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Mac Keyboard Shortcut Tip

When you get a dialog box like this:

you can hit Enter to “press” the blue button.

However, you can also hit the tab key to move the focus ring to another button:

then hit the spacebar to “press” the button that has the focus ring around it.

Enter hits the blue button, spacebar hits the focused button.

Many dialogs also have command key shortcuts, and some will display the keyboard shortcut when you hold down the command (or Apple, or cloverleaf) key.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Posted April 17th, 2007 @ 8:27 PM

4 Replies

Derek adds this Comment:

This is one of those quirks about OS X that bother me. It took some time to get used to the fact that the accepted standard of hitting Enter to select the currently focused button does not work for dialog boxes. Kills me every time I forget - especially while using Firefox.

April 17th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Carlos adds this Comment:

This is an option that has to be enabled on new Tiger installations or on new machines (in my experience). To do so, open up the old System Preferences, go to Keyboards and Mice, Keyboard Shortcuts (tab), and then change “Full Keyboard” access to “all controls”.

In other tips news: Apple + Esc opens Front Row

April 17th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Andreas adds this Comment:

Thanks for the tip! A hidden gem for sure (for me anyway, and I’m no recent switcher).

April 18th, 2007 at 4:07 am
Jonathan Bloom adds this Comment:

Thanks, this is a great tip!

April 18th, 2007 at 8:53 am

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