JKLmouse

Home Row Mouse Control in Every Windows App

Why a keyboard mouse?

Do you ever want to move something on the screen by exactly one pixel? Or two? Or three? Or line up a window or object precisely where you want it? That's hard to do with any pointing device, but it's easy with a keyboard mouse.

If you have a desktop computer running Windows, you can enable MouseKeys and turn your numeric keypad into a keyboard mouse. Then just press a key on the numeric pad to move the mouse cursor pixel by pixel in any direction.

Why JKLmouse?

Alas, MouseKeys works poorly on notebook computers. Without a dedicated numeric pad, MouseKeys has to use the numeric pad that is overlaid on the QWERTY keyboard in some notebook computers. So, you have to switch MouseKeys on and off, or at least toggle Num Lock, every time you want to use the keyboard mouse.

JKLmouse is designed for notebook computer keyboards, and it's modeless. There's no special "JKLmouse mode" to switch on and off. JKLmouse doesn't interfere with normal keyboard operation—it's ready to use all the time.

Best of all, it's easy to seamlessly combine normal TrackPoint or touchpad use with JKLmouse: start with the pointing device for large movements and then use JKLmouse to nail down the exact pixel location.

How it works

After you install JKLmouse, simply press the mouse button as you normally would to start dragging something. You can still use the TrackPoint or touchpad, and you can also use any of these keys:

• The arrow keys
• The numeric keypad (if you have one)
• The home row keys for left and right hand: SDF and JKL, and the keys above and below them:

To move:

Left hand W E R S D F X C V

Right hand U I O J K L M , .

Arrows

Numeric 7 8 9 4 5 6 1 2 3

Want to move the mouse without pressing a mouse button? Hold down the Caps Lock key and the JKLmouse keys all work as long as Caps Lock is down. (Don't worry, this won't turn on the Caps Lock mode.)

I wrote JKLmouse to use on my ThinkPads, where I can use both the TrackPoint and JKLmouse without moving my hands from the home row. It works fine with touchpads too. I don't recommend using it with a desktop keyboard and mouse, since you'd be likely to move the mouse while holding the button down - which would defeat the fine pixel control that JKLmouse provides.

System requirements

JKLmouse runs on 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP, or 2000. It is written in the AutoHotkey scripting language (runtime included).

Known Bugs

• JKLmouse does not work in a VMware virtual machine.

User comments

"This is just fantastic!"

"Just what the Doctor ordered!!! Works great!"

"A winner for me too!!"

Source code

Source code for JKLmouse on GitHub.

Problems?

Report an issue on GitHub.

Thanks!

Thank you for trying JKLmouse!