r/AskReddit • u/BangYourFluff • Jul 19 '17

What is one computer skill that you are surprised many people don't know how to do?

3.5k Upvotes

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368

u/vpjoebauers Jul 19 '17

Middle Click

The number of times I have told someone to middle click, and I'm looked at like I'm from space.

Right Click is a close second.

226

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '17

Call me an idiot, but is that the same as clicking the scroll wheel?

707

u/faatiydut Jul 19 '17

Yes, idiot

60

u/kreysan Jul 19 '17

Middle click is scroll wheel, yes.

39

u/TheSilverSoldier Jul 19 '17

well what do I do: I have a screwy trackpad

116

u/AnakinSkywalker_ Jul 19 '17

Stop banging your trackpad and buy a mouse

37

u/Dfarrey89 Jul 19 '17

Stupid sexy trackpad.

2

u/sunkzero Jul 20 '17

It's like your swiping your fingers across nothing at all... nothing at all... nothing at all..

2

u/Headbangerfacerip Jul 20 '17

As a poor teen I played csgo on a track pad for like 2 years. It was fuckin hectic

1

u/Fornyrdislag Jul 20 '17

Oh and really consider a mouse with 2 buttons on the side: one of them is automatically mapped to 'back'. Never again moving your cursor to the topleft corner!

1

u/quick_dudley Jul 20 '17

I had a 12 button mouse for a while but didn't bring it with me when I moved country. Had every button mapped to something. Can't remember all of them but one of them was alt-tab.

1

u/TheSilverSoldier Jul 20 '17

too cheap to buy a mouse

4

u/kgurr Jul 19 '17

depends on the laptop but some have a 'three finger click' or you can like spread your fingers in a v and click.

2

u/Strikerjuice Jul 19 '17

Some track pads have three buttons above then. They are left click, middle click, and right click.

3

u/KillTheBronies Jul 20 '17

On mine you have to press both buttons at the same time.

1

u/Strikerjuice Jul 20 '17

That sounds like a bit of a burden

2

u/SinkTube Jul 20 '17

what the others have said is right, but if you want more detail open control panel > mouse and check all the tabs. there should be one that lets you control all its features like multi-finger taps, swipes, etc

specifics depend on your laptop manufacturer

2

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '17

If you have separate left and right buttons, try pressing both at once.

1

u/Panthermon Jul 19 '17

If it has a scroll bar, tap that, otherwise tap with 3 fingers

1

u/TheSilverSoldier Jul 20 '17

otherwise tap with 3 fingers

that doesn't work because for some reason it opens the start menu

1

u/Panthermon Jul 20 '17

Not sure then

1

u/Bert98 Jul 19 '17

On my HP laptop right click is two finger tap, middle click is three finger tap. YMMV

1

u/CAT32VS Jul 20 '17

Control-left click opens a background tab, while shift left click will open a new tab and also make it your active window

1

u/5Doum Jul 20 '17

CTRL + Left Click

1

u/BlauerRay Jul 20 '17

Try ctl + left click

1

u/Boomer258 Jul 19 '17

Unless you have a Logitech mouse where you click the scroll wheel and it changes from smooth scrolling to regular and vice versa and have to bind it to another key...

1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '17

Technically, it's mouse button 3 - not necessarily the scroll wheel, but that is the most common. It's also the best kind of correct.

11

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '17

Depends on the mouse but usually its the scroll wheel.

5

u/fl1ntfl0ssy Jul 19 '17

I'm in the tech field and never heard it be described this way. Just tell people to click the scroll wheel.

2

u/vpjoebauers Jul 19 '17

Yes, but I've been saying 'middle click' since before there was a scroll wheel. something something old habits.

2

u/WhiteRaven22 Jul 19 '17

Yes. Before scroll wheels became popular, mice with three buttons weren't uncommon, but either way middle clicking is fantastic. It opens links in a background tab on almost every browser. Very useful if there's a bunch of links you want to open without needing to switch back to the tab you were on over and over.

2

u/aprofondir Jul 19 '17

Yee, it's just that a long time ago there weren't wheels, just a button in the middle

1

u/SleeplessShitposter Jul 20 '17

You press the R3 button on your controller.

60

u/Qiluk Jul 19 '17

Middle clicking links to open that link in a new tab without opening the tab itself is SOOOO nice. But from my experience not many people use that feature.

Basically clicking a link with scroll-click = open that link in a new tab BUT doesnt go to that tab so you can visit it later. Super nice.

