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I've been a power user of both Windows and Mac for decades, but this seemingly simple thing has me stumped!

If I use the search box, how do I change the focus to the located items, using the keyboard?

One would think hitting Tab a few times would do the trick, but Tab seems to do nothing useful in this scenario.

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Are you talking about the spotlight search in the menu bar or the search box in a finder window? – Luke Nov 17 '11 at 4:59
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The search box in a Finder window – Jeff Chausse Nov 17 '11 at 5:01
What version of OS X are you using? I can reproduce in Lion, but I think this was different in earlier versions. – Daniel Beck Nov 17 '11 at 6:29
I can confirm that Tab works in Snow Leopard (10.6.8) – tidbeck Nov 17 '11 at 8:29
@tidbeck Really? tab just takes me seemingly nowhere. – slhck Nov 17 '11 at 8:50
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OS X 10.6:

If you go to System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts, make sure to disable "All controls"

enter image description here

Now, you can press Tab after searching, and it will take you to the results list. I guess this is a bug, as you can't tab through to the list when enabling "All controls". It just gets stuck on "This Mac".

A workaround, if you have "All controls" enabled all the time, would be to tab back five times.

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That doesn't seem to work on Lion though. – Lri Nov 17 '11 at 9:47
@Lri That's why I said 10.6 :) — Can't test it. Did they break it completely? – slhck Nov 17 '11 at 9:47
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