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The Mouse-in-a-Box Scroll is the latest version of Kensington's popular and cheap work-a-day mouse. This version is similar to its older sibling but has an added wheel button/scroll between the two standard mouse buttons. With the included Scroll Mouse software, you can assign standard Windows functions to the wheel. Actions available include close, double-click, maximize window, open Internet Explorer, etc. Besides using the wheel as a clickable third button, the main function of the wheel is document scrolling. You can set up the wheel to scroll horizontally and vertically and set the scrolling speed. An Auto Scroll function (for automatically scrolling docs) and a Zooming function (increasing/decreasing document magnification) are available in MS Office 97 (or greater) applications and IE 3.x (or greater).
Personally, I don't like the Scroll Mouse nearly as much as the Internet Mouse. The MouseWorks software for the Internet Mouse is much more feature-rich and the mouse itself is a much better design. The Internet Mouse has a super-smooth finish on the top and a rubberized material on the sides. It feels great in your hand. The Scroll Mouse looks and feels much more utilitarian. It has a slightly textured finish overall that's not nearly as nice. The scroll feature is useful, and if you need to scroll through lots of long documentation, it can be a time saver. The real issue is price. The Internet Mouse is twice as much as the Scroll Mouse. If you're going to spend only twenty-five bucks on a mouse, the extra button/scrolling features make the Mouse-in-a-Box Scroll a worthy choice. Otherwise, the Internet Mouse is still my favorite among our growing menagerie of pointing devices. - Gareth Branwyn [6/24/98] Other pointing devices reviewed on Street Tech: |
