/Guides/Mac OS X/Misc/

General Information

By default in Mac OS X, you can only tab through the text fields of any window.  Have you ever wanted to use your tab button to cycle through the dialog box options or tab through the check box options on a website?  Now you can with this hidden gem.

Requirements

1. The right privileges to modify the System Preferences.

Configuration

First, open up the System Preferences, select "Keyboard & Mouse" and then select the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab.  If you look at the bottom of the pane, you will see the radio option to allow Tab to move the keyboard focus between "All controls."

Now you can tab through all of the buttons, text boxes, check boxes, etc. and select with the spacebar.  And if you think that was easy to setup, Apple has made the keyboard shortcut of Control+F7 to toggle the option.  I personally don't think that option needs a keyboard shortcut, but hey, at least you can now cycle through all of the options with the keyboard!

Author: Jon LaBass
jon at bsdguides dot org