One of the things that has annoyed me about Mac OS is the behaviour of the Tab key. When presented with a dialog box with multiple buttons, pressing the Tab key will not allow you to shift focus from one button to the next. Thankfully this default behaviour can be changed.
Figure 1: Dialog box with Tab key disabled
In System Properties, open the Keyboard & Mouse settings and click on the Keyboard Settings section. At the bottom of the screen is an option for Full Keyboard Access.
Figure 2: System Properties – Keyboard & Mouse – Keyboard Shortcuts
In this section there is the option for using the Tab key to move focus between a) Text boxes and lists only, or b) All controls. Click the radio button for the second option, and the Tab key will now allow you to tab between all the available dialog box buttons. On a MacBook you can also use the following shortcut key to turn on/ off this behaviour: ^fn F7
Figure 3: Dialog Box with Tab Key Enabled
Once this option has been enabled you should be able to use the Tab key to highlight any of the available buttons. One word of caution though: if you select a different button than the already highlighted default, then you must use the spacebar to “press” it. Using the Enter or Return keys will always “press” the default button.
[...] I was playing around with the Keyboard Shortcuts for the previous post, I noticed that there’s a shortcut for adjusting the contrast on my MacBook. I’ve been [...]
THANKS!
This has annoyed me to no end for the longest time, and this is the first good explanation I’ve seen on the subject. Glad to have found you (via Google)!
peace,
Tormod
No problem. I spent ages looking for this. Coming from a Windows background, I was so used to using the keyboard to navigate that this was a major frustration!
Cheers,
Paul.
I had seen this system preference option earlier and even played with it, but I never made the connection to press spacebar rather than enter. Thanks a lot.
I have noticed that some programs allow you to type cmd-(key) key being the first letter of the unselected button, to choose different options. This works in Photoshop Elements 2 and I think TextEdit, but there are a lot of programs where it doesn’t work.
Thanks again.
[...] Tab Button in dialog boxes in OS X digg_skin = ‘compact’; digg_window = ‘new’; Posted in April 27th, 2008 by liquidpooled in Apple, Leopard, Macbook Pro The default behavior for the tab key on your keyboard in OS X when a dialog box appears is do… NOTHING. This is one of the strangest behaviors to adapt to (coming from a Windows world. A good post on how to modify your settings so the tab key works in a sane manner can be found here. [...]
Thank you VERY MUCH for this tip! I too am used to Windows keyboard shortcuts but do most of my music production on the Mac now. I always prefer to leave my hands off the mouse whenever possible — keyboard shortcuts are more productive.
Tom
Thx! Been searching for this for ages!
Thank you very much!!
nice one mate. selecting the actuall button once it had been tabbed to had me stumped and your the only person who bothered to add the all important note at bottom “spacebar to select” many thanks.
No problem, making the move from Windows to a Mac isn’t that hard, but it’s small thing like this that catch even the most experienced power users!
Cheers,
Paul.
Tabbing around on a mac has been driving me nuts!!! One step closer to abandoning the mouse.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! This has been plaguing me for years, having to use the mouse to press a non-default button rather than being able to use the keyboard. With Apple’s tremendous ability to design intuitively, it’s surprising that they made this one difficult. Thanks!!!!
Thank you – saved me!
My pleasure Dan. Thanks for the comment!
Am i missing something or does it still not make the ’shutdown dialog’ – the one that comes up with the options to shutdown, restart or sleep when you press the power button on a macbook – be able to be tabbed??
I just checked it on my MacBook and it works fine for me. Anyone else having this problem?
Man u Rock. This used to be a big problem for me and now I can leave the mouse finally. :)
Thanks for the great tip.
AHA! The spacebar. Who would’ve guessed? Thanks for your help!
I have to agree with the rest of the guys. Thank You took me three hours to Your webpage but now I finally have the answer to changing the selected action in the shutdown dialogs (Does work with my MacBook as well!).
Thanks Sebastian. I’m delighted to hear that this helped you so much.
Paul.
This does NOT seem to work with Photoshop CS4 “Save”-dialog… :( Tab does not change between the three buttons, nor can I “press” even the default Save-button with spacebar, only with Enter.
Hi Sami,
It doesn’t work for Photoshop CS3 either. Seems Adobe doesn’t use the same interface as other programs on Mac OS X.
Regards,
Paul.
… and Mac OS won’t allow adding a custom shortcut for Photoshop CS4, either. Is this Adobe’s or Apple’s fault…? It just won’t fit in my head, as Photoshop must be one of the most popular applications on Mac platform and then it’s “crippled” with missing keyboard shortcuts.
I don’t know about the custom shortcut, but if you move the Photoshop application, you’ll get an error every time you open Photoshop that it needs to be repaired.
Now matter how many times you repair the program, the error will keep appearing. This is an Adobe issue. Apparently they don’t want you to decide where to install your applications.
It seems to me that given their track history, these type of issues can be firmly laid at the feet of Adobe.
They might have the most popular image-editing software on the planet, but their interface design is terrible.
Cheers,
Paul.
Ditto.
my tab still doesn’t work in CS4 :( I already had the all controls selected
Abhishek,
For some reason, the Adobe controls don’t work like the normal Mac OS controls. I have the same problem in CS3 and have yet to find a solution to it.
Cheers,
Paul.
Works on my CS4 on MacBook Pro, OS 10.5.6. Thanks for posting these tips, great.
Thanks for the comment Travis. Delighted to hear that you appreciate my post :)
Best regards,
Paul.
Amen brother! Finally!
It’s a shame this function is turned off by default!
Coming from Windows this thing had me stumped, I thought, ‘It must be possible, and it is!” Thanks! Buy yourself a chocolate doughnut.
Thanks hurben, will do!
Thanks for the apple tip.
Thanks for the tip, that was driving me crazy.
Thanks – have been frustrated with this little issue – have been a Microsoft Man for far too long!
Switched from win to mac a few months ago, and that was a very annoying issue. thanks a lot for the hint. now if you happen to know how to make mac os x windows resizable from every edge and corner, I buy you a drink (seriously).
Daniel Glazman
Wonderful to finally get the answer to this!
ARGH! i was wondering why this wasn’t working for me until i read further down the list of comments: the SOLE reason that i’ve been searching for this solution was so i could easily tab over to the “copy” button within the “Move” dialog in Illustrator CS4. looks like my search has ended, ultimately, in defeat… (Adobe NEVER fixes their user-reported bugs, regardless of how many come pouring in.)
P.S. to anyone else having my same problem (i.e. a designer who’s infinitely more productive & efficient in a windows-environment)–my workaround has just been: select, cmd+c (copy), cmd+f (paste in front), cmd+shift+m (move).
SIGH!.
Even after checking the radio button in system prefs I still couldn’t tab between dialog buttons in CS3, however on the dialog above – the ‘Close Window’ dialog – I can hit cmd+d to choose “Don’t Save” and cmd+c to choose “Cancel”
In this case you’re hitting the same number of keys and not using the mouse which is the win.
Hooley dooley…that’s been bugging me for a while now. Thanks!
THANK YOU!
Macs clearly need some evolution and refining….
(unless apple just don’t just us to be able to use more than one button?)
J.
thanks a million
Thanks for that, it’s been bugging me for a while. Adobe CS4 kind of works – I can now tab around the dialog buttons but while pressing the spacebar makes the highlighted button look like it gets pressed, it does nothing at all, and pressing Enter or Return just presses the default button as usual. Thanks Adobe :(