Check boxes without mouse in MacOS

Question

Hi,
I would like to ask expirienced Mac user for help.
I'v just got new Mini M4, my first mac, and one of few functionality I'm missing is checking boxes in dialog windows without mouse, for example Resample checkbox in Image size dialog. In Windows they are accsesible with Alt+letter keyboard, so I dont have to touch mouse too mucha, but I still couldn't find a way how to check/uncheck them with keyboard only on MacOS.
For me it is big workflow slowdown.

Is it possible somehow?

Thanks.

Conrad_C · Accepted Answer

There is good news and bad news.

macOS does support driving the UI with the keyboard. In the screen shots below, you’ll see that this can be enabled in System Settings, Keyboard panel. Enabling Keyboard Navigation lets you select items in dialog boxes in much the same way as Windows (Tab/Shift-Tab among fields and options, enable/disable selected option by pressing the spacebar).

In Keyboard Shortcuts, there are configurable shortcuts for moving focus to various other parts of the UI such as menus. When a menu has focus, you can navigate horizontally using left/right arrow keys, and you can navigate menus with arrow keys and Home/End/Page Up/Page Down keys. To select a menu command when a menu has focus, start typing the name of the command and it will select as soon as it matches. (The Alt menu shortcuts in Windows don’t have an equivalent in macOS.)

The demo below shows using macOS Keyboard Navigation in a dialog box in Adobe Lightroom Classic. Why am I not showing Photoshop? Well, that’s the bad news. For some reason, some of these standard macOS accessibility shortcuts don’t always work in Photoshop dialog boxes. For example, in Image Size you can Tab between fields, but options and pop-up menus never select. I don’t know why, but it’s possible they are using proprietary code in at least some dialog boxes. Support of macOS Keyboard Navigation is uneven across several Adobe applications. This has been the case for many years, so it isn’t clear when it might be resolved.

Anshul_Saini · Answer

Hi Michal,That’s a very thoughtful question, and we hear you. On macOS, keyboard navigation can feel quite different compared to Windows, especially when you’re trying to streamline your workflow and minimize mouse use.• Enabled Full Keyboard Access from System Settings.• You can use Tab and Shift+Tab to move between some elements in dialogs like Image Size, such as width, height, and resolution fields.• But unfortunately, checkboxes like “Resample” can’t currently be reached or toggled using the keyboard alone. We’ve tested this internally as well, and this seems to be a limitation of how macOS handles focus for custom UI elements in apps like Photoshop. Still, it works in Lightroom, as it doesn't have any custom UI elements.There are also system-wide macOS shortcuts (like Control-F7) that change how focus behaves, and they can help with broader UI navigation. But even with those enabled, certain checkboxes remain inaccessible without a mouse click in some PS dialogs. Here is the link to Mac Keyboard Focus Shortcuts: https://adobe.ly/3ZOiisXI hope this clarifies!Best,Anshul Saini

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