Dialog buttons and the keyboard

Most Operating Systems implement the concept of default buttons. One of the buttons on a form is visually recognizable as such. On Mac OS X, the button is painted deep blue. The reason why it is called default button, is when you press enter, this button is “virtually” pressed.

Why I am telling this? Not every body is familiar with this concept. But also, there are two other similar concepts. The cancel button is one of them. Normally it isn’t visually distinct, but it usually sports the text “cancel”. Also, this button has a shortcut. When you press the escape key, the cancel key is chosen.

But what me surprised on Mac OS X was what I call the pre-selected button, see the button with the blue outline on the screenshot. This key has the focus, and when you press the spacebar, this key is “pressed”. The brilliant part of this: they didn’t pick just a random button for this (the default or cancel button don’t have the focus). Somebody picked it carefully. So all three buttons are accessible by just one keystroke.

Normally, this behavior is not available. You need to change a setting in the system preferences. Open the System Preferences from the Apple menu. Choose Keyboard & Mouse, and then the Keyboard Shortcuts TAB. On this panel, select the “All controls” radio button (see this screenshot).