The short answer is yes, and by using:
synclient TapButton2=2
But this will only work until you reboot or shutdown, to make the changes persistent follow these few easy steps.
I found this Source to be very helpful.
Note: This has worked for all my Debian/Ubuntu based distributions.
These are the steps I took:
Setp 1: To determine your type of touchpad run the following command:
egrep -i 'synap|alps|etps' /proc/bus/input/devices
My output:
N: Name="SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
As you can see I have a 'Synaptics' type touchpad.
Step 2: To determine whether your touchpad will accept multitouch taps or not, run the following command:
grep "TouchPad: buttons:" /var/log/Xorg.0.log
My output:
[ 7.480] (--) synaptics: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: buttons: left right double triple
This shows that my touchpad will accept 'double' and 'triple' finger taps. If you only see 'left' and 'right' listed, then your touch-pad does not support multi-touch.
Step 3: Current settings and Testing your new set-up.
To see what settings you currently have run:
synclient -l
You'll then get a long list of all the current settings for 'synclient', the one's your interested in are:
TapButton1 = 1
TapButton2 = 3
TapButton3 = 0
- 'TapButton1' is a single/(one) finger tap
- 'TapButton2' is a double/(two) finger tap
- 'TapButton3' is a triple/(three) finger tap
The number after the '=' refer to the function executed by that type of tap.
- '= 0' - disabled
- '= 1' - 'left click' button function
- '= 2' - 'middle' mouse button function
- '= 3' - 'right click' button function
As you can see from the current settings the 'two-finger' tap is set to being*'right click'*. To change this to being the 'middle click' you'll need to change the 'TapButton2 = 3' to '= 2', do this using the following command:
synclient TapButton2=2
Now you should be able to use your touch-pad to do a two-finger tap to paste the most recent highlighted text under the mouse courser.
Step 4: Saving settings.
Your current changes will only work until your next shutdown or reboot. To save your settings you'll need to find where the settings are stored:
ls /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d
Output:
10-evdev.conf 11-evdev-quirks.conf 11-evdev-trackpoint.conf 50-synaptics.conf 50-synaptics.conf~ 50-vmmouse.conf 50-wacom.conf 51-synaptics-quirks.conf glamoregl.conf
Here the '50-synaptics.conf' file is the one we are interested in. Open as admin:
sudo scratch-text-editor /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf
or
sudo gedit /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf
Enter your password when prompted and add the following line just under the 'Section "InputClass" ' line and click save
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Next time you boot you should be able to use 'double tap' as 'middle-click'.
Best Answer
This solved the problem for me with my ElanTech Touchpad on my Asus G55vw laptop:
Mouse to right hand corner > Settings > Change PC Settings > PC & Devices > Mouse & touchpad
Change the "To help prevent the cursor from accidentally moving while you type, turn off taps or change the delay before taps work" setting to "No Delay (always on)".
For some people this option is apparently grayed out. In that case the setting can be adjusted via a registry value. Go to the below registry value:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PrecisionTouchPad
And change "AAPThreshold" from 2 (or whatever setting it's at) to 0.
You may have to reboot for it to take effect.
Nothing in the third party driver for ElanTech solved this issue. I honestly think this was some new setting introduced in Windows 8.1 for touchpads.