But that doesn’t mean that I will never embrace another potential ways to get my things done. The problem is, the only application that I know utilizing mouse gestures is Opera, so I never really had the chance to really taste how delicious mouse gesture can be.

Then I found FlyGesture, a free application from FlyingMeat that promises to bring mouse gestures to every corner of the Mac OS X computing experience.

One Mouse to rule them all

If I have to describe FlyGesture using my own definition, I might say that this an application that will translate mouse gestures into almost any possible action(s). And before deciding that I am being hyperbolic, let’s see what this baby can do.

The first thing to do after opening the application is to visit the Preferences (FlyGestures –> Preferences menu or Command + Comma). Here you can choose which hotkey (and which mouse button) to activate the application and listen to gestures.

The default activation hotkey is F1 and mouse button is disabled. You can change the hotkey if you want to. And if you happen to use a multi-button mouse with an unused button available, you can assign this button also to invoke FlyGesture.

This app comes with a library full of preset actions. To see all the available gestures, you can open the catalog by going to Window –> Open Catalog menu or by using Command + T.

You can add your own gestures by clicking the Plus (+) button at the bottom of the window. Deleting the existing gestures is also possible by clicking the Minus (-) button.

If you decide to add your own, you’ll see the gesture input pad. Click the middle button and start drawing your gesture. Click again when you’ve finished. Click OK to accept the gesture or reset to redraw. I suggest you to create simple mouse gestures because drawing difficult shape every time you want to do something can be frustrating.

After clicking OK, you can add actions that you want to be executed by the gesture you’ve just created. The options range from activating applications, running AppleScripts to typing texts.

You can add several actions to one gesture, just like building Automator workflow.

This ability opens up countless possibilities, limited only by your imagination. You can build a gesture to write a simple signature or you can go wild and create one that will: save your work, upload it to the FTP, create an email and send it to your clients telling them that the work is done, make the computer say “goodnight” to you, play a lullaby while you go to bed, and turn itself off.

Put the gestures into action

Using FlyGesture is as simple as pressing the hotkey (or the chosen mouse button), perform the preset gesture to activate the assigned action(s) and pressing the hotkey once more. That’s it.

Some might think that using mouse gestures is not practical because you have to memorize so many gestures. But I think it’s the opposite. Just create one or two (or several) gestures that will perform complex actions that you do routinely, and use your normal methods to do everything else. This way, you’ll get the best of both worlds.

Since FlyGesture also works with trackpad, it’s also possible to use it to write Chinese characters on older MacBooks if you want to.

Have you used FlyGesture? Or do you know other alternatives to mouse gesture applications? Share in the comments below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Introducing Portable Mouse Gestures with Mazzick (4)
• How To Run Windows Keyboard Shortcuts Using Your Mouse (7)
• Gmote – Bringing Mouse Gestures To Your Windows Desktop (4)
• 5 Cool Mac Optimization Tips to Get The Most From Your Mac (9)
• Use Quicktime X in Mac Snow Leopard for Easy Screencasting (4)

Likewise it is true for times you are working with the mouse, you want to be able to do the maximum amount of work with your mouse without having to switch back and forth. The very idea of being able to run commands and perform custom actions at the flick of the mouse pointer is inviting. This can be done easily with mouse gestures.

We have shown you how you can create gestures to perform various actions with your mouse using StrokeIt and Mazzick. Today we look at LiveEdge, an application that creates special hot zones on your screen which, when activated, with the mouse pointer would perform the associated action.

You can download and install LiveEdge from here. The installer is around 600KB, however you need .NET framework 3.5 installed. The application works on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The first time you run LiveEdge you have to specify what action you want to be performed when you hover over a hot zone. LiveEdge divides the screen into 8 hot zones, each of which can run a separate keyboard shortcut command or action according to your settings. To specify the actions, right click on the tray icon and choose ‘Settings‘. You will see a window like the following:

Go ahead and specify actions for the hot zones you want to use. This is done by specifying a keyboard shortcut you want to run when the appropriate hot zone is activated. As an example:

Let’s say you want to switch applications when you take your mouse pointer to the upper right corner of the screen. The keyboard shortcut to cycle through open windows is Alt+Esc. Now, there is a specific syntax for specifying keys, + specifies the Shift Key, ^ specifies the Control Key, % stands for the Alt key and so on and so forth.

