I just discovered a Windows XP accessibility feature that I’m going to use from now on. It’s called MouseKeys, and it allows you to use your numeric keypad on your keyboard to move the mouse pointer. Why do this, you may ask? Well, designing web graphics, I frequently have to move the mouse pointer only one or two pixels, which can be a real pain when actually using the mouse. With MouseKeys, I just hold the left mouse button down and press the arrow once or twice. The best thing is that it can be easily turned on and off—it only works when Num Lock is on, otherwise the keypad behaves just like the normal arrows.

To turn this on, go to Control Panel and click Accessibility Options (which was the first options for me). Under the Mouse tab, there’s a checkbox to turn on MouseKeys. You might want to turn up the top speed and acceleration from their default settings.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 11:12 am and is filed under Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.