In today's world, most of us are using a Microsoft Windows operating system. When compared to the other operating systems that are currently available, it seems like the best choice. Similarly, the usage of the mouse is more in Windows than in any other operating system.
If your mouse happens to stop working for a day or two, you would have a really tough time trying to get your work done on your computer. You would have to spend most of your time working with your keyboard, trying to recollect all the shortcut keys and the combination keys to use and all of this would have to be done from your memory. How about something a bit better? Instead, if we have the option of moving and clicking the pointer (cursor) by using the keyboard, wouldn't that be so much easier? Yes, I do believe so!
Windows does have a facility to use on a keyboard that allows you to move the pointer in the absence of a mouse. Interested? Well, then let's see how we can enable this feature and use it.
To enable this feature:
1.) Go to Control Panel.
2.) Select Accessibility option.
3.) From the dialogue box, click on the Mouse tab.
4.) Tick the checkbox of Use Mouse Key.
5.) Click OK to close the Accessibility Options window.
Note: You can also press Left Alt key + Left Shift Key + Num Lock together to open the MouseKeys dialogue box. Then press Enter to keep MouseKeys ON. Press Cancel to keep MouseKeys OFF.
We can also see a small mouse icon on the task bar (when the MouseKeys option is enabled).
Also, make sure your Num Lock key is ON. We can use the numeric pad (the number pad on the right hand side of your keyboard) as MouseKeys, but only if the Num Lock is ON.
So, now you may be wondering which keys you can use to actually move the mouse pointer, right?
Okay, well, we have enabled the MouseKeys feature and have also made sure that the Num Lock is ON. So, now on the numeric keypad, you are going to use the keys:
2, 4, 6 and 8 to move the cursor on the screen toward Down, Left, Right and Up.
To left click (single), press 5.
To right click (single), press – (minus).
To double click (left), press + (plus).
To increase the speed of the pointer movement, double click the mouse icon on the taskbar and select the Settings button from the dialogue box. Now you can increase the speed of the pointer by selecting the Pointer Speed option.
Also, Click to check the box that says, "Hold down Ctrl to speed up and Shift to slow down." Now, if you press the Ctrl key while holding the arrow key, the pointer speed will increase and if you hold the Shift key while holding the arrow key, the pointer speed will decrease.
Note: If you want to use the numbers from the numeric keypad while using the MouseKeys, select the OFF radio button from Use MouseKeys when Num Lock is the option. If you select ON again, the numeric keypad will be used as MouseKeys.
So, from now on, even if your mouse goes bad, you still have options to move the cursor!
~ M. Nagarajan
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