Hotkeys to interface elements in OS x?

By Mlth, 2 November, 2013

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Hi. I'm wondering if there is an equivalent on OS X to pressing the alt-key and a letter to go to a specific control in a dialog or window on Microsoft Windows? This would for instance be really useful in the spellcheck dialog etc. I know that you can press cmd+del for the delete button when in the save changes dialog, but I'm unsure of the exact system that OS X uses to associate hotkeys. Hopefully you understand what I mean. Best regards, Malthe.

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By JimInTexas on Saturday, November 2, 2013 - 23:39

Hi! I'm not exactly sure if I understand what you mean. Maybe somebody else might. But, for example, if I am in an application and I want to go to help in Windows I might press alt-h and on the mac I'd press vo-m for the menu then the letter h. As to the spellchecker i'm not exactly sure what you mean. Could you explain further? Are you talking about the buttons like Learn, and ignore and those things? I often use the spellchecker with command semicolon and then when the word is spoken I just do vo-shift-m and it gives me choices and I don't have to deal with the other spellchecker interface.

By Piotr Machacz on Saturday, November 2, 2013 - 23:50

I think the hotkeys he's referring to is how in windows, most controls (buttons, checkboxes, etc), can be quickly activated with alt+another key. I wish OS X did that as well, but sadly, it doesn't. The closest you can get to that is with Voiceover's jumping function where you can hold a key and press a letter and it will jump to the first item that starts with it.

By mehgcap on Sunday, November 3, 2013 - 01:37

You can turn on a searching feature, where pressing a certain modifier in conjunction with the letter searches the current window for a control starting with that letter. There are a few built–in short cuts, such as command– D for"don't save "inmost dialogs with a "save/don't save" setup. Unfortunately, there is no actual hotkey system for most dialogs, which is one thing about the Mac that I really don't like.

The only place the vo shift m trick for misspelled worlds does not work is safari. looks like they won't fix that. that has been broken since SNL. to answer your question no there is not. so just learn the dialogues and learn how to get around quickly with first letter nav in list boxes and pop up buttons and learn how to tab between some controls and vo between others.