I’m not actually left-handed, but a few years ago, I decided that it might be a good idea for me to learn to use a mouse with my left hand, to give my right hand a much-needed break during the work day. I figured I wasn’t the first person to try this, and a quick Google search confirmed this with a couple of related results for “learning to use the mouse left-handed.”
This article by one of the cofounders of Blogger.com echoes my experience with learning to mouse left-handed. I believe I started shortly after starting work on Secret Weapons Over Normandy in 2003 — a fairly low-stress period during which I could afford to spend more time becoming familiar with the ins-and-outs of the process. It probably took me a couple of weeks before I was as productive doing day-to-day stuff as I was when I was using the mouse right-handed — I was actually surprised at how little time it took before I felt reasonably comfortable. I didn’t need much encouragement to keep going through the process — I almost immediately noticed improvement in the condition of my right hand and wrist after starting, so I was definitely very receptive to the benefits.
I also tried to utilize keyboard shortcuts more frequently — even more so than I already did. I found this Coding Horror article about printing a list of Visual Studio keyboard commands to be useful, although I found through the use of the free Command Spy SlickEdit gadget that I was already using the most common ones out there.
Interestingly, I also find that my keyboard’s alignment with my body “feels” better when I mouse left-handed. This article titled “Keyboards Are Backwards” makes this point clearly with photographs — the numeric pad is a waste of space for righties, and forces your hand to kick out much further than it should in order to use the mouse. With the mouse on the left-hand side of the keyboard, the overall range through which your hands need to move is reduced.
I still need to use the mouse right-handed for any sort of precise activity. For example, I still play most games right-handed (with turn-based games being a possible exception, due to the slower pace). Any activity that involves a lot of precise clicking, or especially dragging, can be difficult for me to do left-handed. Additionally, I feel that my keyboard usage is still “unbalanced” and biased towards my left hand, since I use my left pinky for holding down the Shift and Control keys. I also depress the Alt key with my left thumb — both of these motions require slight movements of the entire hand, and I believe that this may place more stress on it as a result.
I made an attempt awhile back to try and correct this by using my right hand for pressing Shift/Alt/Control in certain situations, but slacked off. (The heuristic I used was to hold down the modifier key with the opposite hand as the letter/number key being pressed. I didn’t consult any research or anything when I came up with this — it just seemed like a fairly sensible way of doing things.) Perhaps I’ll give that a whirl again, to try and ensure that my hands remain healthy and usable for years to come. I’ve used a Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (which is no longer made, but similar to this
