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Many user interface (UI) elements or dialog boxes have buttons. I would like to be able to activate a button with just the keyboard, without the mouse. How can I do this?

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7 Answers 7

Reset to default
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For many dialog boxes you can select the option you want by pressing ⌘+firstletter where firstletter is the first letter of the option you want to select

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  • 3
    Cooool!!! +1! I had no idea.
    – Harv
    Jan 29, 2011 at 22:33
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    I haven't been able to get this to work once. What dialog boxes support this? What percentage of the time does this work for you given all the apps you use?
    – user588
    Feb 13, 2011 at 20:38
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    @mankoff Try it while carrying out what the original question asked and it works
    – conorgriffin
    Feb 13, 2011 at 20:49
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    This doesn't work more often than not in my experience.
    – fredley
    Oct 31, 2011 at 10:59
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    This works in Sequel Pro. I found it very non-intuitive, which is how I ended up here. Thank you!
    – Jonathan Nesbitt
    Jan 22, 2015 at 19:49
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Enable Keyboard Control of the UI

System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts

Then select "All Controls" radio button at the bottom, rather than just "Text boxes and lists only".

enter image description here

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • ⇥ (TAB) will move between buttons.
  • esc (ESC) is cancel.
  • space (SPACE) selects the active button (blue, outline).
  • ↩ (RETURN) is OK or the default button (blue, pulsing, filled).
  • For some dialog boxes, ⌘+first_letter will select the button with a certain first letter in the text (as pointed out by @Griffo).
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    It is actually under the "Shortcuts" tab. System Perfs > Keyboard > Shortcuts
    – Chris Watts
    Aug 27, 2014 at 17:22
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    This is definitely the correct answer.
    – Wesley Smith
    Jul 21, 2016 at 6:08
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    This is the correct answer. It works perfectly on macOS High Sierra.
    – alezvic
    Apr 26, 2018 at 0:05
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    This works on the latest macOS Mojave. Thanks~
    – jdhao
    Oct 12, 2018 at 17:05
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    In macOS Catalina, the checkbox is now labeled "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" and was unchecked by default (which seems to be against the spirit of accessibility).
    – user110857
    Oct 1, 2020 at 16:32
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To elaborate on the answers above, many (most?) dialogue boxes will have the default option in blue. Hitting ⇥ will cycle between options, with a blue outline around the other button, but the default will remain blue. Hitting ↩ will always select the default, space will select whichever button is highlighted.

In this example, pressing ↩ will 'Keep .txt' and pressing space will 'Use .bak.'

Dialogue Box

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In macOS Big Sur (version 11.3+), System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts

Select Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls

Select Use keyboard navigation

@Eric Leschinski's answer gives an overview of keyboard shortcuts

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⌘+. also works for Cancel. And in some applications just pressing the initial letters works. Photoshop is one, but it's pretty common for other cross-platform applications too.

Typing ⌘+W+D is a quick way to do something like Close and don't save.

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See full Keyboard Access at the bottom of the following screenshot:

Keyboard Preferences When a prompt window like the one you included appears, the selected button will be highlighted in blue.
Screenshot:

Copy dialog

Then you press the space to action that button.

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    Thanks @Am1rr3zA for the previous edit but I discovered my answer didn't work so I amended it. ;o)
    – conorgriffin
    Jan 31, 2011 at 23:49
-1

Tab to move to the next dialog box. Space to select

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    As stated by the answers above, this doesn't just work out of the box. You have to enable it in System Preferences.
    – daviesgeek
    Aug 18, 2012 at 6:19
  • @daviesgeek — And Tab does not switch dialog box ! Fortunately.
    – Nicolas Barbulesco
    Jan 31, 2015 at 17:41

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