First, just Press q.

What happens? You drink a potion?

If nothing happens put a potion in the top one. To do this open inventory and press q once. Drag the potion to the top spot. Close inventory.

Now when you press q, you should drink the potion in the top spot.

If you fill up the wheel, what ever item was highlighted last will be used when you press q (as long as inventory is closed).

To highlight something new that was placed on the wheel, without opening inventory: press and hold q. Move your mouse left and right WITHOUT CLICKING and let go of Q when the correct thing is highlighted

Gythral wrote: »

q
quick uses

long q, then left mouse selects
another quick q uses it

On my god I never realised this and im cp 270 wondered why clicking on it didn't work
however most say this is a bit of an awkward way to use it
but thanks for enlightening me

I dislike the annoying wheel. Some add ons have a better way of selecting potions. I like Bandits UI -- you can have it display 1-8 slots next to your skill bar, and then select them with a hotkey. I set my keybinds on the number keypad (1-8), and then load up the wheel with health, stamina, magicka, tripots, specialty pots, invisible pots, siege, banker, merchant, etc. It's easy to see what's selected, and just press Q (or hotkey of choice) to drink.