keyboard navigating in dialog boxes

[Ingrid McKenzie]

I'm used to using the Windows version of Word and even tho' I'm a long
time mac user have never figured out how to navigate around dialog
boxes in same easy way as the alt-whatever in Windows where the
appropriate letter is underlined. Even using tab to move on to the
next control doesn't seem to work in all dialog boxes eg style
pallette>modify style box. And is there an easier way than trying
command-everything from A-Z to work out how to select a radio button
or checkbox eg in Format>Paragraph>Line and Page breaks?

Can someone out there put me out of my misery?

 

[Elliott Roper]

I'm used to using the Windows version of Word and even tho' I'm a long
time mac user have never figured out how to navigate around dialog
boxes in same easy way as the alt-whatever in Windows where the
appropriate letter is underlined. Even using tab to move on to the
next control doesn't seem to work in all dialog boxes eg style
pallette>modify style box. And is there an easier way than trying
command-everything from A-Z to work out how to select a radio button
or checkbox eg in Format>Paragraph>Line and Page breaks?

Can someone out there put me out of my misery?

It is not quite so straightforward. With Panther, the whole OS lets you
use the keyboard to navigate the main menu bar a bit better than
before. Have a paddle in System Preferences->Keyboard & Mouse->Keyboard
Shortcuts. Turn on full keyboard access and adjust the Keyboard
Navigation to suit your tastes. I went fot ctrl-everything
alphabetical, including ^-M for menu bar access.

From there it has to be arrows for the menu headings, but once one
drops down typing letters works as well. I use that quite a lot in Word
mostly for the things I don't use all that much. For the really common
things, if there is not a direct keyboard shortcut to be made from
tools->customize, then I'll make a Mickey mouse macro.

I try to avoid dialog boxes whenever I can. They are the work of the
devil, and Word->tools->customize->commands->keyboards->yadda is what
Dante had in mind for Purgatory when he wrote "The Inferno"

MS appears to have respected Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, but
that, for OS X is very much a work in progress when nit comes to
keyboard nav. ole Purgatory misses even that sad boat.

Another trick is to keep the formatting palette with the font triangle
down on the screen. One visible pixel is enough. That changes the
behavour of cmd-shift-s to change styles to work a tiny better,
respecting your style name short aliases, and not dumping you on the
first style name with the same initial. That one is a real lifesaver,
since, once you get into the habit, you do all your formatting by
changing styles.