So you will write ALT + ESC as %{ESC} and hit save. You can find the complete list by clicking the ‘Help‘ button in the Settings Dialog.

No doubt you will get the most out of LiveEdge if you specify actions for all the hot zones according to your favorite keyboard shortcuts, however if the above seems like too much work for you or you want to get started quickly, you can also choose from amongst two sets of built-in settings. Click on the ‘Load‘ button inside the Settings dialog and choose settings1 or settings2. Below is an overview of what each of them does:

You can also create more than one set of settings for LiveEdge. Doing so is simple, all you have to do is click on Save As and that will save the current settings as a text file. You are now free to create another set of settings perhaps for an entirely different purpose. Switching back and forth is easy as well, just hit the ‘Load‘ button to load any previous configuration.

The hot zones are activated only when you go to the extreme ends of the screen, up to the point where the pointer would not go any further. Although a bit of inconvenience, it makes sure that the hot zones are not activated when you didn’t intend to use them. That said, you can easily disable LiveEdge with a single click on the tray icon if you find it interfering with your work. Another single click re enables LiveEdge, while a double click exits the program altogether.

If you are a Linux user and like the idea of hot zones you can achieve similar results using Compiz or Brightside, Firefox users can also use gestures by installing addons. Do you know of similar applications that let you use your mouse for various purposes?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Introducing Portable Mouse Gestures with Mazzick (4)
• It Takes only 7 SHORTCUTS to Become a Lightning Fast User (51)
• How to Get Screen Actions for your Mouse on Linux (4)
• Abandon Your Mouse & Click On Links With Your Keyboard (13)
• Windows System Tools at your Fingertips with FastKake (13)

1. Play with Shell Objects

Shell Object Editor allows you to create, edit and delete shell objects. Shell Objects can point to special applications and folders. The My Documents folder that you see is a Shell Object that points to the actual folder on the hard disk. With Shell Object Editor you can add items to My Computer, Control Panel and Menus.

Firing up Shell Object Editor, you will be guided through the various steps of creating a Shell Object. Another similar program is Folder2MyPC. It however offers you a list of system and common folders that you can add to My Computer. While Shell Object Editor allows you to add objects to the Control Panel as well, Folder2MyPC simply allows you to add folders to My Computer quickly and easily for faster access.

2. Enhance Dialog Boxes

Don’t you just hate digging into the folder tree to find out the right folder where you stored that file you are trying to open?

Try FlashFolder. FlashFolder adds a toolbar to the top of dialog boxes that you can use to quickly get to the folder you are looking for.

You can bookmark folders, jump to an open folder, or choose from history or simply type in the address of the folder you are looking for and get there.

3. Add Mouse Gestures

Mouse Gestures are certain mouse motions that perform special tasks like opening up your media player, controlling windows and other applications.

We took a close look at Gmote some time back which allows you to record gestures and assign them to frequently performed tasks. Whenever you perform those mouse motions again, your computer performs the assigned actions.  Use gestures to bring up programs, websites, control your browser, media player, clipboard and much more.

If you need a portable solution you may like to read about Mazzick and see if it fits your needs. StrokeIt is another software that allows you to add mouse gesture functionality to your Windows installation.

4.  Enhance or Replace Windows Explorer

Power Users generally don’t like Windows Explorer much. If you are one of them and feel the same, try using Xplorer2. We showed you what its capable of some time back. The Windows Explorer replacement has a lot of features like tabs, panes, preview of media files and many more. Definitely worth a try.

If on the other hand you would like to remain faithful to Windows Explorer then try addons like QTTabBar, Folder Size, TerraCopy, Clickie and more that will definitely improve your experience and make you a little more productive when working with files and folders.

5. Customize your Windows to Death

If adding some visual appeal and tweaking around with the interface is your cup of tea, check out some tools to overhaul the default Windows interface and add some useful tools that make your Windows look beautiful and enhance productivity as well..

6.  Edit, customize and enhance Right Click Menu

Right-click menus get cluttered up easily and are also most commonly used when working with the GUI. Here are two applications that can help you improve the right click context menus.

