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What? The consistency of keyboard shortcuts across all applications, including those not developed by Apple, is one of the reasons I love OS X...

function_seven 8y ago
The consistency is great, but number of actions you can perform just from the keyboard is smaller. I use the Alt key to access menu items all the time in Windows. As far as I know, this isn't possible in most Mac applications. To get to a menu item, you have to use the mouse. Sure, some menu items also have Command shortcuts, but not all of them. I do like the general theme of Ctrl being used for system-wide shortcuts, while Cmd is (mostly) reserved for applications. I just wish menu items had a letter underlined...
- kitsunesoba 8y ago
  It’s not on by default, but you can turn on keyboard menu accessibility.
  - function_seven 8y ago
    Thanks. TIL about [CTRL]+[F2]. The menu items don't have the little underlined letter to indicate the key, but this is pretty close. First letter does it. Just have to select, then arrow down to display, before continuing.
kitsunesoba 8y ago
Not to mention how the Keyboard preference pane allows one to assign custom keyboard shortcuts to any menu item of any application, even when the app’s dev never included or intended such functionality. As long as the app hooks the native menubar, it just works. Combined that with enabling tab-highlighting of any onscreen control and I’m not sure how macOS lags behind in keyboard control. You can’t quite do system wide vim bindings or anything crazy like that (though hacking around with Hammerspoon would get you close), but that’s going to be difficult with any setup short of a bespoke Linux desktop with a customized WM and very selective set of applications.
oneeyedpigeon 8y ago
You have to be kidding. Page up/down don’t even work consistently, and I can’t remember the last Mac app I used that had acceptable keyboard navigation.

function_seven 8y ago

The consistency is great, but number of actions you can perform just from the keyboard is smaller. I use the Alt key to access menu items all the time in Windows. As far as I know, this isn't possible in most Mac applications. To get to a menu item, you have to use the mouse. Sure, some menu items also have Command shortcuts, but not all of them. I do like the general theme of Ctrl being used for system-wide shortcuts, while Cmd is (mostly) reserved for applications. I just wish menu items had a letter underlined...

kitsunesoba 8y ago
It’s not on by default, but you can turn on keyboard menu accessibility.
- function_seven 8y ago
  Thanks. TIL about [CTRL]+[F2]. The menu items don't have the little underlined letter to indicate the key, but this is pretty close. First letter does it. Just have to select, then arrow down to display, before continuing.

kitsunesoba 8y ago

Not to mention how the Keyboard preference pane allows one to assign custom keyboard shortcuts to any menu item of any application, even when the app’s dev never included or intended such functionality. As long as the app hooks the native menubar, it just works. Combined that with enabling tab-highlighting of any onscreen control and I’m not sure how macOS lags behind in keyboard control. You can’t quite do system wide vim bindings or anything crazy like that (though hacking around with Hammerspoon would get you close), but that’s going to be difficult with any setup short of a bespoke Linux desktop with a customized WM and very selective set of applications.

oneeyedpigeon 8y ago

You have to be kidding. Page up/down don’t even work consistently, and I can’t remember the last Mac app I used that had acceptable keyboard navigation.