Am I Missing Something Very Simple?

[bli625]

If a dialog box comes up like this.. is it possible to use the keyboard to select which one I want to choose rather than using the trackpad/mouse? I've searched Google.. but I haven't come up with any answers because I don't really know what to search for. I've tried keyboard things too... like guesses. Alt + Arrow Key, Command + Arrow Key.. but they don't work.

 

[hellrider]

its the one thing about Mac OS X that I want changed, besides fixing the UI inconsistencies.

 

[bli625]

Oh I see. So it's not possible?

 

[ergdegdeg]

System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts > All controls (at the bottom)

Then you can tab between buttons and confirm with space.

 

[mathcolo]

Like hellrider said, the consistency of that functionality in Mac OS X is none.

I do know, however, that sometimes pressing the first letter of the option of you want pick works. For example, when you press the power button on your Mac, and press S on your keyboard, it goes to sleep.

 

[thomasp]

I haven't tried this on Leopard (only on Tiger), but in the case of the "Save/Don't Save" dialogue, you can do the following:

Cmd + D for Don't Save
Esc for Cancel
Return/Enter for Save

 

[bli625]

System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts > All controls (at the bottom)

Then you can tab between buttons and confirm with space.

Thanks! This works.

 

[Signal-11]

Thanks! This works.

Not only that, but once you have this active, space will confirms the highlighted action while enter will confirm the darkened button action.

And holy crap, can your desktops icons BE any bigger?

 

[Jisuo]

A question:

When you got your menubar cluttered with icons and utilites what happens when the program menu is so long it doesn't fit. What overlaps what?

 

[bli625]

A question:

When you got your menubar cluttered with icons and utilites what happens when the program menu is so long it doesn't fit. What overlaps what?

The icons get overlapped by the menu bar of the program you're running.

 

[miles01110]

Usually you need to do Shift + S ("Save") or Shift + whatever the first letter of the button you want to press.

 

[dirt farmer]

System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts > All controls (at the bottom)

Then you can tab between buttons and confirm with space.

Would Safari--->Preferences--->Advanced "Press tab to highlight each item on a webpage" also do the trick?

 

[Signal-11]

Would Safari--->Preferences--->Advanced "Press tab to highlight each item on a webpage" also do the trick?

For the TS, I don't believe so. That's an OS dialogue box, not specific to the app.

 

[kolax]

Yeah, this is something that annoys me too.

Some that work most of the time:

CMD+D - Don't Save
CMD+R - Replace

I think there's another one too.