Instad of right-click, "key-click"?

July 21, 2012 3:21 PM

Is there a Firefox extension that does this: I hover over a link with my mouse, but instead of right (or left) clicking, I push a key on my keyboard, which then opens the link.

Two factors necessitate this. One, I am and early riser and my wife is not. Two, our computer is close to the bedroom, and while I can type fairly quietly, the click click click of the mouse has woken her more than once.

posted by zardoz to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

You might want to try something like this (note: I have not tried this particular software, this was just from a google search). It should let you use a keyboard key as a mouse button in general, not specifically for firefox.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 3:29 PM on July 21, 2012

If you can't find a plugin that does exactly what you are looking for there are vim plugins that will allow for keyboarf navigation. I use chrome so I do not have a specific implementation to suggest.
posted by phil at 3:42 PM on July 21, 2012

Response by poster: Oh, should've mentioned I'm on an iMac, OSX Lion.
posted by zardoz at 3:44 PM on July 21, 2012

Best answer: Check the universal access or assistive technology settings of your OS. It looks like you can simply switch the keys on the number pad to correspond to mouse movements and clicks. This might work for your purposes.
posted by matlock expressway at 4:00 PM on July 21, 2012

Another option is to get a trackpad or magic mouse, and enable tap-to-click. This has the disadvantage of being not-free, but the advantage of getting an awesome trackpad or mouse.
posted by contrarian at 4:22 PM on July 21, 2012

It looks llike vimperator is a popular vim plugin for Firefox.
posted by phil at 4:40 PM on July 21, 2012

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. The vim stuff is a bit over my head, but the keypad-as-mouse setting in OSX is good enough I think. The number five will click a link open, though there doesn't seem to be an equivalent of "right click and open in new tab" for the keypad. I will dig more.
posted by zardoz at 10:12 PM on July 21, 2012

Try OPTION+5?
posted by carsonb at 12:52 AM on July 22, 2012

I sometimes navigate the web with my keyboard by using the search function: in FF if you hit ' that brings up a search box that searches links only. So if I want to go to zardoz's user page I'd hit ' then type "zardoz". The focus jumps to that link (in fact, I'd only have to type "z" before the focus changes appropriately in this case), and I hit enter to follow the link. This doesn't work well if a lot of links on the same page have the same name.
posted by col_pogo at 3:17 AM on July 22, 2012

Please see some options here-

http://superuser.com/questions/295644/assign-left-mouse-click-to-a-keyboard-key
posted by rryan at 8:22 AM on July 22, 2012