162

I know that there has been a similar question asked here very recently, but I was wondering if it was possible to tab between buttons on default Mac OS X dialog boxes?

I already have the All controls option enabled in System Preferences → Keyboard & Mouse → Keyboard Shortcuts, but no joy.

Improve this question
2

11 Answers 11

Reset to default
203

If you enable Full Keyboard Access by setting it to all controls, you should be able to tab between options and select by hitting spacebar, at least for OS X 10.5:

Full Keyboard Access: All Controls (Control+F7)

Improve this answer
10
  • 28
    Thanks. At least in Lion, this setting can also be switched on or off quickly using Ctrl+F7.
    – c089
    Sep 13, 2011 at 12:46
  • Not much use though is it, since the OS doesn't always focus the dialog... :/
    – Henrik Erlandsson
    Jan 17, 2014 at 11:00
  • 6
    The Keyboard shortcut still works on El Capitan Fn+Ctr+F7 toggles it on/off.
    – Eduardo Romero
    Nov 13, 2015 at 5:41
  • 2
    Thanks - took me a while to find out even when I already knew that months ago - wonder why spacebar - why not just enter key - its not intuitive and you could always switch back to the highlighted button in 1-2 strokes if you make an error. Sometimes I feel like there is some evil manager behind the guys who do this in Apple and hes pushing his stupid ideas into releases. And yep confirming it still works on El Captain for me too.
    – Srneczek
    Jun 19, 2016 at 14:58
  • 1
    In Monterey 12.3.1 it is use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls in Sys.pref. -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts on window bottom. Toggle with Ctrl+f7.
    – Timo
    Apr 3, 2022 at 17:34
89

While @ruddzw's (chosen) answer works, it can slow you down in other areas simply from the sheer number of controls there are to tab through.

@NReilingh presents a different approach, and the semantics behind it:

The right way to go about keyboard shortcuts for alternate dialog buttons is not tab, but command key combos. For example, Command-period is almost universally "cancel." [...]
It's often not documented, but the command shortcut for different buttons that aren't the default button or cancel is usually the first letter of that button.

So in the example:

Save prompt

  • enter/return will Save,
  • ⌘+. or esc will Cancel, and
  • ⌘+D will map to Don't Save.
    As @Kevin Reid points out, ⌘+delete works here as well.
Improve this answer
6
  • 7
    In the new combined save/do-you-want-to-save dialog boxes, "Don't Save"'s shortcut is ⌘-Delete.
    – Kevin Reid
    Feb 9, 2013 at 23:06
  • Both ⌘+D and ⌘+delete seem to map to Don't Save.
    – Marius Butuc
    Oct 2, 2013 at 16:49
  • 1
    didn't work for me (brand new osx with latest os whatever it is), so enabled all controls, but thanks, I'd have preferred your answer if it had worked. I did test all the keys on the keyboard, with FN, CTRL, Option as well.
    – PatrickT
    Nov 29, 2013 at 11:12
  • You can also press "Tab" key to select focus on button and then press "Space" instead of "Enter" to apply the selection.
    – kholis
    Nov 29, 2017 at 8:36
  • 1
    This is good info beyond the accepted answer, still in the scope of the question asked.
    – Nirav Zaveri
    Apr 28, 2018 at 5:11
16

In Keyboard preferences under Keyboard Shortcuts

Full Keyboard Access: Switch to All Controls instead of Text Boxes and Lists Only

Improve this answer
8

In Ventura (MacOS 13) this has moved again, to a Keyboard navigation toggle in System Settings > Keyboard.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Same for Sonoma (macOS 14).
    – wunch
    Dec 11, 2023 at 15:57
7

To enable navigation using Tabs from the command line type:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleKeyboardUIMode -int 3
Improve this answer
1
  • What is the difference between int 2 and 3? In macOS Monterey, 2 is sufficient.
    – Hrishikesh Kadam
    Oct 27, 2022 at 17:14
7
  1. Visit System Settings
  2. Find or search for Keyboard
  3. Under Keyboard Navigation ensure the switch is on

enter image description here

Improve this answer
1
  • 3
    This is exactly what I needed to know about macOS Ventura.
    – mph
    May 25, 2023 at 19:18
6

In macOS Monterey (12.4) this option changed a little bit and looks like this: macOS Monterey Keyboard Shortcuts

I had the option "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" enabled but I wasn't able to tab between OK and Cancel in the Finder's delete dialog. I had to disable and reenable that option, so it was working again as expected.

Improve this answer
1
  • And also not having the options for All kind of controls e.g. textbox. In Monterey as my macbook, can tab thru controls BUT NOT thru textbox
    – Nam G VU
    Dec 22, 2023 at 3:28
3

Is there a specific dialog you're having trouble with? With "All controls" enabled I can tab around every control of every Mac OS X dialog I've tested just now.

Improve this answer
2

In macOS Catalina, do the following.

In Settings Preferences, navigate to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts. Select Keyboard in the left pane. Tick the Use Keyboard navigation and untick Change the way Tab moves focus options.

Here's the image for reference:
Keyboard Shortcuts preferences window

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    In your screenshot at the bottom there's a checkbox for Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls. I think that's the one that changes the tab behaviour. The one you've given disables the Ctrl-F7 shortcut, which actually allows you to toggle that without going into Settings.
    – mwfearnley
    Dec 5, 2020 at 10:37
  • @mwfearnley yes what you said worked for me. Not the other setting mentioned in this answer.
    – adarshr
    Sep 17, 2021 at 9:10
1

NEW SOLUTION:

System Settings --> Keyboard --> Keyboard Navigation

enter image description here

PREVIOUS SOLUTION:

The only way that I was able to make it work on macOS Sonoma 14.4 was like this:

  1. Create a Untitled.txt file.
  2. Rename that file to Untitled.md in Finder.
  3. A dialog will pop-up asking you to confirm that you want to change the file extension (look at the provided screenshot).
  4. When you have the dialog open click: control+f7 (or control+fn+f7)
  5. Now you can more to the next button with the tab key on your keyboard and click space to confirm/click on the button.

enter image description here

Improve this answer
0

When browsing with Safari, you can also tab between all HTML elements on the page using Option+Tab (otherwise Tab would only stop on the browser toolbar controls and quick bookmarks)

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .