Remember the saying about how we treat our feet? As important as they are, we take them for granted unless they give us trouble. If you think about it, our mouse is the same way. It's one of the most useful, almost indispensible and normally most reliable PC tools we have, but all we expect of it is that it be there when we need it, then stay out of our way.

Try ToggleMouse and you'll gain a whole new perspective, as well as a handy little mouseware utility that will save you time and effort, not to mention (and the develpers don't) tired eyes and perhaps even tunnel-wrist syndrome. It offers an assortment of choices among cursor sizes, shapes, and colors (standard ones included), and several other high-visibility options like blinking, animated "trails", etc. You'll find it one of the most hard-working, productive and "intelligent" little creatures you could hope to have working for you.

If you have young children whose eye-hand coordination is not yet be fully developed, you'll appreciate the PanicStopper feature, which helps young users control mouse movement. Double-click speed is adjustable, and if you assign it to the wheel, the speed issue becomes moot.

For me, high-visibility is one of Toggle's most useful features - and the major reason I tried him. Notice the "him"? It's almost impossible not to attribute living characteristics to my Toggle-enhanced mouse. And since I've always talked to animals, I find myself saying "Thank you, Toggle" when I press "next" and find him poised on the button I normally choose; or "Sorry, Toggle" when he eagerly positions himself on "print" or "OK" and I invariably want to make a change; and finally, "Bye, Toggle" as Windows starts shutting down and my over-sized cursor reverts to normal. Before you decide I'm nutty, just try him!

Another favorite: Presto Saver, which lets you launch your screen saver instantly by moving the cursor to a chosen corner of the screen. It's designed primarily as a privacy feature - someone approaches and "presto", all that appears on your screen is your screensaver. Privacy is seldom an issue for me, but when I'm on the telephone, or break for a cup of coffee, I'd rather look at a favorite screen saver than my desktop or whatever..

But back to the high-visibility features: Even those with the sharpest eyesight (and mine is not) can lose track of a small whie arrow on a cluttered screen, and it's frustrating to waste time locating it. I remember sitting next to my cousin, a former programmer who was teaching me to use the computer, and watching in absolute amazement when, every few minutes, she would abruptly stop what she was doing onscreen, vigorouly swing her mouse around on its pad for several seconds, then suddenly, nonchalantly return to what she'd been doing. I honestly thought she had developed a medical or mental problem that no one in the family had mentioned, and I didn't want to embarrass her by asking what in heck she was doing.

After the third or fourth time, however, curiosity overcame politeness. Turns out that her eyesight, as well as the rest of her faculties, was just fine. The mouse "polka" was just the fastest way she'd found to locate her cursor when she lost track of it. She was the first person I called to tell about Toggle, and couldn't help a dig about why she hadn't deloped a similiar utility!

You can activate an application simply by moving the cursor over its window, no click necessary. Watch this one until you get used to it, though. My first e-mail after installing Toggle vanished without a trace when I went up to press "Send". Not till I found the message sitting on my desktop patiently waiting to be sent did I realize that my first movement toward Send had popped the window behind up front, completely obscuring "send".

Toggle has numerous other talents - too many to mention here, but you can get an idea from the option category tabs. Following is a sampling of other things he can help you do:

Record a set of mouse actions and play them back later Assign functions to unused buttons and keys Hide the cursor while typing Single- click where you'd normally have to double Move the cursor without moving the mouse Scroll sideways as well as up and down Scroll without using the scroll bars, even if you don't have a wheel, and choose how quickly andmany lines at a time

Find out more about Toggle (and his several siblings) and download a trial version at Toggle.com. The full-featured version is $19.95, but if you like the software, sign up for the monthly Toggle Software Newsletter, which will keep you informed of regular special offers. I got Toggle on sale for $15.95.

System requirements: Windows 95 or later, including XP; 2 MB hard disk space (and a mouse)