现充|junyu33
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Twenty-one — Goodbye, Mouse

Introduction

In order to improve work efficiency and out of concern for my wrist health (already showing some swelling and wear), on this special day, as my mouse's last bit of battery ran out, I decided to abandon the mouse and move almost all operations entirely to the keyboard.

Compared to an average computer user, my mouse usage is relatively low (around 20% of the time, most of it spent browsing). Still, spending two or three seconds every now and then to click a link is annoying.

If one day I can truly get rid of my reliance on the mouse and touchpad, and become proficient in Vim—achieving higher efficiency than mouse users—that would be the best outcome.

Shortcuts

Using shortcuts to replace mouse clicks is the most common and most important form of keyboard operation.

Apart from well-known shortcuts like Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Win+E, Win+R, Ctrl+Alt+Del, there are also hundreds of system and application-specific shortcuts waiting to be mastered.

System (Windows)

Here are the ones I use most often (besides those above):

Tips:
① If you have tools like everything / Listary (don't install Huoying Video Wallpaper, it's proven unsafe), you can double-tap Ctrl to quickly search apps—huge efficiency boost.
② Remember some common Win+R program names: cmd, winver, control, taskmgr, netplwiz, appwiz.cpl, inetcpl.cpl, services.msc, compmgmt.msc, etc. (Most are in English/abbreviations—another reason to learn English well.)

System shortcuts are relatively easy to master, especially with tool support. Playing Windows by keyboard alone is not too difficult.

Browser (Chrome)

The browser is trickier—any webpage may have dozens or hundreds of links, and using only Tab to find what you need is too slow. For Chrome, there's a great plugin called Vimium (lets you operate like the Vim editor), which simplifies these tedious actions.

For Vimium, I mainly use:
① f — map letters to links, then type the letter to jump.
② j to scroll down, k to scroll up. (PgUp and PgDn also work fine.)

As for browser-native shortcuts, I use:

Applications

(Only discussing non-UWP apps here.)

For Dev-C++ users:

For VS/VSC users:

For Vim users:
(To be added once I've learned them)

If software isn't poorly designed, most shortcuts are listed in the menu bar (screenshot below). Each program has unique shortcuts, and memorization is the hardest part of abandoning the mouse. Still, Alt and Tab solve most problems, just more slowly.

(But I still don't know how to capture partial screenshots with just the keyboard—this remains a pain point.)

Console

Alternative

If forced to use functions not possible by keyboard (like cropping screenshots, playing games), you can temporarily simulate a mouse with Alt+Shift+NumLock.

But since movement is slow, this isn't practical.

Summary

If you truly want to break free from the mouse, just switch to Linux as soon as possible. Happy 1024 Programmer's Day!

Updated on 11/2

Honestly, NetEase is ridiculous. With IDM, I could rip mooc videos without detection. Yet if I use Vimium to click a link with the keyboard, it pops up this:

In short, they claim to care about security, yet can't even do basic intellectual property protection. Shouldn't the developers reflect on this?