Accessing the Menu Bar without a mouse

Yangstar · #1 November 30th, 2006, 03:14 PM

Does anyone know how to setup a Mac so that you can do the Alt-F to get the File menu drop down? This was done using the Alt-F in windows. I miss the days when I could just do everything without a mouse. I'm sure there is a way to do it in the mac but I haven't figured it out yet. It's mainly for Excel, so like Alt-E for editing, Alt-O for formatting, etc.

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

eric2006 · #2 November 30th, 2006, 08:55 PM

OS X isn't Windows..

Most commands have shortcuts so that you don't even need to use the menu.

Yangstar · #3 November 30th, 2006, 10:22 PM

Thanks for the response, but try not to be the smug Mac guy in the commercial while I am the big dopy Windows guy.

If using Excel, these commands expedite things.

Anyone have any ideas?

simbalala · #4 November 30th, 2006, 10:48 PM

I don't think you'll find that. It's up to each app to define its own keyboard shortcuts although many are the same in all programs.

Select a menu and check out the listed keyboard shortcuts. Learn them and you'll save a lot of time. I don't see anything to be gained by using two shortcuts, one to drop the menu down, then one to choose a command.

That said, I'm sure you'll find some utility which will do what you want. It's as simple as a mouse click in the menu bar then arrow key left or right.

You could do that with QuicKeys.

simbalala · #5 November 30th, 2006, 11:16 PM

Actually there is a default (I've never used) for moving focus to the menu bar, Control F2.

So hit Control F2 then use the arrow keys. It's still a lot quicker to use the shortcut for the command though.

**fryke** · #6 December 1st, 2006, 02:39 AM

If you're on a notebook, you'll need to press Ctrl-Fn-F2.

Mikuro · #7 December 1st, 2006, 04:05 AM

This is configurable in System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts > Keyboard Navigation. There's no way to instantly trigger a particular menu, though; all you can do is focus on the menu bar, and then move from menu to menu with the keyboard. You can either use the arrow keys to move back and forth, or type the name of the menu or item. e.g., hitting control-F2 and then hitting "e" would select the Edit menu.

This is really not as flexible as in Windows. As a longtime Mac user, I don't find it to be a problem, because I'm used to it, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to have the best of both worlds.

**fryke** · #8 December 1st, 2006, 05:28 AM

Generally, you might need this in Windows because the menubar is part of a window, so it's a lot more difficult to hit correctly with the mouse, whereas on the Mac, it's simply much easier to go through the menus with your mouse.
This all is also historically grown. Windows was a shell for computers generally more focused on keyboard use. Macs put the focus on mouse-use from the very beginning.

Of _course_ Apple should try and find the best of both worlds so that users can choose how to use their Macs. And I guess that's what they're trying to do. If they'd offer too many choices, it would just make things more complicated in System Preferences...