Get Ahold of Break and Place in Minecraft Education Edition

by grandmadeb · Published June 24, 2020 · Updated June 25, 2020

If you are new to Minecraft:Education, you may have just started learning to move around in the Minecraft world and to set blocks and break blocks. One great way to learn and practice this is to play in the https://aka.ms/MinecraftBreakAndPlaceTutorial

I don’t know about you, but I found that even after a while, I still was really, really bad at break and place. First of all, I was so used to my left click button being the go-to click, that I was busting up my Minecraft world all over the place! I would work so hard to build, and then whammo! I would ruin it!

Alice Keeler has a nice way of remembering the buttons. Her way to keep right click and left click straight is: “Left Click Destroy, Right Click Build” It is a good way to remember! https://alicekeeler.com/2020/05/30/left-click-destroy-right-click-build/

Still, I make mistakes. Ben Kelly http://bbtnb.com suggested that I change my settings. He suggested that I stop using my right-click on my mouse, and instead use the X key on my keyboard. I tried it, and it made things much easier, so I took it even further. Here’s what I did to change my keyboard settings.

Open Minecraft, 
choose settings, and select 
Keyboard & Mouse.
On the right you see the 
Keyboard Layout section.
You will be making changes here,
 where it says Button1, 3 and 2.

This can take a few tries to get right, and if you mess this up, it can be pretty confusing, but never fear! All you have to do is come back, scroll down to the bottom, and reset to defaults. (just click on the "Default Settings" button.) Then you can start over again like nothing ever happened. Really. I did it twice.

Your mouse has a left click (the one you usually use) a right-click. Most mice now have a center wheel in between, You may be using a track pad. When I can’t use them well, I can’t enjoy Minecraft very much! However, I am enjoying playing so much more using keyboard controls. I changed “place” or “build” or “use” – the right-click button – to be the X key. (That was Ben Kelly’s idea.) No more sticking blocks inadvertently in the wrong spot.

I also still was busting things up accidentally, though! After working hard to build, or when exploring something I didn’t want to break, it was still no fun to drop a hole in a ceiling or a wall, especially in a new location. Here’s the secret! You don’t have to hunt down the block in your inventory to replace what you busted. You can pull the item directly into your hotbar out of inventory with Pick Block. It is like a dropper tool. I love being able to do that! ( I usually play with a trackpad, not a mouse, so I had never used the center mouse wheel and discovered it before.) So I also changed the letter P on my keyboard to be the pick block tool.