A mouse is one way to communicate with a computer. Many computers and all smart phones tend to have touch screens instead.

Many people find using a mouse difficult when they start. It can be even more difficult if you have trouble with fine movements of your hand, because of arthritis or other problems. Here are some tips that may help.

Are you sitting comfortably? Sit square to the screen, so that you can reach the keyboard and the mouse without stretching. To use the mouse, rest the base of your palm on the table and the upper palm on the mouse. Hold the mouse gently with a thumb on one side, and a finger (perhaps the little finger) on the other. Rest your index finger very lightly on the left mouse button. Don't hold the mouse so firmly that you lift it off the mouse mat. Don't push down on the mouse. Slide the mouse gently from side to side. Practice moving the mouse pointer to various parts of the screen.

To click, keep your hand on the mouse. Tap your index finger on the left button firmly but gently. Remember to lift the finger up again. A click should be a gentle movement. Don't move the mouse while you're clicking. Don't take take your hand off the mouse to poke at the button with a finger. This makes the mouse skid so the computer doesn't know where you're clicking. If you hit the button harder and harder, that makes the mouse skid more. The symbol on the screen which moves with the mouse is called the pointer. Only the fingertip of the hand pointer is active. Click here to see where you can click.

The internet uses only single clicks, but you need to do 'double clicks' on other computer programs. This means two quick clicks without moving the mouse at all. If you find this too hard, click once and then press the Enter key.

If your mouse runs off the mat edge, lift the mouse up, move it back to the mat middle, and put it down. While the mouse is in the air, the pointer on the screen won't move.

Your hand can get tired gripping the mouse all the time. While reading the computer screen, rest your hand in your lap. If your hand gets stiff or aches, give it a gentle rub or shake. Don't sit too long at the computer. Get up for a break every now and then.

Another way to communicate with the computer is the touch screen. This is used by phones and tablets, and may be used by laptops. You click by tapping on the screen with your finger. There is no moving mouse pointer, because the computer doesn't know where your finger is, while it's in the air. Tapping the screen may produce a text cursor.

Apart from tapping, you can "swipe". Put your finger on the screen, and move the finger along the screen in a particular direction. This can be used for scrolling, sometimes up and down, and sometimes from side to side. But it can also be used to move from one set of options to another. If you can't see what you want, try swiping up, or down, or left, or right. Often useful stuff appears!

You can also make part of the screen bigger. Touch finger and thumb together on the screen, and slide them apart. That part of the screen becomes bigger. This is useful for text, or pictures, or maps. Slide figer and thumb together to make that part of the screen smaller again.

Unfortunately the tip of a finger is quite big, and the computer may get the tap in the wrong place! You can get a special stylus which works instead of a finger. But another way is to make the screen bigger (see above), which gives you a bigger area to tap.

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