5/15/2023 0 Comments Mac access menu bar with keyboard![]() You can see some of these things don't have keyboard shortcuts. ![]() So I could go up here to insert page break but maybe I can use this shortcut here but I don't remember the shortcut. I'm going to keep it a Control F2 and let's say now I'm in Pages and I want to insert a page break. I can double click on it and then I can change it to whatever I want. So the third one here is Move focus to the menu bar, Control F2. Then you can see a variety of ways that you can access different parts of the interface with a keyboard shortcut. So go into System Preferences and then Keyboard and under Shortcuts click on Keyboard here on the left. To do this you need to know the proper keyboard shortcut. You can actually use the menu items here at the top with only the keyboard. You want to keep your fingers on the keyboard. You have to take your hands off the keyboard and go to your mouse or trackpad, move the cursor to the top and look through the menus to find what you want.īut say you don't want to be interrupted. Video Transcript: Say you're busy typing away on your Mac and you want to access a command that's in the Menu bar. Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below orīe sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.Check out Access the Menu Bar With the Keyboard at YouTube for closed captioning and more options. Unlike a true contextual menu, this does require you look to the top-left for the commands you seek, but may still suffice to bring you the functionality you are looking for. If you wish to close the menu then you can press the hot key again a couple of times. Navigating with the arrows will allow you to select a menu and a command in it, then pressing Enter will activate that command. With this hot key assigned, you can now press it at any point and you will see the Apple menu become highlighted. Since you will likely be using arrow keys to navigate with the keyboard, I recommend using an arrow-based hot key, such as Control-Option-Down Arrow (this one in particular is not used for other purposes). Then click the "^F2" hot key text so it highlights, then press the hot key of choice. Then locate the option called "Move focus to the menu bar" and ensure it is checked. To do this, open the Keyboard system preferences, and in the Keyboard Shortcuts section, select the Keyboard category. Therefore, if you reassign the menu access to another hot key, you can not only ensure it works more reliably, but also make it more relevant to keyboard access. ![]() However, this may sometimes not work, especially if you have the function hot keys used for other features like the Dashboard, Launch Pad, and other system controls and services. While the contextual activation is lacking, in OS X you can activate and access the top menu bar using the keyboard, which will give you access to all of the commands in the contextual menu, and more.Īpple's default option for accessing the menus is to press Control-F2. Check this option and assign a custom hot key to it, and you can then quickly access the system menus from any application. However, there is a workaround that may suffice. This lack of a key-activated contextual menu option in OS X may be frustrating for some users, especially those who have used Windows and wish for a similar feature. The menu in this operating system is linked directly to pointer's location, so even if you were to simulate a control-click input (that which activates the right-click input), then you would see the menu appear under the mouse pointer and not on the current selection. ![]() Unfortunately, OS X does not support an option to activate the contextual menu without using the pointer. For some operating systems like Microsoft Windows, you can press a contextual menu keyboard button to activate the system's contextual menu on a selection of items and copy them, send them via e-mail, or otherwise manipulate them. Even though contextual menus are largely useful when using a mouse or trackpad, sometimes they can be convenient to activate when navigating or managing your computer with the keyboard.
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