How to Control the Mouse Pointer With Your Keyboard on Mac

Mouse Keys turns a cluster of keyboard keys into a full pointer controller: move in eight directions, click, even hold the button down to drag — no trackpad or mouse involved. It's built for motor accessibility, brilliant for pixel-precise nudging, and the tool you'll be glad you know the day your trackpad dies with work due.

Turn on Mouse Keys

1. Open System Settings → Accessibility.
2. Select Pointer Control under the Motor section.
3. Under Alternative Control Methods, turn on Mouse Keys.

Same path on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia. Turn the same switch off to undo. Before you leave the pane, open the Mouse Keys options and enable Press the Option key five times to toggle Mouse Keys — you'll see why in a moment.

Nothing about the trackpad or mouse changes while Mouse Keys is on; they keep working alongside it. The feature adds a keyboard route to the pointer, it doesn't replace anything — which is what makes it safe to leave configured for emergencies.

The keys

On a keyboard without a numeric keypad (every MacBook), the controls sit under your right hand:

• 8 up, K down, U left, O right
• 7, 9, J, L — the four diagonals
• I — click (press it twice for a double-click)
• M — press and hold the button (start a drag), . (period) — release it

With a numeric keypad, the same logic maps to the pad: 8/2/4/6 for up/down/left/right, 7/9/1/3 for diagonals, 5 to click, 0 to hold, . to release.

To drag a file keyboard-only: steer onto it, press M to grab, steer to the destination, press . to drop. Double-click by pressing I twice, and modifier clicks work too — hold Control and press I for a right-click.

What Mouse Keys doesn't do: scroll. There's no scroll key, so pair it with keyboard scrolling — arrow keys, Page Up/Down, and the space bar cover most apps — or steer onto a scroll bar and drag it with M and the movement keys.

The catch: those keys stop typing

While Mouse Keys is on, U, I, O, J, K, L, M, 8, and the rest are pointer controls — press U in a document and the cursor slides left instead of typing a letter. That's why the Option-five-times toggle matters: tap Option five times to switch Mouse Keys off, type normally, tap five more times to get the pointer back. Treat Mouse Keys as a mode you enter and leave, not something to run permanently — unless you're on a full-size keyboard using only the numeric pad, which leaves the letter keys alone.

Tune the speed

Out of the box the pointer creeps — deliberate, but far too slow to be useful on a big display. In the Mouse Keys options you get two sliders:

• Initial delay — how long a key must be held before the pointer starts moving. Shorten it for responsiveness.
• Maximum speed — the top speed the pointer ramps to while a key is held. Raise it to cross a large display in reasonable time.

The sweet spot for most people: short delay, fairly high maximum. Tapping a key still nudges the pointer a single precise step — which is why designers keep Mouse Keys around even with a working trackpad: hold to travel, tap to land on the exact pixel. There's also an Ignore built-in trackpad when Mouse Keys is on option, useful if resting palms disturb the pointer while you steer by keyboard.

Set it up once, while nothing is broken. Future-you, staring at a dead trackpad an hour before a deadline, taps Option five times and keeps working.