This week I am trialling the Altmouse software by Bakker Elkhuizen. This has been developed to run in the background and suggest improvements to your computer interaction style that you can quickly learn.

According to research, computers can be used approximately thirty percent (30%) faster by taking advantage of keyboard shortcuts (Lane et al., 2005; Tak, 2007). The majority of users though (sixty-six percent, 66%) do not use any shortcuts at all - they are highly dependent on using the mouse (ECDL, 2011). With discomfort and injuries such as carpel tunnel linked to or made worse by mouse use, reducing mouse use could lead to huge health benefits. This applies to preventing discomfort and injury as well as recovery.

The Altmouse software learns your suggesting and cognitively learning Microsoft Windows and Office-based keyboard shortcuts - a partial list of these that I use is available for download here.