stick with it. Whichever is easiest. I can understand that if you're new to computers altogether, then one button is the best way to go since it's less to learn. I certainly don't go around judging others by the number of mouse buttons they use...

...each his own.
 
I like the two finger interpretation that the MBP uses. I've gotten amazingly proficient with scrolling and right clicking using only two fingers.

HOWEVER, I think the mighty mouse is garbage (I have and use one; and only use it when I'm letting my logitech charge). I always use a 2 finger windows aimed mouse when possible.
 
When I switched, I thought this was frustrating. I think I even vented here on MR about it and felt like an idiot when I discovered it.

I think right click is a pretty common way of doing contextual menus at this point.

Why doesn't Apple turn it on by default?
 
pilotError said:
When I switched, I thought this was frustrating. I think I even vented here on MR about it and felt like an idiot when I discovered it.

I think right click is a pretty common way of doing contextual menus at this point.

Why doesn't Apple turn it on by default?
Click to expand...

you can do most of the things that you can do in a right click contextual menu from the menu bar, keyboard shortcuts or just by single clicking icons.

there are two ways to operate OS X, the easy way for beginners by just single clicking or the advanced way by using secondary clicks (right clicks). and then theres the power user way by just using the keyboard (or as a backup if your mouse if broken).
 
Makes no difference to me. A right click as a physical button is certainly better, but the two-finger tap is not a problem and I can buy two-button mice for either platform.

I think arguments like this is one of the problems - half of the Windows nuts are actually incapable enough system-wise to warrant a switch to Mac, if they would ever entertain it. The problem would be that once they switch they would be even bigger of a Mac zealot than they were Windows fanboys - and there are already way, way too many of those.
 
GreatDrok said:
Most new users are confused by the right click. I have seen many people struggle with it on Windows. Also, when my dad first got his iMac I enabled the right click on the MM and he had no end of trouble understanding right and left click so I turned it off.
Click to expand...

people who never used a computer/mouse are a species close to extinction ... unless you want you

personally i have never found a single person who over a long time was confused with 2 mouse buttons

GreatDrok said:
The Apple way is the best. Single click can do most things and you can introduce secondary click as and when. With Windows, users immediately have to use it since so many programs hide functionality in the right click where Mac versions don't make that assumption.
Click to expand...

mac versions hide that functionality in the top menu which is a lot more cumbersome to use than contextual menus in an aweful lot of cases since you get everything in the top menu

if apple think 2 button mice are really confusing they should stop shipping computers with keyboards (hundreds of buttons) and without eject buttons on their optical drives ... dragging a disc to the trash can on the desktop is more confusing than a a eject button everybody knows from other devices by far ...

_that_ still doesn't make any sense after years of using a mac ... i would go so far and call it a failure at principle GUI design .. you don't change the meaning/appearance of icons/programs based on what you clicked before in a complete place on the desktop
 
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