Re: How do you find which mouse movements equate to keystrokes

I'll assume you are asking about Microsoft Windows. On Apple computers, things work a bit differently, and it's more difficult to get around without a mouse.

Most applications will let you do everything through keyboard shortcuts. To use these shortcuts effectively, you need to be aware of the "focus", which is the item on the screen that is active. A button with the focus will have a dotted border inside its edges. A checkbox with the focus will have a dotted border around the words beside it. A textbox with the focus will have its contents highlighted. When you use the mouse to click on something, the clicked item receives the focus. You can use keyboard shortcuts to change the focus, and the keyboard can control any item that has the focus.

The keyboard shortcuts I use most frequently are:

ALT - to move the focus to/from the menus
TAB - to move the focus to the next control on the current window
SHIFT+TAB - to move the focus to the previous control on the current window
SPACE - to push a button or mark a checkbox that has the focus
ENTER - to push the default button for a window (usually OK)
ESC - to exit a window (usually the same as clicking Cancel)
ALT+TAB - to make a different application active

Here is a detailed list of shortcuts.

Some applications have features which require a mouse. For example, drawing programs don't often allow you to use the keyboard to draw objects. For these type of programs, Windows has an option lets the keyboard masquerade as a mouse. See this page or search Windows help for "MouseKeys" for information on enabling and using this feature.