Linux: Mouse Dwell, Hover Auto-Click
What is Mouse Dwell, Hover Auto-Click
When the mouse pointer stops moving, it does a click automatically. (after a delay)
Install mousetweaks
# install mouse hover click tool sudo apt-get install mousetweaks
It may already be installed if you are using Ubuntu or LXDE. 〔see Linux: How to Switch to LXDE, Xfce〕
Start hover-click Daemon
To turn it on, start the background process (aka daemon).
# turn on hover click. dwell-time is delay. threshold is pixels movement allowed setsid mousetweaks --dwell --dwell-time=1.0 --threshold=1 &
Note: the delay time is critical. If too short, you'll have problems.
Note: some graphical user interface Universal Access ♿ utility may turn this on, but their delay time is too short.
To stop hover-click, run this command:
# kill mouse hover-click daemon mousetweaks -s
Issues with Hover-Click
- Hover-click is great if you have hand pain from using mouse.
- Hover-click is also great if you just want convenience.
- However, it will take a week and patience to get used to it.
- With hover-click, you need to move the mouse only when you absolutely need to. Because everytime the mouse moves, it will activate a click.
- In the first few days, you'll learn this the hard-way, because you'll randomly hit links, buttons, windows.
- Then, you'll start to try to find a empty space to rest the mouse pointer.
- But, eventually, you'll learn that actually it's best to not move the mouse, when you don't need to.
But even if you adopted to hover-click, there are still some issues.
Hover-Click Problems
• difficult to use actual hover User Interface, such as tool-tips, or web menu that are activated by hover. Normally, you hover over items and read about it. But now, hover over, it's going to make a click within 1 second, because you just moved the mouse.
• difficult to select item in a web menu that requires scroll to see parts. Example:
• difficult to make copy/paste or selection or any dragging (such as select area in image editor). Because after you finish selection, it will activate a click.
Solution is to drag, and wait for the click to happen while still holding the mouse button. After the click happened, release button, but don't move the mouse.
For text selection, right-click immediately after selection, then move mouse pointer to the “copy” context menu. Even better is to roll the scroll wheel immediately after selection, as scroll also disables the click activation.
• autoscroll is difficult. (Autoscroll is a Microsoft Windows browser feature. Middle click to turn it on, then move mouse in any direction to scroll/pan. 〔see Firefox: Set Mouse Autoscroll, Linux〕)
Using Trackball
Hover-click and trackball are great combinations. Because, trackballs are less likely to move by accident.