Simulate clicking by hovering

You can make it so that buttons are clicked when you hover the mouse pointer over them (hover click). This is useful if you find it difficult to move the mouse and click the mouse button at the same time. When hover click is turned on you can move your mouse pointer over a button, let go of the mouse and then wait for a while before the button will be clicked for you.

  1. Click the icon at the far right of the top bar and select System Settings.

  2. Open Universal Access and select the Pointing and Clicking tab.

  3. Switch Hover Click on.

The Hover Click window will open, and will stay above all of your other windows. You can use this to choose what sort of click should happen when you hover over a button. For example, if you select Secondary Click, the mouse will right-click when you hover over a button for a few seconds.

When you hover your mouse pointer over a button and don't move it, it will gradually change color. When it has fully changed color, the button will be clicked.

Hover click will click anywhere that your mouse pointer is hovering over, not just on buttons.

Change how long to wait before the button is clicked

You can change how long the delay should be between hovering the mouse pointer over a button and that button being pressed. To do this, go to the Pointing and Clicking tab (see above) and change the Delay in the Hover Click section.

Change how much the mouse is allowed to move/wiggle when hovering

You don't need to hold the mouse perfectly still when hovering over a button to click it - the pointer is allowed to move a little bit and will still click after a while. If it moves too much, however, the click will not happen.

You can change how much the pointer is allowed to move but still be considered "still enough" to click the button. Go to the Pointing and Clicking tab (see above) and change the Motion threshold in the Hover Click section; a large motion threshold will allow the pointer to move quite a lot but will still register the click.