Mouse Gestures The first mouse gesture is called clicking, which is little more than a single momentary press of the left mouse button (on a two-button mouse. Clicking is the primary means of making a selection in the particular application program. The second common gesture is doubleclicking, which is simply two single clicks in immediate succession. A doubleclick also represents selection, but its exact use depends upon the application program. The third type of mouse gesture is the drag, where a graphical item can literally be moved around the display. Dragging is almost always accomplished by pressing the left mouse button over the desired item, then (without releasing the button) moving the item to its new location. When the item moved to its new position, releasing the left mouse button will drop the item in that location. It is interesting that pen gestures are interpreted by the computer’s operating system, but mouse movements and button conditions are handled by the actual application program such as a word processor or game. Thus, the same mouse gestures can be made to represent different actions, depending on which program is executing.
