3M Ergonomic EM500GPS Mouse (EM500GPS-AM)

I bought this because I was feeling pain from my middle finger to my forearm after using my mouse for extended periods. I would not have paid the £60 RRP but won an auction at a bargain price. It was worth the £16 inc. P&P.

It replaces hand movement with whole arm movement across the desk, which takes some getting used to, and so it will not suit everybody. But anyone who suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome might appreciate the joystick-like wrist position, resting on the desk.

Getting used to the thumb-controlled rocker switch on the top for left and right clicking is not too hard, but to scroll down (which I used to do with the wheel of my mouse) you click the long switch with your middle and third fingers and drag the mouse towards you until you run out of mouse mat.

Unfortunately, in normal use, when I ran out of mouse mat and had to pick it up and move it, it was difficult to avoid pressing the long switch (third button) and scrolling pages unintentionally.

You can use it without a mat, but the base has five smooth plastic pads which make an irritating scratching noise on my desk. The rocker switch also has a loud, deep click, which is more annoying than the more normal-sounding and quieter click of the third button. The grip is made of two parts and creaked every time I squeezed it, like a poor-quality joystick.

3M make two sizes, GPS (small) for hands up to 3.5" and GPL (large), measured across the base of the fingers. My hand is borderline and I wish I had got the Large rather than the Small. For further information, see
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/ergonomics/home/products/ergonomicmouse/sizing/

I have not managed to get used to it for fine detail work such as photo editing, for which I still use a conventional mouse, but I use it for spreadsheets, especially for extended use. Ed