Universal Mouse Adapter The Universal Mouse Adapter (UMA) is a memory-resident (also known as terminate-and-stay-resident) program designed to allow you to use a mouse with many cursor-controlled programs that do not support a mouse. This includes programs with cursor driven menus (such as Print Shop), graphics programs, and some games such as arcade games. UMA causes whatever program you are using to act as if you had pressed the cursor keys whenever you move the mouse. It also causes the program to act as if you had pressed certain keyboard keys (such as ENTER or F10) when you press the mouse buttons. You select what those keys are when you install UMA. Installing and using UMA To use UMA, first install your mouse driver as you normally would, using MOUSE.SYS or MOUSE.COM. Then install UMA by typing UMA and pressing ENTER at the DOS prompt. The UMA program will display the title page and then ask you to press the keyboard key for the right mouse button. For example, if you want pressing the right button to represent the ENTER key, press the ENTER key. The key you press can be any key you would normally press while operating the program you intend to run. Typical keys would be ENTER, the space bar, Esc, a letter key, or a function key (F1-F10). It can also be a normal key combination, such as Alt-M or Shift-F10. It should not be a three-key combination, such as Alt-Ctrl-M, or the break key. UMA will then ask you to press the keys you want to be represented by the left mouse button and by pressing both buttons. Again, you simply press any key or key combination that you are likely to want to press when you run the program you want to use your mouse with. There is one small complication with pressing both mouse buttons. It is usually difficult to press both mouse buttons at exactly the same time. Because of this, UMA may generate the key for the first button to go down before it generates the key for both buttons. You may wish to arrange the keys so that this does not affect your program. For example, suppose the three keys you want to use are ENTER, F10, and the space bar. Also suppose that the portion of your program that responds to the ENTER key does not respond at all to a space bar. You could select the space bar for the right button, F10 for the left button, and ENTER for both buttons. That way, to press both buttons, you could first press the right button, which would have no effect on your program, then press the left button while holding down the right button. This would produce the effect of pressing the ENTER key. If you are really concerned about this problem, you could just assign any key to the both-button combination, and never use both buttons at the same time. After you have pressed the keyboard key that you want the two-button combination to represent, UMA will ask you if you want Auto-button with cursor movement. This is somewhat similar to auto-repeat on the keyboard. If you press Y in response to this question, UMA will also generate the keyboard key for whatever button(s) you are holding down as you move the mouse. For example, if you have assigned F9 to the left button and you this button down as you move the mouse, UMA will repeatedly press the F9 key as it moves the cursor around the screen. This is useful for programs where you alternately press the cursor keys and press a key. For example, in the Print Shop graphics editor mode, you draw by moving the screen cursor to a position with the cursor keys and pressing F9. To draw a line, you must press a cursor key, then press F9, then press a cursor key and press F9 again, and so on. With Auto-button, you can hold down the left mouse button as you move the mouse and draw a continuous line. Another example is some arcade games, where you move your man (or spaceship, or whatever) with the cursor keys and fire with the space bar. With Auto-button, you could assign the space bar to one of the mouse buttons and then rapid-fire by holding down the button as you move the mouse. The only disadvantage to Auto-button is that it can cause you to accidentally press a key if you accidentally move the mouse. For example, if you have assigned the ENTER key to the left button and you accidentally move the mouse as you press this button, UMA could produce two or three presses of the ENTER key if you move the mouse before you can release the button. Because of this, you should press N for the Auto-button question if you have no use for Auto-button in your program. After you respond to the Auto-button question, UMA will ask you for a cursor movement scaling factor. Press a number from 0 to 9. (Pressing ENTER is not necessary.) This determines how far you must move your mouse to cause UMA to generate a cursor key. The higher the scaling factor, the farther you must more the mouse. You need to select a low enough number that you do not need to move the mouse all over your desk to generate a cursor key, but high enough that the screen cursor does not shoot across the screen whenever you touch your mouse. I usually find 3 or 4 to be about right for most programs. After you answer this last question, UMA will return to DOS. You may now load and run your other program. Your program will run normally. It will still respond to the keyboard as it usually does. However, it will also respond to mouse movement in the same way it responds to the cursor keys and the mouse buttons in the same way it responds to the keys you assigned to those buttons. Changing or removing UMA If you have used UMA with one program and you want to change the parameters (such as the button assignments) so you can use it with another program, just reinstall UMA. The old version is still in memory, but the computer will use the new version with its new parameters. It is not usually necessary to remove the old version. It only takes up 704 bytes of your computer's memory. If you want to deactivate UMA entirely, go to DOS by ending any program you are running. Then hold down the Ctrl key while you press both mouse buttons. This will deactivate UMA. The UMA program is still in memory, but the mouse ignores it. You can reactive UMA by reinstalling it. If you do decide to remove UMA from memory, the easiest way is to reboot your computer. If you decide to remove UMA from memory completely using some memory management program, you must first deactivate it by holding down the Ctrl key while pressing both mouse buttons. Do not remove UMA until you have done this, or the computer could lock up when you use the mouse. Compatibility with your programs UMA is compatible with the vast majority of cursor controlled programs. There are, however, a few programs that bypass the computer's BIOS and access the keyboard directly. Such programs may not work with UMA. UMA will also not work with programs that are designed to use a mouse, since that program and UMA will be fighting over the mouse. UMA should be deactivated or removed before using such programs. You can use the keyboard while UMA is installed. However, UMA is briefly deactivated while you press a keyboard key to avoid keyboard conflict. Therefore, you cannot be using the keyboard and the mouse at the exact same moment with UMA. Paying for Universal Mouse Adapter Universal Mouse Adapter is a shareware program. If you like it, please pay for it by sending $5.00 to: Leithauser Research 4649 Van Kleeck Drive New Smyrna Beach FL 32169 In addition to a clear conscience, you will receive a disk containing other shareware and freeware programs by Leithauser Research. You are, of course, under no obligation to register these programs unless you also decide to keep using them. 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