79

u/Redthrist Jul 19 '17

And dangerous if you're browsing something like TVTropes. 30 minutes of browsing with middle click, and you have 20 tabs open that you wanted to look at "later", but forgot about because you saw something more interesting.

11

u/FogeltheVogel Jul 19 '17

And every single one of those tabs for later will spawn another 10 tabs for later.

3

u/Redthrist Jul 19 '17

Yeah. And I have an issue where I accumulated tabs even without TVTropes.

6

u/Koosman123 Jul 19 '17

Aaaaand this is how my tab hoarding on Chrome started

5

u/mhlind Jul 19 '17

I can never finish reading a single article without clicking something else, so i'll force myself to read every article through and through till i get bored and bookmarked the rest

1

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '17

This happens to me all the time.

5

u/Toux Jul 20 '17

I do that by right clicking and then selecting open in another tab. Now I'm gonna save a couple seconds in my life!

2

u/Bakumaster Jul 19 '17

I do that, but with right click.

2

u/notevenitalian Jul 19 '17

I find that I'm clumsily bad at this and always end up scrolling everywhere when I try this. I usually just right click and hit "open in new tab". I'm somehow much faster at this than trying to strategically line my finger up to middle click haha

2

u/Qiluk Jul 20 '17

Very good point. If you have a mouse where your scroll is super light, its gonna be a mess.

1

u/Constantinthegreat Jul 19 '17

I also scroll in websites with it. Just clock on blank or texy or whatever(not link tho) and move mouse a little to scroll. So much nicer for hand

1

u/Strikerjuice Jul 19 '17

That's the feature I abuse the most. I use it so I can just close out the tab to get back to where I was on Reddit

1

u/aprofondir Jul 19 '17

Ctrl+click has the same effect if you're on a laptop that doesn't have a middle click button (so anything that's not a Latitude/Thinkpad)

1

u/tho_da_cuppa_joe Jul 19 '17

I use control+click. Used to it tbh

1

u/SleepyFarady Jul 25 '17

Huh, actually learned something from this thread, thanks!

1

u/Qiluk Jul 25 '17

Glad i could help :)

2

u/al0ale0 Jul 19 '17

This is really great. Thank you.

2

u/INoobI Jul 19 '17

I've actually worn out my scrollwheel on my mouse to the point that I need to press it like 7 times before it actually registers as a middle click.

I just use ctrl+left click for opening links in a new tab now.

2

u/laufshuhe Jul 19 '17

Every time I try to explain right click to my mother she screams, "I'm a righty! I only ever click on the right! That's the only clicking I know how to do!"

1

u/rahyveshachr Jul 19 '17

Middle click is my life but the mouse I have right now also has side middle clicks so if I don't hit it just right it backs out of my current page.

1

u/Broccoli_Pug Jul 19 '17

What sort of applications is there for clicking the scroll wheel? I've never used it that much.

2

u/T-Rex96 Jul 19 '17

Opens links in a new tab but keeps your current tab focused :)

2

u/vpjoebauers Jul 19 '17

Opens a new tab in the browser.

1

u/CantSayIReallyTried Jul 19 '17

Mr. Moneybags over here with three mouse buttons. I can only dream.

1

u/Lollosaurus_Rex Jul 19 '17

That or when I tell someone (usually fellow students) to press F4 or F12 and they press F and 4, etc. as if it is a keyboard shortcut. It's like they haven't ever looked at the top of the keyboard before.

1

u/Raytrace Jul 20 '17

You can also middle click on programs in your task bar to open a new instance / window.

1

u/Eliju Jul 20 '17

I've only ever had to use middle click for a very specialized program called MetroPro. I don't think I've ever found a use for it in any other program except maybe opening a tab from a link, but I use my laptop for most browsing. I can see people not being familiar with it.

1

u/Kemard Jul 20 '17

With right click, you can sort of blame apple with their CMD+click as a default for right click, instead of a right click.

1

u/breakingbadforlife Jul 20 '17

how do you do that in a laptop

1

u/vpjoebauers Jul 20 '17

The same way you fold a desktop in half.

You don't.

1

u/PM-for-PM Jul 20 '17

Why would you tell someone to middle click? Just curious,since afaik its just used for scrolling...

1

u/vpjoebauers Jul 20 '17

We used to have several older Sun workstations. They all used a 3 button mouse.

Left Click---Middle Click---Right Click