Control your PC without a mouse
What you need: Neatmouse; Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8/8.1 Time required: 10 minutes
Neatmouse is a brilliant free program that lets you remap your mouse controls to your keyboard. This is a godsend if you suffer from wrist strain after using your mouse for prolonged periods, or your mouse or laptop trackpad is fiddly, or when your Bluetooth mouse’s battery is low. Whatever the reason, Neatmouse lets you set specific keys to control your cursor’s movement and activate left- and right-click actions. You can also create separate profiles for different users.
STEP 1
To download Neatmouse, go to www.snipca.com/17312 and click the blue Download button on the right. Next, click the downloaded setup file, Yes, Next, I Agree, Next (three times), Install, Next and Finish. You’ll see a small window showing mouse functions and their default number keys 1 . The Activation dropdown menu 2 shows the key you need to press to activate Neatmouse. Press that key to see a small ‘Neatmouse is enabled’ notification in your Taskbar. Now instead of using your mouse, press the relevant number keys to move your cursor and carry out your left- and right-click actions.
STEP2
Neatmouse is highly customisable. For example, to activate the program with the Num Lock or Caps Lock key instead, click the Activation dropdown menu and select one of those 1 . To launch the program at startup, tick ‘Minimize’ 2 beside ‘On startup’. If you want to change a particular mouse-function key, click the ‘x’ icon beside its default key 3 , then click inside the box and press the key you want to use 4 .
STEP 3
Click the ‘More settings’ icon 1 to see more key options for moving your cursor diagonally (using the ‘Left up’, ‘Left down’, ‘Right up’ and ‘Right down’ options). After configuring your keys to perform the mouse functions you want, click the ‘Save settings’ icon 2 . Creating a custom setting is useful if you share your PC and want your own configuration. To do that, click the ‘Add new custom settings’ icon 3 , name the setting, click OK, then follow steps 2 and 3 to configure the keys for this new setting. Click the Settings dropdown menu 4 to alternate between different custom settings.