Check boxes without mouse in MacOS

[michaljanata]

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 solution]

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]

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/3ZOiisX

I hope this clarifies!

Best,

Anshul Saini

[michaljanata]

@Anshul_Saini @Conrad_C thank you. Not good news, so I have to try to somehow live with it.

[Conrad_C]

Enabled Full Keyboard Access from System Settings.

By @Anshul_Saini

I think that’s correct for earlier versions of macOS. However, for the last few versions including at least macOS 15 and 14, it’s very important for Mac users to know that Apple changed what Full Keyboard Access means. This can result in conflicts with Adobe applications, to the point where it might be best for Adobe Mac users to keep Full Keyboard Access disabled; I’ll explain why below.

If all you want is keyboard control for dialog boxes and menus, it isn’t necessary to enable Full Keyboard Access; Keyboard Navigation is enough and it’s harmless.

Keyboard Navigation and Full Keyboard Access are two different kinds of macOS keyboard control. Then what is Full Keyboard Access now? As shown in the picture below, Full Keyboard Access is a separate option under Accessibility. It seems to be able to focus on more types of UI items.

What’s the problem with Full Keyboard Access? There have been a number of Adobe Community threads where users found applications such as InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop unexpectedly closing, and it was traced to an issue with that application and Full Keyboard Access that caused the application to close when the spacebar is pressed for any reason.

This can happen because in some Adobe apps, Full Keyboard Access may default to the first control in the top left corner of an Adobe application window, which is typically the red Close button for the entire application frame. If a user presses the spacebar to use the Hand tool or simply because they’re typing a space while entering text, the spacebar will apply the focused control, and if the default focused control is the application frame Close button, then the document or application may close. In several non-Adobe Mac applications I tried, the default focused control is a less destructive one.

So, if a Mac user wants keyboard control over UI items in Adobe software, this is how they should do it in System Settings:

• In Keyboard, enable Keyboard Navigation, but be aware that it won’t always work in Adobe apps. 
• In Accessibility, do not enable Full Keyboard Access unless you have a disability that requires it, or use an accessibility device that requires it to be enabled. If it‘s enabled, be aware that there may be serious conflicts between Adobe applications and this option. Some of those conflicts might be resolved by remapping keyboard shortcuts.  

(For Adobe) Threads describing conflicts with macOS Full Keyboard Access:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/i-can-no-longer-use-my-space-bar-to-mark-spaces-...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/in-design-spacebar-closes-app-instead-of-creatin...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/spacebar-not-working-as-quick-hand-tool-on-ma...

And one from the Apple Support Community…

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253348323