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I think I'm not the only lefty with a laptop so please fellow lefty coders how have you solved this problem: when I use a mouse I do what most lefties do and swap the mouse buttons so my primary button is on the right. On my laptop and on most laptops I've seen in recent years, the touchpad is in the middle and the primary button is to the left where my 'good' hand is, so I don't have a need to swap buttons.
The biggest problem is when I RDP into my desktop where the mouse buttons are swapped because I use a mouse on the desktop. I have to 'un-swap' the buttons only to be annoyed the next time I go to my desktop and have to swap them again. I think I found the shortest key combination in Windows to swap mouse buttons (try: Winkey+I, 'm', 'o', down arrow, enter, 'r' or 'l') but it is still annoying.
Apart from enduring, do you have other solutions?
Thanks
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Swap over the wires leading to the mouse and hope? 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Better yet: swap the wires going into my brain.
Thought of that but I kind of like the way my brain is wired.
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I am not a leftie but I regularly swap mouse hands so I don't end up to wonky.
I don't swap the mouse button assignment, I simply move my index finger across to use the left mouse button - it means I don't have to remember to swap to using a middle finger.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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GuyThiebaut wrote: I don't swap the mouse button assignment, I simply move my index finger across to use the left mouse button - it means I don't have to remember to swap to using a middle finger.
I did that for about 10-15 years starting in the mid 90s; but RSI. 
Since then I've used various re-mappings: first at the OS level; more recently either done in hardware (Razer left handed mice), or in fancy mice via device specific configuration software (Logitech G903).
I know the former worked great with RDP both incoming and outgoing from my machine, although with the only left handed mouse Razer sells at present being new old stock from a decade ago and their reliability being kinda meh I hesitate to recommend them today. I'm not sure how the G903 would behave with remote sessions; but AFAIK it's reprogramming what the mouse itself sends to the OS, so I'd assume it's transparent.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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I am a lefty and I use my right hand on a mouse and on the touchpad (never needed to swap buttons). That leaves my left hand free for typing, eating and drinking.
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That's not a bad idea.
I think I'll try out using the mouse with my left hand.
Of course, that means I'll have to move and rearrange everything...
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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We lefties have to adapt to living in a right-handed world.
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I had to "adapt" earlier than most.
I could read and write (left-handed) before I went to infant school, and they forced me to write with my right hand, and unlearn written English, because ITA[^] was all the rage.
Careful, reading the garbage on the end of that link. The morons who support ITA actually believe they're clever, and doing wonderful things.
When I was five years old, they achieved the magnificently brilliant end of making me stupider and less able to communicate.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Same here. Additional benefit is that I can walk up to someone else's machine and not be thrown off by the mouse (mentoring/support/etc.).
Think it started with my initial exposure to PCs being machines that were shared and mouse was always to the right-hand side of the keyboard. Reinforced when started getting "egronomic" mice that couldn't have buttons swapped and be physically comfortable for left-handed use. Plus I believe "lefties" are generally more ambidextrous than "righties" - but couldn't say if this is due more to genetics or conditioning from necessity. Thankfully, was never forced to write with my right hand - THAT would have been a disaster!
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use the mouse upside down on the underside of your desk?
after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!
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I constantly run into this problem and it's quite annoying especially with multiple chained remote connections. Depending on how many chained remote sessions I have the result is often different. In other words, first session swaps the keys first time, the next chained session swaps them again and so on...
Perhaps a small utility would ease the pain 
Small utility to swap mouse buttons
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That's a cool little utility you made! Thanks, I'll give it a try.
I think the problem stems from the wrong way people (including Microsoft) have been looking at this issue. Instead of calling them "Left button" and "Right button" they should have been called "Primary button and "Secondary button". Linking them a left or right should be a device dependent thing.
For instance, now I'm typing on my laptop with a touchpad where the primary button is on the left and I have a mouse with a primary button on the right. If I connect to another system I'd like to have my primary button doing the primary button functions on the remote system, irrespective of how the mouse is configured on the remote system.
<rant>
I think we, left-handed people, have been subjected to a lot of abuse from the right-handed majority and it only due to our superior abilities[^] that we've been able to cope with that. Form scissors to kettles, all the way to numeric keypads and mouse design, objects for left-handed people are either hard to find, nonexistent or ridiculously expensive.
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Decades ago, when I had to interact with users, I learnt to use the right handed mouse with my left hand. Index finger does all the work swapping between left/right/middle controls.
This allowed me to move from desk to desk without changing the mouse setup. It also insured that I am too slow on the mouse to be a competent gamer.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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I'm right handed but have been using the mouse left handed since 1992, I don't swap the mouse buttons so I never have to change it on any mouse I have to use. I don't have to think about what button I am clicking and find it completely natural.
Have half a cup of harden the elephant up and you'll be fine.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Thank you all who bothered to reply to my post. I am however surprised at how many of you have suggested to just put up with it.
I can imagine in the Flintstones times:
Me carving on the cave wall: "Fellow cave dwellers, the square wheels we keep pushing are pretty hard to push. Do you have any solution?"
Scratches below on the cave wall:
"We live in a square wheels world!"
"I learned to push square wheels when I was a baby!"
"Man up and stop being lazy!"
So please be lazy, the hard working ones were carrying letters on the pony express; it was the lazy ones who invented the telegraph.
Thanks Wendelius[^] for being lazy!
(mic drop)
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Mircea Neacsu wrote: I am however surprised at how many of you have suggested to just put up with it.
You have asked for free advice. Now bring up the money, and you'll get the real solution. And for even more money, the fix to the solution.
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I adapted. I did not go to Catholic school where they tried to beat the left handedness out of you (allegedly, I have only heard stories...), but the schools I went only had righty scissors, etc. I learned to bat righty, kick with my left foot, use righty scissors. Still very entertaining to watch me try to write...
I will say, if someone switched my mouse buttons, it's gonna get ugly. Yeah, most of the time my dominant hand is the right...
I feel your pain... now if you were a crippled minority, you might start a movement 
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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As a lefty in a righty world I do most things righty, including using a mouse, I can mouse and type or mouse and WASD. Touchpads always seem to be more to the left hand side of the laptop, so I've always used my left hand, it also feels more natural I suppose due to similarity to drawing.
People who switch the buttons are weird 
You don't have to be mad to live here [UK], but it helps.
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Mircea Neacsu wrote: most lefties do and swap the mouse buttons so my primary button is on the right.
I wonder if that's actually true. I'm a lefty and have always used my mouse with my right hand.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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I'm left handed and I haven't swapped the buttons or used the mouse with my left hand since the 90s. Just get used to using your right hand, it's not hard.
Guys, don't add any jokes to this thread, they're too easy.
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I am a leftie as well, but I managed to hard wire my brain into knowing which button to press. The distinction is that I generally press the left mouse button with the middle finger of my left hand, but sometimes I will cross over and use my pointer finger.
The interesting thing... I can also "mouse" right handed. Then I click the left mouse button with pointer finger.
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The other options are either practical or making fun of it.
The solution, in fact, is to place the laptop down on the surface you are using to hold it and then walk around to the other side so that left and right are reversed with respect to the laptop.
Don't over-complicate when the simple and obvious will suffice.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Looking good - how well does it print? (And I assume you have no pets ... other than children )
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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