How to select File menu in Mac, just like Alt + F in Windows?

Question

I have a Macbook Air with Mac OSX 10.8.2 . I have been wondering how do I select the File Menu which I am so used to doing in Windows using Alt+F, so that I do not have to click on the File menu each time I need to do something. I googled and checked out a bunch of articles as well. This Wikipedia article suggests http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_keyboard_shortcuts

CTRL+F2 then F. I tried this in Sublime Text and did not work for me. Any clues?

Answer 1

On OS X, anything that has a keyboard shortcut will be shown next to the relative task.

To access and browse the upper menu bar it is CtrlF2. You will see the  icon highlight and you are able to browse the menus with the arrow keys at that point.

If you have the function keys set as special function keys, eg. dim display, play/pause, etc. you either must change them to perform as standard function keys in System Preferences » Keyboard or use the shortcut fnCtrlF2.

Answer 2

To access the File menu:

• press CtrlShiftF2 (brings focus the  icon in the top left of your screen)
• press f ("f" for "file" - brings focus to the File menu)
• press ↓ (opens the File menu)
• press the first letter of the item you want, or press ↓ until you reach the item
• press → to move to the next menu (open/closed state of menu is maintained)

Menu items can be accessed by using the first letter of the name of the item, as can items within the menu once the menu is opened.

For example, to access File > Export hit CtrlShiftF2, f, ↓, e

Answer 3

I also miss the ease at which I could navigate Windows menus from the keyboard :(

A couple people mentioned that you can use ctrl-F2 to get to the menu bar. This seems really awkward to me, so I took the advice of this CNET article and changed it to option-downArrow. As the article mentions, the advantage to this shortcut is that after using it, your finger is now ready for more navigation via the arrow keys. Of course you can change it to what ever seems easiest to you.

From the article, here is how to change your keyboard shortcut to access the menus:

To do this, open the Keyboard system preferences, and in the Keyboard Shortcuts section, select the Keyboard category. Then locate the option called "Move focus to the menu bar" and ensure it is checked. Then click the "^F2" hot key text so it highlights, then press the hot key of choice.

It's not perfect but it's pretty good.

Answer 4

The answer from @Bohemian is correct - but not practical. You will want to change the key-binding for accessing the menu:

Type keyboard in Spotlight and select the Shortcuts tab:

The one you want to change is Move focus to the menu bar : I have chosen Ctl-; that is much more do-able than the crazy default finger pattern

This only reduces the pain of accessing menu items. They are still v clumsy versus counterparts on Linux variants as well as windows, the defunct OS/2 etc.

This is an ongoing HUGE miss by Apple - and it shows their disdain for keyboardists and accessibility (not to mention carpal tunnel issues) - by disallowing use of the keyboard to access the many menu items in complex applications. Intellij, Pycharm, and friends have well over one hundred menu items: it is far out of possible to create - let alone remember - that many custom shortcuts. Apple instead doubles down on their keyboard mnemonics bashing by insisting that developers remove them - even from applications originally intended for other operating systems. It is despicable.

Note: I have been using Macos full time 7 days/week since 2013 - and had already run into this problem - and found it essentially unsolvable - in 2010. It is not a matter of "education" about so-called alternatives.