Comments on: Right-click for advanced users?

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sat, 21 May 2005 22:20:21 +0000

In speaking with the tech support guy (who we share with the rest of the town so we only get a piece of his time) about why right-click is disabled, he did mention that it did enable users to get to parts of the network that are staff-only, even in light of all of the other security restrictions in the computer configuration. He did admit that he’s not exactly sure how he did it, but he was able to access a staff computer from a public terminal using the right-click feature. A plan is in action to set up 2 VLANs that will make the staff part of the network inaccessible by the public part of the network, and therefore allow us to free up some of the restrictions on the public computers.

Having worked tech support myself, I can totally understand the whole security-through-disabled-features thing, but I think that when it prevents users from doing useful, everyday things (especially when instructions on a web site tell a user to right-click to do something like, say, download a picture or other file), it crosses the line into unusability.

My experience in technical support is also my basis for my right-click usage assumptions, since right-click was something I had to teach to most of the people I helped. Granted, this was about 2 years ago, but it’s my experience all the same. Recently, I’ve met librarians, other library staff, and patrons who were unaware of the right-click feature and how flexible it is, so I do agree that it is often taken for granted by those of us who use it everyday.

So yeah, I find it terribly interesting, especially since everyone elses experiences are so mixed.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 17 May 2005 22:27:29 +0000

I don’t see right clicking as a beginner’s skill either. Perhaps its becoming one. Up until VERY recently, it’s been a struggle getting users to even left-click effectively. The right-hand mouse button is like a whole new world to them.

By: Christina Pikas

Christina Pikas — Tue, 17 May 2005 18:55:52 +0000

When I worked full time in public library, I frequently taught the “introduction to the internet” class. We had an hour and it wasn’t hands on. One of the biggest problems? Learning how to use a mouse. We take it for granted, but it actually takes some coordination to hold the mouse still and click — even more so to right click, which is generally done with a less dominant finger.

FWIW - my local public library has the right click menus turned off “to prevent hacking.” What????? I was so busy with big battles while there, that I didn’t even approach this one.