Press First Letter Of Button On Popups

A quick way to answer a prompt that comes up is to press the first letter of the word on the button you would be clicking.

So for the following prompt, I would type C for Cancel and Y for Yes.

This doesn’t seem to work all of the time on all prompts. However, if the selected button is the button you want, you can also hit enter to submit it. You can also use the escape key to cancel out of prompts with a cancel button.

[Submitted By Jay Ryan]

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I Like This Tip!

Written by Brad Jasper on August 17, 2005 at 1:42 pm - Press First Letter Of Button On Popups has 7 comments - Categorized in Easy Tips, General Tips, keyboard shortcuts

7 Responses to “Press First Letter Of Button On Popups”

1. 
   Robert
   You can also use the TAB key to cycle through the buttons and use the space-bar to select. The default button will remain blue, but a blue outline will highlight the buttons as you move through the selections. August 17th, 2005 at 5:35 pm
   
   
2. 
   kev
   robert, i tried tabbing between cancel and ok from the add bookmark dialog and it did nothing. spacebar does not do anything either..
   
   the fuctionality you're talking about sounds like windows August 17th, 2005 at 6:22 pm
   
   
3. 
   Andy
   Command-. (period) also works for cancel buttons. August 18th, 2005 at 12:56 am
   
   
4. 
   encro
   Cancel is always Escape or Command-. (period)
   Don't Save is Command-D
   The Pulsing Button is always selected by pressing Return (Enter)
   
   as the previous comment states you can Tab thru the buttons and the space to toggle the buttons state once you have turned on Full Keyboard Access in system preferences. August 18th, 2005 at 10:53 am
   
   
5. 
   JoshB
   For Robert's tip to work, you'll need to have 'full keyboard access' turned on. To do this, go to System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse and select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. At the bottom, you'll see a checkbox for 'Turn on full keyboard access.'
   
   Also, this window is where you can set keyboard shortcuts to use in all of your programs. For instance, I have Command-shift-z mapped to the 'Zoom' command, so I can make iTunes go from the full window to the small window without using my mouse. August 18th, 2005 at 11:04 am
   
   
6. 
   kev
   ah ha! thanks for the heads up
   
   why isn't full keyboard access on by default? is there a reason to make a limited and a full access instead of just making it full? August 18th, 2005 at 1:39 pm
   
   
7. 
   kev
   hmmm.. and by the way, deleting a playlist from itunes with full keyboard access on still does not let me use the tab key to switch between "cancel" and "ok"
   
   and spacebar to act as an enter key to select either option is also not working.... is there some other option i need to change in prefs?? geez...
   
   (im a new mac user, if that isnt obvious already) August 18th, 2005 at 1:41 pm
   
   

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