Linux Mint: How to Configure Left Mouse Button to Perform Right Click
Users with disabilities can find it really difficult to operate a computer with traditional peripherals such as a mouse and keyboard. To support these users, most operating systems include accessibility options that provide alternative options for traditional controls. These options, as well as specialized hardware, are designed to make computers more accessible to disabled users.
There are a number of accessibility options in Linux Mint that include keyboard, mouse, and screen appearance. One mouse accessibility option allows you to configure a right-click action that registers when a left-click is pressed. This also works for any facilitation hardware, meaning you don’t have to buy as much specialized facilitation hardware.
To configure mouse accessibility options, press the Super key, type “Accessibility” and press Enter.
Tip: The “Super” key is the name many Linux distributions use to refer to the Windows key or the Apple “Command” key, avoiding any risk of trademark issues.
Press the Super key, type “Accessibility” and press Enter.
In accessibility options, switch to the “Mouse” tab. To configure the mouse to perform a right click while holding down the left button, click the middle slider labeled “Initiate secondary click by holding down the primary button” to the “On” position.
Click the “Start secondary click by holding primary button” slider to “On”.
The “Control pointer with keyboard” slider is designed to let you use the keyboard to control where the mouse points. As part of this, you can also configure a delay, which allows you to continue using the keys used to control the mouse, as well as the acceleration and speed of the cursor movement.
The “Start click when pointer moves” slider allows you to configure the mouse action to be performed when the cursor remains stationary. You can configure the delay and motion threshold according to your personal preferences. When you enable this setting, a small pop-up window appears that allows you to configure the type of click you want to use. While you can choose to left-click, double-left-click, click-and-drag, or right-click, the setting reverts back to left-click as soon as a click action occurs. You will need to leave the popup open to continue to have control over the type of click that is used when the mouse cursor is held still.
You can also choose to control the mouse cursor with the keyboard or automatically click the mouse when the cursor is stationary.