Using the Keyboard Navigation Option On Your Mac

Learn how to switch on Keyboard Navigation to use the keyboard to navigate through dialog boxes and some app windows with just the keyboard instead of using a mouse or trackpad.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let ms show you how you can navigate around to buttons and other objects on your Mac screen using just the keyboard.
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Now I know I've got a lot of keyboard shortcut fans out there. You love to do everything with your keyboard if at all possible minimizing the use of the mouse and trackpad. But what happens when you get to a screen, like a Save dialogue or a Print dialogue, where there are a bunch of buttons and other controls and there are no keyboard shortcuts for those. You've got to just move your hand to the trackpad and then navigate around with the pointer to get what you want done. But usually you can stick with the keyboard even when it doesn't look like there is a keyboard shortcut. 
For instance, here I am on a webpage and I'm going to use Command S to save the page. Now I'm in the Save dialogue. I know I can type and that would change the name up here and I could press Return and that would activate the default button, in this case Save. I can even use the Escape key or Command period to cancel. But what if I wanted to use one of the other controls here. Well, it doesn't look like there is a way to do that. These aren't menu items. These are things on the screen that you need to move the pointer over and click to actually use. But actually you can use the keyboard in most cases to get to most things. The key to doing that is the Tab. Watch what happens when I use Tab. If I keep using it you can see how it jumps to different elements on the screen and once an element is focused I can actually use that element. So, for instance, if I go to this element right here I can use the down arrow key, select something new, spacebar to select it, and now I've changed something. If I want to change the location here I can select a new one and press Return or I can just get to another element, like Search over here, and start typing there all by just using the keyboard. 
Now if this isn't working for you make sure you have this feature turned On. It's called Keyboard Navigation. It is fairly straight forward in macOS Ventura to turn it On because it is under System Settings, and then go down to Keyboard, and then just look for Keyboard Navigation. Make sure that is switched On. Some of this will actually work with Keyboard Navigation turned Off. But to get the full control of the Tab key to move through elements you want this turned On. So now you can see I can move through various parts of this and then use the arrow keys to do other things. 
I can't get access to everything though. If I go through here you can see at no time am I actually selecting the elements in this list here. So I can't really navigate around in there. But there are other ways to navigate as well. For instance all the Finder shortcuts, as long as I am in the Save As box up here, I can do something like, say, Command D, go to the Desktop. Or Shift Command G to bring up the Go menu and type a path. But it is contextual so I depends on what else is selected at the time I try to use those shortcuts. Even Command F will take me right here to the Search field. So it is worth playing around in this interface to see what you can do. 
Now what if I would go to Print. Command P. So I end up with this dialogue right here and you see with the Tab key I can do the same thing. I can move around through the different elements and then use other keys, like arrow keys or just typing, to modify things. Note that you can always use Shift and Tab to go backwards. So if you pass something you don't have to loop all the way around. You can just use Tab to go forward and Shift Tab to go backwards. 
Note that this functionality isn't directly built into every single dialogue or interface. So there is no special code just in the Print dialogue here to handle this. It is universal throughout the system. Which means that sometimes it is not perfect. So if I were to Tab through here every once in awhile I Tab to something that just doesn't appear to be anywhere. Like now. I can't see what I'm doing. It's actually accessing items that are below what is visible here. But other times it doesn't seem to be anywhere. Just keep using Tab to go to the next element. Sometimes it is grabbing onto an invisible elements or inactive elements. But if you keep using Tab you will eventually get to what you want. 
Now this works in more places that just in dialogue boxes. For instance here I am in this webpage and if I use Tab here notice it is going to different elements. Different links and buttons and such both in the Navigation Bar at the top but also throughout the page. Sometimes you kind of get stuck. Like here I am stuck on this element here. You can usually use the Shift Tab to go backwards through elements and you can see how it kind of ends right there. So you have to play around with it to get what you want.  But if it is something you need to do over and over again in a particular interface pretty quickly you get used to how to get there. 
Now one problem you'll run into is when you're actually in an interface where you're typing something. So here I am inside of Pages and I can type something and I can also press Tab and, as I would expect, the Tab is entered into the document. So how do I Tab through the different elements. Well, it depends on the app. A lot of apps though, like Pages, if I use Control, that's the Control key not Command, and Tab it takes me out of the current interface and now I can continue to Tab and you can see how it is going to go through different elements here in the Sidebar and throughout the rest of the Pages' interface until eventually I end up back inside of the body text and you can see now I'm just adding characters. So there is a way to get to Sidebar elements if you really want. 
This doesn't work great in the Finder window because using Tab will actually take you to different elements here inside of the Finder window. Trying to get to these other elements is pretty difficult. But possible. If I do Control Tab it seems to take me out of it but then just using Tab pretty quickly brings me back in. But if I do Control Shift Tab to take me out of it and kind of move backwards then I find that eventually I do end up inside of these other elements here. I'll release Control here and just do Shift Tab to go through different elements. So you have to, kind of, play around with it but eventually you do find ways to get to where you want. 
It is just that some apps in some situations it works really well in an obvious way and in other apps and other situations it seems very counter intuitive and it is probably not very useful. 
Now there is a next level to this. If you go to System Settings and then to Accessibility and then you go down to Keyboard there is Full Keyboard Access. You can read about Full Keyboard Access here. Turn this On and there is a ton you can do. You can see it highlights what is selected and you could move through different elements using the Tab key like that. It is much more obvious of what you are selecting. The only problem is if you don't use this all the time it kind of gets in the way. You can always hold the Tab key down and press H and it will give you some help there. Use the Escape key to get out of that. Then it is all about moving two different groups of controls and then using the arrow keys to move within those groups. It is much more involved and really meant for people that cannot use the mouse or trackpad at all. But it is an option you can explore if you like. 
So in practice a combination of things is still needed. Sometimes it is just easier to use the mouse and trackpad to navigate an interface. But if you find yourself often in an open dialogue or a save dialogue but then you learn that a few taps on the Tab key and maybe some spacebar and some arrow keys get you what you need then you can maybe switch to using keyboard only in those specific situations. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 3 Responses to “Using the Keyboard Navigation Option On Your Mac”

Frank W

2 years ago

Like all these vids by Gary, he clicks so fast one cannot follow. Also, not suitable for laptops since cuts off the bottom of the screen.

Bruce Harrell

I use the control-option-i "item chooser" to navigate far faster and more certainly than tab. I don't know if it works when VoiceOver is turned off. I'm blind. Smile. I do admire how much sighted users can accomplish with what little aid they get from sight, though.

brad

Frank W - rewind is obvious but I sometimes have to use slower speeds which helps a lot & makes Gary sound funny as a bonus. 😀

Comments Closed.

Using the Keyboard Navigation Option On Your Mac

Comments: 3 Responses to “Using the Keyboard Navigation Option On Your Mac”

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