How to Type With a Mouse

Being physically disabled, I am no longer able to type on a standard computer keyboard. But I can work with the mouse, so I now use it to control on-screen keyboards. An on-screen keyboard is essentially a virtual keyboard that appears on the computer screen; keystrokes are made by clicking keys with clicks from the mouse. The keystroke is output into another window, like a regular keyboard.Windows XP and several Windows operating systems before it have a built-in on-screen keyboard called "Microsoft On-Screen Keyboard," or "OSK" for short. This article concerns Windows XP with version 2.0 of the Microsoft On-Screen keyboard. Several on-screen keyboards are available online for free, but most are not a strong as Microsoft's built-in version. Not all keystrokes made on on-screen keyboards are recognized by programs like Java forms. Microsoft On-Screen will be recognized in most programs where other keyboards are not. The Microsoft On-Screen Keyboard has more functions than most keyboards: It has all of the usual alphabet keys, numbers and punctuation keys, but in enhanced-keyboard mode, it also has a number pad, function keys, tabs, caps lock, CTRL, Shift, ALT, Windows and arrows keys. For all intents and purposes, the Microsoft On-Screen Keyboard is exactly the same as a real external keyboard, only it is virtual in nature. In standard mode, many functions are removed and the keyboard becomes very compact, which is helpful when more workspace is needed.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Windows operating system

1. Open the On-screen Keyboard. Go to the "Start" menu and choose "Programs." On that menu, go to "Accessories," then "Accessibility," and choose "On-screen Keyboard.” Alternately, you can go to the "Start" menu, choose "Run", enter "osk" into the "Open" input box, and click "OK." "osk" stands for On-screen Keyboard.

2. Open the input program. This can be a text editor (like Microsoft Word), Wordpad, Notepad, a web-browser form, an email program like Eudora or Outlook, or any other program that has text-input fields. On-screen Keyboard will work in almost every program with text functions. Some software, such as games, opens in DOS, which does not recognize the keystrokes of the On-Screen Keyboard.

3. Click and move the On-Screen Keyboard into a position where it will not get in the way of the text-input field, while still allowing access to the keyboard. Just click and hold the On-Screen Keyboard and drag it where it needs to be. You might need to re-position it a few times as your typed words move down the screen and you scroll down to make room for more text.

4. Click inside the input field until you see the blinking prompt inside. Then use your mouse to move your cursor over each key on the On-Screen Keyboard and click on it. The characters should appear in your active input program's text field.

5. Change the settings on the On-screen Keyboard if necessary. The "Keyboard" menu allows you to change the number of keys displayed and the layout of the keyboard. The "Settings" menu allows you to keep the keyboard on top (it will be the top layer no matter what program windows are open), add click sounds as you type, change the typing mode (it can be set to recognize keystrokes by clicking or just hovering over each key) and change the attributes of the font used on the keyboard itself. The Help menu will have more information about all of the keyboard's features.