A Mac, even without a mouse or trackpad, can still let you move the cursor or right-click. To do this, you need to enable the Mouse Keys feature in the macOS accessibility options.
If you’ve had a Mac for a while, you most likely already know how to perform a right-click with a mouse or trackpad using the Ctrl+click or literal right-click solution, but if you don’t have a mouse or trackpad at hand? Or if the mouse/trackpad batteries are dead? Or just don’t want to use either? Thanks to the Mouse Keys feature in macOS, you can move your mouse cursor and even right-click with just your keyboard.
This feature can come in handy in many cases, whether it’s for accessibility or when you have a Mac without a mouse or trackpad, or if the mouse or trackpad doesn’t work. This guide will show you how to right-click using just your Mac keyboard.
How to Right Click on a Mac Without a Mouse or Trackpad Using “Mouse Keys”
If your Mac doesn’t have a mouse or trackpad, or if you don’t use a mouse/trackpad to move the cursor, you can still right-click using Mouse Keys. Here’s how to enable this feature:
- Go to the apple menu in the top left corner and choose System Preferences or System Preferences.
- Go to “Accessibility”.
- Select Manage Pointer.
- Click More Controls.
- Check the “Mouse Keys”box.
- With mouse keys enabled, hold down the Ctrl key and press “i”to right-click using only the keyboard in macOS.
Use Ctrl+i again to right-click using the keyboard with mouse keys in macOS.
Ctrl is the important key to allow right-clicking, and “i”is the key to click with the “mouse key”, which explains that Ctrl + i only allows right-clicking on the keyboard.
“Mouse Key”is an accessibility feature that allows you to control the mouse cursor using the keyboard alone, and while the mouse is actually very handy for solving accessibility problems, it can help you debug or get you out of trouble. no mouse or trackpad, just a keyboard. This way, you’ll still be able to move the cursor and right-click like you normally would on a decent device.