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Sysadmin’s worst client was … his mother! Until his sister called for help

littlesmith

From my experience: Choose the right words. I had this situation also once. But I realized that is was my fault. As an experienced PC user I see the words mouse and pointer as synonyms. If I want to move the pointer, I subjectively directly move the pointer - the hand movements on the mouse come only to my conscious mind if something is not working right.

But for a newbie this is different: In the mind of those people the mouse and the pointer are two different things, even if the already know that they have to move the mouse to move the pointer.

You can do the experiment: First explain that the mouse moves the pointer. Then let the person play a little bit to get accustomed to the mouse and pointer concept. If you then ask the person to move the pointer up, the person will not even get the idea to lift the mouse. If you ask the person to move the mouse up, the person may think you want to explain something new and will lift the mouse to see what happens.

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