How can the mouse pointer be moved using the keyboard?

Is there a way I can move the mouse pointer using the keyboard?

Don Ch

Posted 2010-01-09T18:03:19.360

Reputation: 4 869

1uh, do you mean the mouse pointer? – Babu – 2010-01-09T18:45:52.690

1yes, mouse pointer. sorry didn't say it before – Don Ch – 2010-01-09T19:53:19.107

Answers

In System Preferences, choose Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad (or search for “mouse keys”). Enabling Mouse Keys (which can usually be done by tapping Option five times) allows the numeric keypad to function as an 8-direction “joystick” (7 = left+up, 8 = up, 9 = right+up, etc.). Use the keypad's 5 to click the mouse (press it twice, quickly to double click; hold Control while pressing to right-click).

Chris Johnsen

Posted 2010-01-09T18:03:19.360

Reputation: 31 786

Does this work in Mavericks? – vaichidrewar – 2014-05-15T18:33:24.463

3@vaichidrewar: Yes (just verified on a MacBook Air running 10.9.3). Also, if your keyboard does not have a keypad (e.g. a laptop), then the effective keys (on a QWERTY layout keyboard) are 7, 8, 9, u, i, p, j, k, l (as if the 3×3 numeric keypad had been transplanted to the center-right part of the keyboard)—other keys are not functional while Mouse Keys is active, so you will need to toggle it back off to do normal typing. – Chris Johnsen – 2014-05-16T06:28:13.727

@ChrisJohnsen Thanks! I thought after search I will see 'mouse keys' in the results. But the most relevant item after search is 'make mouse and trackpad easier to use' and initially i could not relate it to 'mouse keys' setting. – vaichidrewar – 2014-05-17T00:30:24.223

Yes. Let's assume you're in a document editor and you have a bunch of text you'd like to navigate. You can use the arrow keys ← ↑ → ↓ to move one character in either direction horizontally, or one line in either direction vertically.

To move to the beginning or end of a line, type ⌘← or ⌘→, respectively. ⌘↑ and ⌘↓ move to the beginning and end of the document. In areas where these shortcuts don't work, such as in the Terminal, use ⌃A and ⌃E instead (which can be used in most Cocoa text controls).

You can move one word left or right by using ⌥← or ⌥→, respectively. Likewise, ⌥↑ and ⌥↓ move to the beginning and end of a paragraph.

As Chris Johnsen points out in the comments, you can also use "other Emacs-like bindings (⌃F: →, ⌃B: ←, ⌃N: ↓, ⌃P: ↑, ⌃T: transpose (swap) characters)". Chris also mentions some interesting subtleties with soft-wrapped text, where "⌃A and ⌃E work on the whole line while ⌘← and ⌘→ work on the current portion of the display-wrapped line". Thanks For that.

Not sure if this is what your vague question was referring to, but you can definitely move the cursor using the keyboard almost anywhere in Mac OS X.

fideli

Posted 2010-01-09T18:03:19.360

Reputation: 13 618

Best incorrect answer I've seen in a long time. Have an ▲. – Dave Land – 2017-07-13T21:43:44.587

Despite it not being what the Questioner was after it is very likely to be very useful for people searching on this topic. Few people seem to be aware of both the "emacs-like" binds and the historical mac bindings. It's not quite vi but it's under-appreciated. – Lake – 2012-08-17T19:42:31.413

2+1 for the correct ⌃ rather than the easy-but-incorrect ^ :-) – Arjan – 2010-01-09T19:05:45.957

1Note that ⌃A and ⌃E can be used in most Cocoa text controls along with many other Emacs-like bindings (⌃F: →, ⌃B: ←, ⌃N: ↓, ⌃P: ↑, ⌃T: transpose (swap) characters). Also, for long lines that are “soft wrapped”, ⌃A and ⌃E work on the whole line while ⌘← and ⌘→ work on the current portion of the display-wrapped line. – Chris Johnsen – 2010-01-09T19:10:40.130

1Haha, well I guess this wasn't what the OP was looking for (which makes sense now, in retrospect). Hopefully someone can make use of this info. – fideli – 2010-01-10T01:29:35.303

Left shift + left alt + num lock enables the number pad for directional cursor function. Use 8,9,6,3,2,1,4,7 to guide your cursor. To click an option with your cursor tap 5 and to double click tap 5 twice.

Dave

Posted 2010-01-09T18:03:19.360

Reputation: 31