The KDE Control Center
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# 5.34. Mouse

This module allows you to configure your pointing device. Your pointing device may be a mouse, a trackball, a touchpad, or another piece of hardware that performs a similar function.

This module is divided into 2 tabs: General and Advanced

## 5.34.1. General

Button Mapping. If you are left-handed, you may prefer to swap the functions of the left and right buttons on your pointing device by choosing the 'left-handed' option. If your pointing device has more than two buttons, only those that function as the left and right buttons are affected. For example, if you have a three-button mouse, the middle button is unaffected.

Use double-click to activate or open. When this option is checked, icons will be activated/opened with a double click of the left button on your pointing device (e.g. mouse), while a single click will only select an icon or file. This is the behavior you may know from other desktops or operating systems. When this option is disabled, icons will be activated/opened using a single click. This default behavior is consistent with what you would expect when you click links in most web browsers.

Automatically Select Icons. If you check this option, pausing the mouse pointer over an icon on the screen will automatically select that icon. This may be useful when single clicks opens icons, and you only want to select the icon without opening it.

| You can still select an icon or file without opening it, even when Single Click Opens is checked. This is done by either holding down the Ctrl key and then clicking, or by dragging a box around the icon(s) or file(s) which you wish to select.

If you have activated this option, you can use the slider to select how long the mouse pointer must rest on an icon before it becomes selected.

Pointer shape changes when over an icon. When this option is checked, the shape of the mouse pointer changes whenever it is over an icon.

| This option should be checked in most situations. It gives more visual feedback and says, in essence, if you click here, something will happen.

Visual feedback on activation. When this option is checked, KDE gives you visual feedback whenever you click on something and activate it.

Large Cursor. This will give KDE a larger mouse cursor.

| The large cursor will not be seen until KDE is restarted.

## 5.34.2. Advanced

Pointer Acceleration. This option allows you to change the relationship between the distance that the mouse pointer moves on the screen and the relative movement of the physical device itself (which may be a mouse, trackball, or some other pointing device.)

A high value for the acceleration multiplier will lead to large movements of the mouse pointer on the screen, even when you only make a small movement with the physical device.

| A multiplier between 1x and 3x will works well for many systems. With a multiplier over 3x the mouse pointer may become difficult to control.

Pointer Threshold. The threshold is the smallest distance that the mouse pointer must move on the screen before acceleration has any effect. If the movement is within the threshold, the mouse pointer moves as if the acceleration were set to 1x.

Thus, when you make small movements with the physical device (e.g. mouse), you still have fine control of the mouse pointer on the screen, whereas larger movements of the physical device will move the mouse pointer rapidly to different areas on the screen.

You can set the threshold value by dragging the slider button or by clicking the up/down arrows on the spin-button to the left of the slider.

| In general, the higher you set the Pointer Acceleration value, the higher you'll want to set the Drag Threshold value. For example, A Drag Threshold of 4pixels may be appropriate for a Pointer Acceleration of 2x, but 10pixels might be better for 3x.

Double Click Interval. This is the maximum amount of time between clicks for KDE to register a double click. If you click twice, and the time between those two clicks is less than this number, KDE recognises that as a double click. If the time between these two clicks is greater than this number, KDE recognises those as two seperate single clicks.

Drag Start Time and Drag Start Distance. If you click with the mouse, and drag within the time specified in Drag Start Time and you move a distance equal to or greater than the number (of pixels) specified in Drag Start Distance, KDE will drag the text.

## 5.34.3. Section Author

Ellis Whitehead `<ewhitehe@uni-freiburg.de>`

Updated by: Mike McBride `<mpmcbride7@yahoo.com>`

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