Features Mouse Keys

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Mousekeys

Mousekeys is a feature that allows you to emulate a mouse using your keyboard. You can move the pointer around, click up to 5 buttons, and even scroll in all 4 directions. QMK uses the same algorithm as the X Window System MouseKeysAccel feature. You can read more about it on Wikipedia.

Adding Mousekeys to a Keymap

There are two steps to adding Mousekeys support to your keyboard. You must enable support in the rules.mk file and you must map mouse actions to keys on your keyboard.

Adding Mousekeys Support in the rules.mk

To add support for Mousekeys you simply need to add a single line to your keymap's rules.mk:

MOUSEKEY_ENABLE = yes

You can see an example here: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/keyboards/clueboard/66/keymaps/mouse_keys/rules.mk

Mapping Mouse Actions to Keyboard Keys

You can use these keycodes within your keymap to map button presses to mouse actions:

Key Aliases Description
KC_MS_UP KC_MS_U Mouse Cursor Up
KC_MS_DOWN KC_MS_D Mouse Cursor Down
KC_MS_LEFT KC_MS_L Mouse Cursor Left
KC_MS_RIGHT KC_MS_R Mouse Cursor Right
KC_MS_BTN1 KC_BTN1 Mouse Button 1
KC_MS_BTN2 KC_BTN2 Mouse Button 2
KC_MS_BTN3 KC_BTN3 Mouse Button 3
KC_MS_BTN4 KC_BTN4 Mouse Button 4
KC_MS_BTN5 KC_BTN5 Mouse Button 5
KC_MS_WH_UP KC_WH_U Mouse Wheel Up
KC_MS_WH_DOWN KC_WH_D Mouse Wheel Down
KC_MS_WH_LEFT KC_WH_L Mouse Wheel Left
KC_MS_WH_RIGHT KC_WH_R Mouse Wheel Right
KC_MS_ACCEL0 KC_ACL0 Set mouse acceleration to 0
KC_MS_ACCEL1 KC_ACL1 Set mouse acceleration to 1
KC_MS_ACCEL2 KC_ACL2 Set mouse acceleration to 2

You can see an example in the _ML here: https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/keyboards/clueboard/66/keymaps/mouse_keys/keymap.c#L46

Configuring the Behavior of Mousekeys

The default speed for controlling the mouse with the keyboard is intentionally slow. You can adjust these parameters by adding these settings to your keymap's config.h file. All times are specified in milliseconds (ms).

#define MOUSEKEY_DELAY             300
#define MOUSEKEY_INTERVAL          50
#define MOUSEKEY_MAX_SPEED         10
#define MOUSEKEY_TIME_TO_MAX       20
#define MOUSEKEY_WHEEL_MAX_SPEED   8
#define MOUSEKEY_WHEEL_TIME_TO_MAX 40

MOUSEKEY_DELAY

When one of the mouse movement buttons is pressed this setting is used to define the delay between that button press and the mouse cursor moving. Some people find that small movements are impossible if this setting is too low, while settings that are too high feel sluggish.

MOUSEKEY_INTERVAL

When a movement key is held down this specifies how long to wait between each movement report. Lower settings will translate into an effectively higher mouse speed.

MOUSEKEY_MAX_SPEED

As a movement key is held down the speed of the mouse cursor will increase until it reaches MOUSEKEY_MAX_SPEED.

MOUSEKEY_TIME_TO_MAX

How long you want to hold down a movement key for until MOUSEKEY_MAX_SPEED is reached. This controls how quickly your cursor will accelerate.

MOUSEKEY_WHEEL_MAX_SPEED

The top speed for scrolling movements.

MOUSEKEY_WHEEL_TIME_TO_MAX

How long you want to hold down a scroll key for until MOUSEKEY_WHEEL_MAX_SPEED is reached. This controls how quickly your scrolling will accelerate.