As Christian school educators, we continually teach our students to "do the right thing." When it comes to using our computer mouse buttons, left seems right. For many Switched-On® commands, using the left mouse button is the way to go, but there may be reasons that the "right" thing is a right click.

Software developers at AOP often do the right thing and have built-in some handy and efficient shortcuts available with a simple right click.

By using the right mouse button within Switched-On Schoolhouse®, you'll find alternative ways to access application features and display options you may not know about.

The following is a list of right-clicking options that provide alternatives and some simple surprises that may help you increase efficiencies.

•Right click a subject for an easy way to choose the Assign command.

•Within the Assignments tab, right click on a student's Course Name to find the following shortcuts:

-- Edit the subject.

-- Block or Unblock quizzes and tests individually or for the entire course.

•When you right click on the Title of a unit, you'll find the same Edit, Block, and Unblock features for an individual unit.

•Want to reassign an entire unit? Right click on Clear Unit to clear and reassign every assignment in that particular unit at one time. This function is similar to the Clear and Reassign button at the bottom of the window, but it's much easier to reassign an entire unit for a student to rework. (Click on thumb images below to make them appear larger.)

•Right clicking on an assignment Title provides an alternative way to access the same options as the buttons on the bottom right of the screen.

•Within the Lesson Plan tab, right clicking either on a day in the month view on the left, or in the bigger day by day view, brings up Open Detail, an option of which many teachers may be unaware.

•There are many different things you can do directly to a student's specific day's assignments. Before you start using these newly found commands, you may want to refer to the Help file within SOS. The Add and Remove buttons found here do not require you to regenerate the lesson plan as they do when you add or remove under the Edit Subject page.

•Right clicking a message within the Messages window allows the user to more quickly access the same options as the buttons along the bottom. Mark as Unread is a great way to make sure you do not forget to attend to any messages you have received. As you probably are aware, when you click on a specific message, the font changes from bold to normal, signifying you have already read that message. If you would like it to be bold again to remind you next time you come to this window, right click and choose Mark as Unread. The font will again be bold, signifying you still need to attend to this message in the future.

•For the student, right clicking text that he has highlighted brings up the text to speech feature. This allows a student to not only read the text, but actually have it digitally read to them through their speakers or headphones. This feature is great for auditory learners, or for students whose reading level is not what is should be.

•For Switched-On Online® users, right-clicking on Unit Assignment allows a very common web browser function to help you with everyday checking of student's assignments. By choosing the option of Open in a New Tab or Window, you can keep the Student Progress page viewable, while at the same time viewing the student's lesson in another window or tab. Teachers have found this to be a very efficient way of working through these items.

•Lastly, check messages without interrupting lessons, grading, or other activities with the floating message box. To access this option, right click on the big red Message Center number.  This menu is available to both students and teachers. 

These user-friendly options make Switched-On more efficient than ever and give teachers and students a great reason to "do the right thing."