Tab Through All Fields On Mac OS X
October 4, 2007 | Tags for this entry: Accessibility, mac, os x, UsabilityThere is a very small feature of Windows that I got accustomed to while I was stranded on a Dell back during 2003-2004. On a PC, you can tab through all fields in the interface and click with the space bar. A feature like that comes in handy when you’re a quick-key lover who doesn’t like to jump back and forth between the keys and the mouse(pad). But, what about on a Mac?
The image below is an example of a Windows alert that I could manipulate by simply tabbing to the checkbox and pressing the spacebar to select/deselect, then tab to the button option I prefer and select with spacebar once again.
To enable this awesomely useful feature in OS X, follow the steps below:
- Go to System Preferences
- Select ‘Keyboard & Mouse’
- Click the ‘Keyboard Shortcuts’ tab
- Choose ‘All Controls‘ under ‘Full keyboard access’ at the bottom
Voila! Now you can tab through input boxes, radio buttons and check boxes, etc in the Mac OS like you may already be used to doing in your web browser.
To disable, select ‘Text Boxes and Lists Only’ in the preferences. It may not stop immediately, though. Sometimes you have to hit Ctrl+F7 to get back to normal mode. (But why would you want to, silly!)
October 5th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Done & Done. Thanks
October 6th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Nice!
Now if only I could alt + tab between instances of the same application on a mac, I’d be set.
October 7th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Zak, do you mean switching between windows in an application? If so, that’s done with apple(?)+tilde(˜) keystroke.
October 7th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Oops! I just caused the wordpress database to error out by adding the quincunx symbol, it’s showing up as a question mark… Oh well, it’s the “apple key” on the left of the spacebar.
October 7th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Oh thanks Greg, awesome!
November 18th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Thanks fellas!
March 11th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Yes! I just switched to Mac from Windows and this was one shortcut I really missed. Thank you for this tip!!
April 29th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Thank you! Ive been in search of this for the longest!
June 12th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Was just complaining about this yesterday :p
June 6th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
This isn’t working.
December 17th, 2011 at 11:35 pm
This feature is both a blessing and a curse. It allows you to tab through dialogue boxes, but it also forces you to tab through all the buttons on all of your applications.
If you used to use tab in iTunes to go from the search to the playlists to the song field, for example, it now tabs through a lot of new fields you don’t want.
I hope apple will separate this feature into two options. Seems like its everything or nothing right now.