How do you scroll in forms on a Mac?

CT
Posted By
Chris_Tarampi
Jul 13, 2008
Views
366
Replies
7
Status
Closed
Okay I just noticed something. On a PC, when Im on a form or something, when I press tab to go from one box to another, it would also go through the drop down menus. But on the Mac, it skips the drop down menus, so I would have to actually use the mouse which is a hassle. How can you fix that?

And also, on the PC, when you have a drop down menu selected, you can scroll through it with the up and down buttons. Like on photoshop, you could scroll through the blending options and see its effects quickly with each one by just quickly pressing the buttons… But on the Mac, I dont know how to do that, I have to click each one indivisually. How can I fix that?

Hope you understand, thanks!

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jean_p
Jul 13, 2008
For your first question: Look in your System Preferences, and find the Mouse and Keyboard section.

Go to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, and look at the bottom of the panel. Look at the Full Keyboard Access setting at the bottom of this panel. Select the All Controls option.

For scrolling a drop-down, the up and down arrows should do it, after the drop-down is made active. If that isn’t working for you, let us know specifically which drop-down you are using.
CC
Conrad_Chavez
Jul 13, 2008
In Mac OS X, go to System Preferences, click Keyboard and Mouse, click Keyboard Shortcuts, and then in Full Keyboard Access, select "All controls." Now it’ll work much like Windows. When you tab to a pop-up menu, press the spacebar to open the menu and then use any standard keyboard scrolling method (Home, End, Page Up/Page Down, or type-ahead) to select any item in that menu.

Since you’re posting in the Photoshop forum, there is a catch: If a developer uses their own custom code to build dialog boxes, Mac OS X dialog box navigation may not work. Unfortunately, this applies to Photoshop CS3. In Photoshop you’ll still have to click pop-up menus to get them open. Once open, though, you can navigate a Photoshop menu with the keyboard.
WG
Welles_Goodrich
Jul 13, 2008
Chris,

On another note sort of relating to your inquiry is a very nifty Help feature which shows items in menus. Click once on Help in the menu bar in Photoshop (this is a system wide feature). Type almost any character in the alphabet in the search field. Instantly a number of items beginning with that character appear in a dropdown menu. Use the arrow key to go down the list and the menu with the item appears with a floating arrow pointing to it. If it’s a single command not requiring another menu of options, the return key activates the command.
CT
Chris_Tarampi
Jul 14, 2008
Like when Im in photoshop, and i click on blending modes in the layers panel like normal, overylay etc… when im in windows, once i click in it and the drop down menu is still selected, and i can scroll through it with the keyboard quickly too see effects. But when on a Mac, and i click into the blending modes, and choose like overlay for example, and i wanna go through all the effects quicky with the keyboard, i cant b/c it isnt selected anymore. How do I fix that?

And also, on a windows, when I have a file of something selected and i wanted to open it with the keyboard, i press enter. but on the mac, i press enter, and it just renames the file and stuff.

How can I fix these?
WG
Welles_Goodrich
Jul 14, 2008
If you are working on a Photoshop layer and have the move tool selected then you can use the shift key with – or + (plus or minus) to flip through the layer blend modes, from Normal, Dissolve, Darken, Multiply … right through to Color and Luminosity. You don’t have to actually have to use the blend mode menu at all.

The Dodge, Burn, Sponge, Brush and Clone Tools all have a blending mode option and the same quick key will work in the same way when one of these tools is selected.

I’m not sure I understand the second question. Is this a Mac system-wide question as opposed to how Photoshop works? If you’ve already selected a file why not just double click on it? (As I say I’m sure I’m not understanding what you wish to accomplish.) If you want to open a file via keyboard from within an app Command O is the generally accepted Mac shortcut which brings up an Open dialog.
CC
Conrad_Chavez
Jul 14, 2008
The second question there is definitely an OS X question, not a Photoshop question. On Windows, you can easily open a selected file or application by pressing Enter. On the Mac, Enter/Return doesn’t work that way, it only renames. If you have an item selected in a folder on the desktop and you want to open it with the keyboard, you have to press either Command+Down Arrow or Command+O.
CT
Chris_Tarampi
Jul 14, 2008
yes!!! okay thank you. idy they would making opening a folder kinda not so quick to do.

but thank you!!!

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