Is there a way to rotate through alert buttons?

JPigford

JPigford

I'm awesome...seriously..
So say I open a document and then decide I don't want said document anymore and I don't want to run the program anymore. I hit Cmd+Q to quit the program at which point it asks me If I want to Cancel, Save, or Don't Save. It automatically has "Save" highlighted so all I have to do is hit Return and it will save it. But, what if I don't want to save it? Is there a way to rotate over to the Don't Save button without having to click it with my mouse?

What? Yes...I am lazy.
 
There should be a blue outline on one of the buttons. Hitting the space bar will select that option. Pressing tab will cycle through the buttons.

So if you have SAVE and DON'T SAVE and Don't Save is outlined and Save is solid blue, Enter will save and Space will not.
 
The other options have standard keyboard shortcuts, so, for example, you wanted "Cancel" instead of the default "Save." Simply hit Command-(period) to select "Cancel." For "Don't Save," it's Command-D. For any given app, it's usually Command-(first letter of the option you want).

No, there's no way to change which button is the default -- it's part of the code of the app, so you'd have to change it in code then recompile (meaning you'd need the source code).
 
Convert said:
There should be a blue outline on one of the buttons. Hitting the space bar will select that option. Pressing tab will cycle through the buttons.

So if you have SAVE and DON'T SAVE and Don't Save is outlined and Save is solid blue, Enter will save and Space will not.
Click to expand...

In TextEdit, that doesn't work for me at all -- tab does not cycle through the buttons, and space doesn't do anything at all. Enter selects the highlighted option, but there's no way to change the highlighted option -- it's always "Save."

Perhaps you have some sort of Save pane hack installed, like DefaultFolderX or something?
 
In MS Word (for the 2001 version, I know its old), the keyboard shortcut is just pressing the D key for "Don't Save" and Esc for "Cancel". This will probably work in later versions too. Keyboard shortcuts like these are things that should be standardized across the OS. Pity.
 
Nope, but I am betting I got confused or something.

This is on the Save dialogue, right?

When I quit, and it asks me to save, that's where I do what I said.

See image below.
 

Attachments

  • Picture 3.jpg
    Picture 3.jpg
    13.8 KB · Views: 10
Found the answer.

In the "Keyboard & Mouse" pane of the System Preferences, under the "Keyboard Shortcuts" pane, turn on "Turn on full keyboard access."

This will allow you to do what Convert is describing -- it lets you tab from button to button (using the spacebar to activate the button -- Return/Enter still selects the default blue button).
 
Maybe you don't have the same system preferences. there is an option to allow different tabbing to controls. check in the accessability preference pane.

also. i think you'll find that Escape works for the cancel button..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top