Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let ms show you how you can navigate around
to buttons and other objects on your Mac screen using just the keyboard.
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Now I know I've got a lot of keyboard shortcut fans out there. You love to do everything with
your keyboard if at all possible minimizing the use of the mouse and trackpad. But what
happens when you get to a screen, like a Save dialogue or a Print dialogue,
where there are a bunch of buttons and other controls and there are no keyboard shortcuts
for those. You've got to just move your hand to the trackpad and then navigate
around with the pointer to get what you want done. But usually you can stick
with the keyboard even when it doesn't look like there is a keyboard shortcut.
For instance, here I am on a webpage and I'm going to use Command S to save the page.
Now I'm in the Save dialogue. I know I can type and that would change the name up here
and I could press Return and that would activate the default button, in this case Save. I can even
use the Escape key or Command period to cancel. But what if I wanted to use one of the other
controls here. Well, it doesn't look like there is a way to do that. These aren't menu items. These
are things on the screen that you need to move the pointer over and click to actually use. But
actually you can use the keyboard in most cases to get to most things. The key to doing that is the
Tab. Watch what happens when I use Tab. If I keep using it you can see how it jumps to different
elements on the screen and once an element is focused I can actually use that element. So,
for instance, if I go to this element right here I can use the down arrow key, select something new,
spacebar to select it, and now I've changed something. If I want to change
the location here I can select a new one and press Return or I can just get to another element,
like Search over here, and start typing there all by just using the keyboard.
Now if this isn't working for you make sure you have this feature turned On. It's called Keyboard
Navigation. It is fairly straight forward in macOS Ventura to turn it On because it is under System
Settings, and then go down to Keyboard, and then just look for Keyboard Navigation. Make sure that
is switched On. Some of this will actually work with Keyboard Navigation turned Off. But to get
the full control of the Tab key to move through elements you want this turned On. So now you
can see I can move through various parts of this and then use the arrow keys to do other things.
I can't get access to everything though. If I go through here you can see at no time am I actually
selecting the elements in this list here. So I can't really navigate around in there. But
there are other ways to navigate as well. For instance all the Finder shortcuts, as
long as I am in the Save As box up here, I can do something like, say, Command D, go to the Desktop.
Or Shift Command G to bring up the Go menu and type a path. But it is contextual so I depends
on what else is selected at the time I try to use those shortcuts. Even Command F will take me right
here to the Search field. So it is worth playing around in this interface to see what you can do.
Now what if I would go to Print. Command P. So I end up with this dialogue right here and you
see with the Tab key I can do the same thing. I can move around through the different elements
and then use other keys, like arrow keys or just typing, to modify things. Note that you
can always use Shift and Tab to go backwards. So if you pass something you don't have to
loop all the way around. You can just use Tab to go forward and Shift Tab to go backwards.
Note that this functionality isn't directly built into every single dialogue or interface. So there
is no special code just in the Print dialogue here to handle this. It is universal throughout
the system. Which means that sometimes it is not perfect. So if I were to Tab through here
every once in awhile I Tab to something that just doesn't appear to be anywhere.
Like now. I can't see what I'm doing. It's actually accessing items that are below what
is visible here. But other times it doesn't seem to be anywhere. Just keep using Tab to
go to the next element. Sometimes it is grabbing onto an invisible elements
or inactive elements. But if you keep using Tab you will eventually get to what you want.
Now this works in more places that just in dialogue boxes. For instance here I am
in this webpage and if I use Tab here notice it is going to different elements. Different links
and buttons and such both in the Navigation Bar at the top but also throughout the page.
Sometimes you kind of get stuck. Like here I am stuck on this element here. You can usually use
the Shift Tab to go backwards through elements and you can see how it kind of ends right there.
So you have to play around with it to get what you want. But if it is something you need to
do over and over again in a particular interface pretty quickly you get used to how to get there.
Now one problem you'll run into is when you're actually in an interface where you're typing
something. So here I am inside of Pages and I can type something and I can also press Tab and,
as I would expect, the Tab is entered into the document. So how do I Tab through the different
elements. Well, it depends on the app. A lot of apps though, like Pages, if I use Control,
that's the Control key not Command, and Tab it takes me out of the current interface and now
I can continue to Tab and you can see how it is going to go through different elements here
in the Sidebar and throughout the rest of the Pages' interface until eventually I end
up back inside of the body text and you can see now I'm just adding characters.
So there is a way to get to Sidebar elements if you really want.
This doesn't work great in the Finder window because using Tab will actually take you to
different elements here inside of the Finder window. Trying to get to these other elements is
pretty difficult. But possible. If I do Control Tab it seems to take me out of it but then just
using Tab pretty quickly brings me back in. But if I do Control Shift Tab to take me out of it and
kind of move backwards then I find that eventually I do end up inside of these other elements here.
I'll release Control here and just do Shift Tab to go through different elements. So you have to,
kind of, play around with it but eventually you do find ways to get to where you want.
It is just that some apps in some situations it works really well in an obvious way and in other
apps and other situations it seems very counter intuitive and it is probably not very useful.
Now there is a next level to this. If you go to System Settings and then to Accessibility
and then you go down to Keyboard there is Full Keyboard Access. You can read about
Full Keyboard Access here. Turn this On and there is a ton you can do. You can see it
highlights what is selected and you could move through different elements using the Tab key
like that. It is much more obvious of what you are selecting.
The only problem is if you don't use this all the time it kind of gets in the way. You can always
hold the Tab key down and press H and it will give you some help there. Use the Escape key to
get out of that. Then it is all about moving two different groups of controls and then using the
arrow keys to move within those groups. It is much more involved and really meant for people
that cannot use the mouse or trackpad at all. But it is an option you can explore if you like.
So in practice a combination of things is still needed. Sometimes it is just easier
to use the mouse and trackpad to navigate an interface. But if you find yourself often in
an open dialogue or a save dialogue but then you learn that a few taps on the Tab key and
maybe some spacebar and some arrow keys get you what you need then you can maybe switch to
using keyboard only in those specific situations. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.