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I know that there has been a similar question asked here very recently, but I was wondering if it was possible to tab between buttons on default Mac OS X dialog boxes?
I already have the All controls option enabled in System Preferences → Keyboard & Mouse → Keyboard Shortcuts, but no joy.
ZombieSheep
Posted 2008-08-05T14:26:21.573
Reputation: 1 525
177
If you enable Full Keyboard Access by setting it to all controls, you should be able to tab between options and select by hitting spacebar, at least for OS X 10.5:
ruddzw
Posted 2008-08-05T14:26:21.573
Reputation: 1 886
El Capitan, not working anymore. – atilkan – 2015-10-19T21:23:37.760
5The Keyboard shortcut still works on El Capitan Fn+Ctr+F7 toggles it on/off. – Eduardo Romero – 2015-11-13T05:41:13.323
2Thanks - took me a while to find out even when I already knew that months ago - wonder why spacebar - why not just enter key - its not intuitive and you could always switch back to the highlighted button in 1-2 strokes if you make an error. Sometimes I feel like there is some evil manager behind the guys who do this in Apple and hes pushing his stupid ideas into releases. And yep confirming it still works on El Captain for me too. – Srneczek – 2016-06-19T14:58:24.930
I am somehow new to mac, I now can toggle between different bottoms but how can I press on don't save with the keyboard. I press return (or enter) but it was just saving. Can you help, please? – rsc05 – 2018-09-14T18:20:57.547
21Thanks. At least in Lion, this setting can also be switched on or off quickly using Ctrl+F7. – c089 – 2011-09-13T12:46:56.070
Not much use though is it, since the OS doesn't always focus the dialog... :/ – Henrik Erlandsson – 2014-01-17T11:00:01.743
73
While @ruddzw's (chosen) answer works, it can slow you down in other areas simply from the sheer number of controls there are to tab through.
@NReilingh presents a different approach, and the semantics behind it:
The right way to go about keyboard shortcuts for alternate dialog buttons is not tab, but command key combos. For example, Command-period is almost universally "cancel." [...]
It's often not documented, but the command shortcut for different buttons that aren't the default button or cancel is usually the first letter of that button.
So in the example:
Marius Butuc
Posted 2008-08-05T14:26:21.573
Reputation: 897
You can also press "Tab" key to select focus on button and then press "Space" instead of "Enter" to apply the selection. – kholis – 2017-11-29T08:36:03.003
1This is good info beyond the accepted answer, still in the scope of the question asked. – Nirav Zaveri – 2018-04-28T05:11:05.133
Works for mac OS Mojave – jdhao – 2018-10-12T17:26:38.857
5In the new combined save/do-you-want-to-save dialog boxes, "Don't Save"'s shortcut is ⌘-Delete. – Kevin Reid – 2013-02-09T23:06:18.830
Both ⌘+D and ⌘+delete seem to map to Don't Save. – Marius Butuc – 2013-10-02T16:49:50.557
1didn't work for me (brand new osx with latest os whatever it is), so enabled all controls, but thanks, I'd have preferred your answer if it had worked. I did test all the keys on the keyboard, with FN, CTRL, Option as well. – PatrickT – 2013-11-29T11:12:52.553
11
In Keyboard preferences under Keyboard Shortcuts
Full Keyboard Access:
Switch to All Controls instead of Text Boxes and Lists Only
2
To enable navigation using Tabs from the command line type:
defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleKeyboardUIMode -int 3
Amit Kotlovski
Posted 2008-08-05T14:26:21.573
Reputation: 121
2
Is there a specific dialog you're having trouble with? With "All controls" enabled I can tab around every control of every Mac OS X dialog I've tested just now.
Rufo Sanchez
Posted 2008-08-05T14:26:21.573
Reputation: 143
0
When browsing with Safari, you can also tab between all HTML elements on the page using Option+Tab (otherwise Tab would only stop on the browser toolbar controls and quick bookmarks)
Sergio Acosta
Posted 2008-08-05T14:26:21.573
Reputation: 363
It's not the answer to the question but I feel it's relevant. You can tab backwards through the controls and boxes using shift+tab. – Teifion – 2008-08-05T14:43:15.987