Andy Laub

Majafa’s post about random keyboard shortcuts inspired me to look through my system preferences to see whether OS X does or doesn’t have something comparable to Windows’ sticky keys. I think they do, but I can’t find it. However, what I did notice (finally) was this:

Notice that option at the bottom? It does a little thing called letting you tab through your dialog box choices, one of the only, if not the only UI details I missed from Windows:

This is an issue that we’ve been wondering about for awhile (we were just discussing it the other day, actually) and I swear, sometimes these options only show up after you’ve been using the computer for 2 years. Yeah, that’s it.

Update I

Sticky keys can be activated under System Preferences > Universal Access > Keyboard.

Update II

Much to my chagrin, Paul pointed out that the return / enter key does not select the tab highlighted option on such menus - it will still function same as always; in the case above, it would still read as “OK” instead of “Cancel” in spite of your best intentions.

However, the key you would want to use to confirm the tabbed option would be the space bar, which is easily the king of the keyboard. Try it - you’ll like it.