Moo0 right clicker, profiled by Saikat yesterday, adds special items to the right click menu. It adds some important functions like moving files to a specific folder or a system folder.  You can delete files to the recycle bin or delete them permanently. Create a new folder, new text file, new rich text file, repeat the last copy or move operation, launch command prompt in the current window are some of the other commands that are available.

If you just want to edit right click menus, try the already covered Mmm

Did I miss your favorite tool or application? Do you have a special hack that you use to customize Windows to your needs?  If so, let us hear about them in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Windows Registry Tweaks (Part 2) (8)
• Untangle your computer with Unlocker (8)
• The Ultimate Extension for Windows Explorer (9)
• The Essential Keyboard Shortcuts to whip your Windows (18)
• The 5 Good Free Windows File Managers (51)

Gmote lets you define “gestures” that you draw with your mouse after clicking a pre-arranged key combination (to prevent accidental gestures).

You first download the app from here and install it. You will then be asked to select a language to install.

Then after it does its thing, it will pop up a balloon from the task bar. You can see it below:

So of course you obey the balloon and right click on the lower case ‘g’ icon in your system tray. Choose ‘configure’ and you can get right into creating gestures. Just click that ‘New Gesture’ button on the bottom left hand side.

Upon clicking the ‘Create Gesture’ button you will be able to draw your gesture on the right pane and select its associated action.

I chose to draw a symbol that kind of looks like an A. It has to be continuous so think Zorro. Next I hit the [Do Nothing] box on the left pane. It pops up the window below and allows you to choose your action.

Here is a full list of available options:

For my ‘A’ like gesture I choose ‘Website’ from this list – asking Gmote to open my default browser to a web site of my selection. I chose my most favorite site (no I am not biased at all!) askTheAdmin.com was what I typed into the address bar and clicked ok.

Now the only thing left to configure was my Gmote options. This is how you let Gmote know what to look at what you are drawing and how it starts up.

My action keys are Control + Shift. So when I hit these two keys and draw with my mouse the blue lines are shown on my screen. You can change the action keys and the colors of the trails here as well.

After setting this I held my two keys down and drew my A. Guess what happened??

I think it is pretty cool and after a while you won’t believe you ever lived without it!

So get out there download this little app and start making gestures…

No not that gesture! Put that finger down!

What’s your experiences with mouse gesture software? Do you find you save time with it? Which one do you use?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Introducing Portable Mouse Gestures with Mazzick (4)
• How To Run Windows Keyboard Shortcuts Using Your Mouse (7)
• Add the Power of Gestures to Your Mouse with FlyGesture [Mac] (4)
• Put Your Right-Click Button to Better Use with ClickZap (8)
• It Takes only 7 SHORTCUTS to Become a Lightning Fast User (51)

So toss this one on your thumb drive and go gesturing like crazy wherever you might be getting your computer on. Visit this direct download link to grab the zip file. Extract it to your memory stick and you are ready to rock – well at least doodle

If you look through the short documentation you will see a few examples of how Mazzick works. You simply launch it and it lives in your system tray.

It is the icon on the left that kind of looks like you scribbled a lightning bolt with a marker.

Now to try it out, you can hold down the shift button and draw a capital N with your mouse like this:

And before you can blink, Notepad will open up front and center.

Now I know, I know, you’re saying “Ughhh….Notepad! That sucks…!”

So what if i want it to open (insert popular app here)? Simply highlight “Various Gestures” after right-clicking on the taskbar icon.

Then choose ‘Create/Modify Moves’, add in what actions you want it to have and click ‘accept’. You have now created your own gesture.

You can launch it by simply holding the shift key and making the gesture with the mouse. The action will immediately launch. Sweet!

Here are the available preferences for Mazzick…

This is a list of the built in gestures and the custom one we added to the end to launch Ask The Admin.

Do you use something similar? Is it portable? Let us know in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Run Windows Keyboard Shortcuts Using Your Mouse (7)
• It Takes only 7 SHORTCUTS to Become a Lightning Fast User (51)
• How to Get Screen Actions for your Mouse on Linux (4)
• Abandon Your Mouse & Click On Links With Your Keyboard (13)
• Windows System Tools at your Fingertips with FastKake (13)