Thursday, August 09, 2007

Making your Mac keyboard-centric

I noticed a while back that my Mac is very mouse-centric. Hitting TAB only let me jump through text-input options. For example, when I want to sign into my wireless network (see box below), hitting TAB only jumps me between "Network Name" and "Password", and I'll have to use my mouse to choose the type of Wireless Security I require.



So I looked it up, and found out that Macintosh systems were developed as mouse-controlled environments and hence their reliance on the mouse. I shrugged my shoulders and put it down as one of the quirks that I've got to live with since I made the decision to switch.

But I really shouldn't have given up that quickly because the solution was right under my nose. I kinda stumbled into it while looking for something else, and it was simply a matter of going into system preferences, selecting "keyboard & mouse", selecting "keyboard shortcuts" and checking "all controls" under "full keyboard access".



Now I can TAB to my heart's desire.
at

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:15 AM

    I have never understood why that is turned off by default.

    Also, when you get a dialog box that requires you to click 'OK' or 'Cancel', hitting the spacebar will 'click' the button that is outlined, while hitting the Enter/Return key will 'click' the button that is shaded.

    Plus, the small Enter key next to the Apple key to the right of the spacebar toggles file-renaming in the Finder, as versus double-clicking with the large Enter/Return key.

    ReplyDelete
  2. mis_nomer1:06 AM

    Hmm.. I've never noticed the difference between the outlined and shaded button! You know a lot! Where do you pick up your info from?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous3:27 AM

    By poking around my system more than I should... ;)

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.