« Don JonCease-and-deshit »
Mar 16

Using Full Keyboard Access on Mac OS X

system, hacks, usability

So, for the longest time I have been wondering how to tab through options in OS X applications using the keyboard. For example, the keyboard shortcut for logging out is SHFT-CMD-Q, but if you hit this on accident, you have to find the mouse and click "cancel" instead of hitting TAB to get to "Cancel" and then RETURN.

Here's how: In Mac OS X's System Preferences panel, select the Keyboard and Mouse pane. Select the "Keyboard shortcuts" panel (the last one). Click the "Turn on full keyboard access" option at bottom.

Now, to cycle through options in Aqua applications, just hit TAB. A perplexing feature was that you can't just hit RETURN when you've got something selected after hitting TAB; you have to hit SPACEBAR to "click" a highlighted choice once selected. Hitting RETURN will just select the blue-shaded default option.

2 comments

  1. § Ping said on : 03/16/05 @ 12:02
    I've tried this and it helps, but it's still unfortunate that you can't just hit a letter to activate a button like you can in Windows.
  2. § joe® Email said on : 03/16/05 @ 12:43
    So true... and what infuriated me is how I found the SPACEBAR trick by chance. It's not documented in Apple's sorry-as-shit help documentation. How the hell can this be called "usable" or "accessible" if you have to be a search whiz to even get the goods?
Contact / Help. (cc) 2021 by Joseph Hall. multiple blogs / web hosts.
Design & icons by N.Design Studio. Skin by Tender Feelings / Evofactory.
Entries RSS Comments RSS Log in
And a few words about the structure of the eye . Everyone " retina ". Especially often we hear it buy clomid online in the phrase " retinal detachment ." So what is the retina ? This - the front edge of the brain, the most distant from the brain part of the visual analyzer. The retina receives light first , processes and transforms light energy into irritation - a signal that encodes all the information about what the eye sees . The retina is very complex and in their structure and function . Its structure resembles the structure of the cerebral cortex. The shell of the retina is very thin - about 0.14 mm.