Mouse Gestures

Do you use mouse gestures?

  • Yes, I love them.

    Votes: 14 30.4%

  • Yes, I use them from time to time.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No, tried them and didnt like them.

    Votes: 20 43.5%

  • No, haven't tried them.

    Votes: 7 15.2%

  • I never heard of a mouse gesture before this post.

    Votes: 5 10.9%
  • Total voters
    46
E

earnstaf

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
163
Who all uses mouse gestures? If you have never tried them, I highly recommend you try them out. Mouse gestures have changed the way I browse the web. The lack of gestures is (one of) the reasons I didn't convert to Chrome.

It is the greatest feeling being able to go back and forth, open and close tabs and open new windows all with the flick of the wrist.

For those unfamiliar, mouse gestures allow you to perform the above tasks (and a lot more that I could never remember) by simply pressing the right mouse button and flicking the mouse in a particular direction or drawing simple lines. For instance, hold right mouse button and make a quick flickleft and you go back a page, the oppisate for a right flick. Up makes a new tab, drawling a "L" closes it.

Greatest thing ever. I would suggest this one: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12

Try it -- you'll never go back.
 
I voted "Yes, I love them," but in truth I never use mouse gestures.

I prefer rocker gestures. Press and hold right mouse button and tap left mouse button to go back. Reverse that to go forward. Even quicker than mouse gestures, and less movement.
 
I agree that rocker gestures are nice, and most could mouse gesture extensions include them... but you cant rocker open a new tab :)
 
I've been using All-in-One Gestures since they first appeared for Firefox, love 'em, couldn't - more like wouldn't use Firefox without 'em. Was using that type of rocker action for Back-Forward in browsers nearly a decade ago and never looked... errr... back. :D

As for a rocker for creating a new Tab in Firefox, you don't need one with that addon: just hold the right button and move up a bit, poof, new Tab. There are so many possibilities it's not even funny.

The issue is people hate change, as I and many others have been stating for years now. They simply will not try anything new, and if they do, it's a day, maybe two days if they're lucky and they give up. Habits take about 2-3 weeks to become a "new" one and replace an old one, so... after years of just two button mice, and even with multi-button mice now available most people still won't do anything to increase their efficiency over dragging that mouse way up there and clicking Back-Back-Back-Back and sometimes Forward.

It's a pretty sad thing to watch and then try to offer some assistance, "a way out" of that slow ridiculous methodology, but they just won't have it. They're comfortable with it, etc. The standing principle is:

People will do more to avoid pain than gain pleasure.

It's a pretty deep idea... but it's 100% true.

I'm all for 'em, obviously. :)
 
Nope haven't tried them but won't say I will never use them. Programmable button mouse right now is my preference. In the future though if/when my mouse dies...who knows.
 
Joe Average said:
I've been using All-in-One Gestures since they first appeared for Firefox, love 'em, couldn't - more like wouldn't use Firefox without 'em. Was using that type of rocker action for Back-Forward in browsers nearly a decade ago and never looked... errr... back. :D

As for a rocker for creating a new Tab in Firefox, you don't need one with that addon: just hold the right button and move up a bit, poof, new Tab. There are so many possibilities it's not even funny.

The issue is people hate change, as I and many others have been stating for years now. They simply will not try anything new, and if they do, it's a day, maybe two days if they're lucky and they give up. Habits take about 2-3 weeks to become a "new" one and replace an old one, so... after years of just two button mice, and even with multi-button mice now available most people still won't do anything to increase their efficiency over dragging that mouse way up there and clicking Back-Back-Back-Back and sometimes Forward.

It's a pretty sad thing to watch and then try to offer some assistance, "a way out" of that slow ridiculous methodology, but they just won't have it. They're comfortable with it, etc. The standing principle is:

People will do more to avoid pain than gain pleasure.

It's a pretty deep idea... but it's 100% true.

I'm all for 'em, obviously. :)
Click to expand...

Great post... my thoughts exactly. You obviously share my love for mouse gestures :) I feel so much slower and unproductive without them. I load them everywhere I go, to include work.

I've shown gestures to a couple of my buddies, and it has caught on with a couple of them. I seriously can not see using a web browser without mouse gestures and it almost pains to me to watch people do as you described -- click a page, go all the way up to back button, click.. repeat... soooo slow...

Also, drawing the new tab "up" gesture over a link to open it in a new tab? Ohhh so good. Or even better, over several links... all new tabs.

Seriously, everyone do yourself a favor and click that addons.mozilla link in the OP... try it for a week and see if you ever go back.

...so, for those of you who are huge fans of mouse gestures, how many times have you tried to do a "back" or "forward" gesture while in Windows Explorer or similar? haha
 
I can't live without them. Also a reason why i won't chrome. I dont understand those who are against them, as i can readily tell how vastly superior they make my browsing.
 
rgratto2 said:
I can't live without them. Also a reason why i won't chrome. I dont understand those who are against them, as i can readily tell how vastly superior they make my browsing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the "Tried and didnt like" votes are really very surprising to me. I thought that would get the least votes. I just can't fathom how someone could use gestures and then said "eh, this isnt for me, I'll go back to being totally inefficient."

For the record, the extension I linked are the ones I use. I also tried "Fire Gestures" I believe they were called and didnt care for them nearly as much, but they are the more popular extension.
 
Out of curiousity:

Those of you that absolutely love the gestures, are you using a regular mouse or a track pad/other "specialty" mouse?

