What is Double Click?

Double click is the action of the computer operating system, which is performed with the help of the computer mouse by the users. Bill Atkinson of Apple Computer (which is now Apple Inc., an American multinational company) developed Double Click for their project called Lisa.

A single click is used for selecting an icon or object; on the other hand, double click is used for the execution of the action. Double click is performed by placing the pointer of the Mouse at some text, object, or icon on which you want to perform some action and then pressing the Mouse's left button twice by keeping the Mouse stable at its position.

You can perform two actions using the same button on the Mouse. For what purpose and what functionality, the Double is going to be used depends on the scenario, it may be used for opening a file or a folder, or it may be used for selecting a text and performing some operations on it like highlighting, copying and pasting, etc.

For example, to open the internet browser, double-click on the icon of the browser it will get opened. Another example is opening some files, folders, or programs in Microsoft Windows and double-clicking the icon. You can also be used to show the context menu of the object in some cases.

Note: When you are working with the text, the word will be selected by double-clicking, but the whole sentence gets selected by triple-clicking.

Double-click on icons.

The default action on the object represented by the icon is performed if you double-click the icon in the file manager. Double-clicking the program application will execute the program, and the file icon will open the application in its file type or format by default.

Double-Click on the text.

In most of the programs, by double-clicking on the text, it selects the complete word in addition to possibly additional characters that are specified in word limits. (As it does with all chosen text in Windows, it will copy that passage of text into a buffer apart from the system clipboard. Until a clear-cut or copy action is performed, the selected text is not copied to the clipboard. Holding down the middle mouse button allows one to retrieve the data from this buffer, which is not the system clipboard.)

How to double-click with a keyboard

To double-click with the help of the Keyboard, first select the text or object you wish to double-click, then press the "Enter" key from the Keyboard.

Difficulties in Double-clicking

Due to the specialized fine motor abilities required, double-clicking is frequently challenging for older people or new mouse users. They may have problems double-clicking or clicking quickly enough.

These are some listed solutions for the problems for double-clicking:

• To choose, click once, then press the Keyboard's Enter key (on Windows systems).
• Instead of a mouse, use the Keyboard for navigation.
• Modifying the system such that single clicks are used for double-clicking activities.
• There should be gap for some time between each click used for double-clicking. You can set the system setting in this way.
• You can remap the double-click feature with a single click on a different button; the middle button of the Mouse is not very used, so remap this button for double-clicking.
• It provides a select/action/context 3-button system in the Unix way. Brace the Mouse by placing your thumb on its side and the bottom of your hand on its bottom to stop it from moving as you double-click.

Setting the Speed and timing

• It is not specified how long it takes between two clicks to be recognized; it's a double-click.
• Five hundred milliseconds (500 ms), per the MSDN page of Microsoft (half a second), is the timing by default for double-clicking.
• Other timed actions are likewise based on the duration of the double-click. Typically, the user may set the timing for the delay in the double-click.

For instance, the following can be used to modify the double-click settings:

For Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 –

• Go to Start.
• Open Control Panel
• Go to Mouse Buttons

Or you can follow below steps:

• Go to Start.
• Then go to Control Panel
• Select Printers & Other HardwareGo to Mouse.
• And finally, Buttons if Control Panel is in Category view.
• If you'd like, you may use Start > Run > main.cpl. 

For Mac OS X

• Go to Applications (or Apple menu)
• Select System Preferences
• Select Keyboard & Mouse
• Then click on Mouse.

Patent

Microsoft was given a patent in 2004 for the double-click operation technique for "low-resource computing devices." It has led some industry watchers to worry that any American firm that employs double-clicking may be required to alter its product so that it does not use the technology, pay licensing fees to Microsoft, or grant Microsoft access to intellectual property.