Do you suffer from RSI (repetitive strain injury) from doing too much mousework? I hope not!
Jennifer Yankopolus, in her macros training course is very strong on the idea that macros can help to avoid RSI. Thankfully, it’s not something I had suffered from – but note the tense there!
Three months ago, Sue and I were on one of our many trips down to central London from Norwich, two hours each way on the train. To help pass the time, we had the idea of playing Scrabble on my laptop. At home, we often play together, against the computer which is great fun – and it’s good for marital harmony!
We only did so on one journey, but I have had RSI pain in my elbow ever since – over two months now. Why?
To play Scrabble, you have to use the mouse to shuffle the tiles around and then drag them onto the board. However, on the board, if you don’t place them accurately, they jump back to the letter rack and you have to try again. As the train does bounce around a fair bit, I was constantly gripping the mouse hard and, as I say, I’ve had RSI pain ever since, though thankfully it’s abating slowly.
Jennifer is right that macros can help you avoid RSI, and so in this video, I’ve explained how and why you can reduce the problem.