If I had a track pad, I'd be all over the gestures. But I have a regular mouse and as long as back/forward are available as buttons, I'll stick with them...
 
I've tried it with Opera and prefer not using them.

Always find it more frustrating than anything. If it ain't broken... :p

edit: I turned them off in vista too (for use with my wacom tablet)
 
earnstaf said:
*snip*

Also, drawing the new tab "up" gesture over a link to open it in a new tab? Ohhh so good. Or even better, over several links... all new tabs.

*snip*

...so, for those of you who are huge fans of mouse gestures, how many times have you tried to do a "back" or "forward" gesture while in Windows Explorer or similar? haha
Click to expand...

Yah, that is one of the most frustrating and aggravating moments in my using Windows sometimes (and any other OS unless I get Firefox installed with that add-on): loading the system's primary browser for whatever reason (usually because it's the default) and do the rocker and... nothing. AARRRGGGGHHHH I hate it hate it hate it... ;)

As for using a gesture for opening a link in a new Tab, never do that (but I do it by accident quite often, maybe I should disable that particular variation of the up swipe). I always (ok, well almost always given what I just said) use the wheelclick on a link to get it in a new Tab... seems far more efficient.

Tab Mix Plus... the next add-on people should install right after All-in-One Gestures. :D

(and yes, the wheelclick-a-link is a default in Firefox already, but the additional features that Tab Mix Plus adds are just icing on the proverbial cake... highly recommended)

And to be honest, I haven't even begun to really seriously explore most of the built-in default capabilities of All-in-One Gestures. I just tried a new one: hold Right, scroll the wheel... OMG... how could I have missed this one all this time... instant History of the current tab...

As Chris Farr's one character used to be famous for saying...

"HOLY SCHNIKES!!!" :D

Well, at least I'm not as ignorant as I was 1 minute ago... w00t!
 
I'm a back button on the mouse kind of guy. I tried gestures back in the day with MyIE web browser and they were alright... just never really got into using them.
 
I can't live without mouse gestures. I found mouse gestures and tabbed browsing at the same time, back in the rather early days of Opera. Since then I go nuts if I'm using someone else's computer and they don't have a browser with mouse gestures integrated or the extension for it in Firefox. I will actually go out of my way to install Firefox with All In One Gestures on someone's system (with permission) if I have to use the browser for more than a few minutes. The time I waste trying to use mouse gestures with nothing happening along with the wasted time of hitting different buttons or whatever to do what I want ends up being more time than it takes to install a different browser.

I also have to catch myself trying to use mouse gestures in the OS. It's so damn inefficient having to move the mouse over and click a button or two when a simple mouse gesture would do the same thing. :(

 
SmokeRngs said:
I can't live without mouse gestures. I found mouse gestures and tabbed browsing at the same time, back in the rather early days of Opera. Since then I go nuts if I'm using someone else's computer and they don't have a browser with mouse gestures integrated or the extension for it in Firefox. I will actually go out of my way to install Firefox with All In One Gestures on someone's system (with permission) if I have to use the browser for more than a few minutes. The time I waste trying to use mouse gestures with nothing happening along with the wasted time of hitting different buttons or whatever to do what I want ends up being more time than it takes to install a different browser.

I also have to catch myself trying to use mouse gestures in the OS. It's so damn inefficient having to move the mouse over and click a button or two when a simple mouse gesture would do the same thing. :(
Click to expand...

Well said and QFMFT... :D
 
I really don't see a point in having gestures if you have a mouse with any side buttons.
 
Let's see here... the most buttons I've seen on a mouse were about 9... the sheer number of mouse gestures I have at my disposal right now are...



Sorry, I lost track after about 40 or so... ;)

No I don't use them all, but how many people would actually actively have a need for a 9 button mouse either?

YMMV, as always...
 
Thanks for posting that pic :) I reference that list from time to time and am always learning new gestures for useful things... for instance, close all tabs except the currently active one...

I think I'll print the list for easy viewing.

I see how people who are using whatever they are currently using would be adverse to learning something new, but I feel confident that if people gave it a chance they wouldnt go back.
 
I use gestures mostly to open and close tabs. I also appreciate the ability to very easily switch between tabs. I do prefer the all in one gestures plugin, it has worked the best for me historically.

For a while it wasn't compatible with FireFox 3 and this really sucked. I really missed it and never found any of the alternatives to work as well.
 
"Fixing" addons to work is easy, just takes a simple edit of one config file in the addon's .xpi installer... I've done that with every addon that wasn't quite ready for FF3 before it was officially released, and now most if not all of 'em have been updated (mainly by the developer changing that one config option, actually) to install without issues.
 
I don't like mouse gestures because they sometimes do things that I didn't want done.
 
Klob said:
I don't like mouse gestures because they sometimes do things that I didn't want done.
Click to expand...

Example?

Sometimes I draw a line and then realize that wasnt what I wanted, so I just draw a "squiggly" that I know wont do anything.

I cant imagine that you could do a gesture often enough that would cause something irritating enough to completely turn you off to the whole idea.
 
What I mean is that sometimes I would move my mouse quickly and hit right mouse button by accident and it would do a mouse gesture that I had no intention of doing at all. It was annoying so no mouse gestures for me, thank you. I don't like voice software for a similar reason, cough by accident and it would try to interpret it as a command. Say gun in game commander and sometimes it would put the knife in my hand instead. Major annoyance for me.
 
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