The following two tips can make a huge difference in how you use Pro/ENGINEER® every day.

1. Use a Four- or Five-Button Mouse

Do you use Control / left mouse button to zoom in and out of Word documents? Even worse, do you use the Control / middle mouse button to rotate web pages? Most Pro/ENGINEER users spend most of their day with one finger on the Control key. Wouldn't it be nice to do it with just one hand?

You probably discovered that you could change the assignment of buttons on your mouse when Microsoft’s default configuration for the middle mouse button wasn't the middle mouse button. If you get a mouse with extra buttons, you can set one to activate the control key. This lets do you everything you did by holding the control key with the mouse button—zoom, pan and spin all with one hand. You can also select multiple objects if you set the fifth button to Shift. These changes are made using the mouse icon on the control panel.

In addition, investing in a new optical mouse will be the best $20 you spend on Pro/ENGINEER. Some of them even have better resolutions that pick up smaller movements.

2. Preview Your Edited Text

Do you know you can preview edited text without leaving the text editor? After editing the text, press on the OK button but don’t let go of the mouse button. Instead, slide it off the OK button on the screen. The text will update in Pro/ENGINEER.

If you don't like the change, you can continue editing until you are happy. This is great for fitting things into cells or seeing if Pro/ENGINEER will add those $&# brackets.

Henry Sommer is an associate senior engineer at Whitelight Design (www.whitelightdesign.com). He can be reached by e-mail at henry@whitelightdesign.com.