The Problem: I am a keyboard person. I love to use the keyboard to navigate through webpage and scroll up/down the content. It becomes a hassle when I have to shift my hand to the mouse every time I want to click a link or select an item.

The Solution: Need to bind a keyboard shortcut for the left mouse click, and probably move the cursor around.

Apparently, this is very easy in Ubuntu (probably in other Gnome based distro too). Many tutorials will tell you to install xbindkeys and go through complex steps to map the shortcut key.

Here is one quick and dirty way:



1. Go to System Settings. Click on the Universal Access button.

2. Go to the Pointing and Clicking tab.

3. Under the “Mouse Keys” section, turn the “Control the pointer using the keypad” to ON.

That’s it. You can now move your mouse cursor around with the keypad and press ‘5’ to activate the left mouse click. For right mouse click, you can use “Shift + F10”.

Note: This is just a quick and dirty trick. Once the option is turned ON, you won’t be able to enter number via the keypad anymore, even when the NumLock button is ON. The good thing is, it can be turned ON/OFF easily.

Image credit: Big Stock Photo