interface basics

[leegte]

Hi all,

There's a few things that annoy me a lot with OSX. Maybe there's a catch, please help me if there is. Also my apologies if these topics have been discussed earlier, I couldn't find them. Please link them to save time if you know them!

My basic frustration is the mouse dependancy of the OS. It seems you can't navigate through the OS just using the keyboard, which is essential I think, because you can work much faster, and get less RSI (Get in menubars, choosing within confirm windows, switching within the finder between frames, etc.)
Many Mac-users have told me tricks within the confirm window: command+D for "don't", esc for "cancel", and enter for "accept". But these don't always work. also sometimes you can use tab to select buttons, after which you can use the space bar to click. But many times you can't.
I really hope Apple will clean up this mess, as is seems such an easy problem. Getting the whole OS keyboard controllable should be target no.1, but that probably is a big, big project...

Other; beautifull OS, great stable software, fantastic hardware. But usability is the basis. And it seems to be set up very inconsequently, something I'd never expected from such a perfectionistic company. Enlighten me!

:-)

[didoman]

leegte,

Some useful navigation commands:

Turn on keyboard access: crtl-F1
Navigating to the menubar: ctrl-F2
Navigating to the dock: ctrl-F3
Once the focus is in the dock or menubar, navigate with arrow keys and return.

For the confirm window, esc is always cancel and return is always the default (I'm pretty sure anyway). Tab-space works in many apps - when it doesn't, u just have to use the mouse (but is tab space really that much faster?).

[simbalala]

As a newbie you might find this Widget useful. xCuts 1.2

It will show you more keyboard shortcuts than you're likely to ever need.

[simbalala]

Many Mac-users have told me tricks within the confirm window: command+D for "don't", esc for "cancel", and enter for "accept". But these don't always work. also sometimes you can use tab to select buttons, after which you can use the space bar to click. But many times you can't.

The reason for that is the failure of application developers to follow Apple guidelines. You'll find they mostly work though.

I use QuicKeys and have been doing so for nearly 20 years. I have many, many, keyboard shortcuts defined for things I do a lot. I also use it to standardize shortcuts across applications when there's an inconsistency.

[Yesurbius]

Turn on keyboard access: crtl-F1
Navigating to the menubar: ctrl-F2
Navigating to the dock: ctrl-F3

LOL I didn't know that

[pdxubaru]

My personal favorite way to stop using the mouse is to start using Terminal.

/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app

[ora]

Quicksilver lets you do a huge amount without the mouse too.

[amstar]

Originally Posted by didoman

leegte,

Turn on keyboard access: crtl-F1
Navigating to the menubar: ctrl-F2
Navigating to the dock: ctrl-F3
Once the focus is in the dock or menubar, navigate with arrow keys and return.

these don't work for me.