Using Mouse Shortcuts

Using Mouse Shortcuts

The system hardware for graphical workstations (and some X-terminals) can provide you with shortcuts. These may not be available to server administrators who rely solely on character-based terminals for their administration. Using the graphics console of your system, you can cut and paste between windows without using pull-down or pop-up menus of any sort. Using the pop-up menu, you can manipulate your windows completely.

Note that you can customize the action of your mouse buttons. All examples in this section assume the default mouse button meanings are being used. If you have modified your mouse action, you must allow for that modification before you use these techniques.

For complete information on using the pop-up windows, see your IRIS Essentials book, either in hard copy or on screen through the IRIS InSight software package.

Using the Mouse to Copy and Paste Text

The most common mouse shortcut is to cut, copy, and paste between windows on your screen. Here is how you do it:

Find the cursor controlled by your mouse on your screen. It should appear as a small arrow when it is positioned in the working area of one of your windows, or as an "X" when it is positioned on your background screen, or as some other figure when it is positioned on the frame of a window or in the working area of an application's window. If you can't locate the cursor immediately, move the mouse around a bit and look for motion on your screen. You should find the cursor easily.
Place the cursor at the beginning of the text you wish to paste between windows and press the leftmost key on the top of the mouse. Now, keeping the mouse button depressed, move the cursor to the end of the text you wish to paste. The intervening area of the window changes color to show the selected text. If you are selecting a large section of text, it is not necessary to move the cursor over every space. You may move the cursor directly to the end point and all intervening text will be selected. It is not possible to select "columns" of text or several disconnected pieces of text at once. When you have moved the cursor to the desired end point, release the mouse button. The text remains highlighted.
Now move the cursor to the window you want to paste the text into and make certain the window is ready to receive the pasted text. For example, if you are pasting a long command line, make certain that there is a shell prompt waiting with no other command already typed in. If the pasted matter is text into a file, make certain that the receiving file has been opened with an editor and that the editor is in a mode where text can be inserted.
To paste the text, place the cursor in the receiving window and press the middle mouse button once quickly. Each time you press the middle button, the selected text will be pasted into the receiving window. Sometimes it takes a moment for the text to appear, so be patient. If you press the button several times before the text appears, you will paste several copies of your text.
You can also paste your selected text to the bottom of a window (including the window from which you selected the text). Press the rightmost mouse button while the cursor is in that window and select the send option from the pop-up menu that appears.

The text you originally selected remains selected until you select new text somewhere else or until you place the cursor back in the original window and click once on the leftmost mouse button.

Using the Mouse to Create a New Shell Window

If you need a new shell window, you can use the mouse to create one. Follow these steps:

With the cursor in a shell window, press the rightmost button on your mouse. A pop-up menu appears:

Figure 2-1 : Shell Pop-Up Menu

The last item on the pop-up menu is the clone option. There is a small triangle to the right of this option. This triangle indicates that there are more sub-choices available in another pop-up menu. While keeping the button on the mouse depressed, move the mouse down until the clone option is highlighted and the sub-menu pops up, showing various shell window cloning options. These options create another shell window functionally identical to the one in use. This is why the option is called cloning. The text and background colors of the current window are carried forward to the cloned window, and the selections in the sub-menu specify the number of lines in the new window. You can choose to have the same number of lines in the cloned window as in the current window, or to have 24, 40, or 60 lines.

Figure 2-2 : Shell Window Cloning Submenu

Select the size you want by moving the mouse down to highlight each option and releasing the mouse button when the option you desire is highlighted. The new window will appear on your screen presently. You may repeat this process as often as you like on any shell window.

Using the Mouse to Copy and Paste Text
Using the Mouse to Create a New Shell Window