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mamcx

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 13, 2008
210
28
I get my first mac ever, a macbook with leopard and all the updates applies as today.

Ok, so this OS X look good and start & run overally good.

But the way the keyboard shorcuts work are driving me crazy. Because I'm a developer I depend more in working on the keyb, and after 4 days on this still get confused in how:

- Start, End, PG Up, Pg Down not work as expected. Start not go to the star, End not go to the end (move char by char ?), Pg up & down only move a line at time.

I can shift-end to move to the end of a line, and instead select a whole block of text.

This is my main problem. How emulate this?

- Del key not delete. I know about the crazy control-backspace for deleting but...

- Is normal that keyboard navigation barelly work on forms? I can't cycle on text-edits but when, for example, a form have:

- TextEdit
- TextEdit
- CheckBook

the checkbook can't be focused with tab or enter. Is necesary move the mouse

- So, what trully is the enter key replacement here?

Enter work a bit weird, IMHO. When hit some file, I hit enter and put the thing to rename!. Plop! Also, ENTER is USELESS in dialogs... if a dialog have visually the Accept button selected I expect that hitting enter clik on that button. But not.

- Leopard can set a whole font size. That sucks. Thinker do more or less something but on this 13" screen the font look very bad... and lowering the resolution is worst.


----

I have synergyKM so I can use my windows keyboard and some thing work better, but in short, exist a guide for how use the keyboard in mac????
 

lee1210

macrumors 68040
Jan 10, 2005
3,182
3
Dallas, TX
I will address the ones of these that I know. I've collected over time, just getting bugged enough by something to track it down. Unfortunately this means I don't have a good reference.

To get the end of a line: (like 'end')
Apple+right arrow
To select from current position to end of a line:
Apple+shift+right arrow

To get to the start of a line: (like 'home')
Apple+left arrow
To select from current position to start of a line:
Apple+Shift+left arrow

I've honestly only used portable macs for any amount of time, so i haven't had a separate del and backspace, so someone else will have to field that one.

When navigating in finder, if you want to open a document or launch an app it's apple+down arrow. I don't get this one, either. Apple+o might also work, i just always use down arrow.

These are the ones I can answer definitively while not at a mac, so hopefully others can fill in the gaps.

This page has some shortcuts as well:
http://kb.iu.edu/data/akrm.html

-Lee
 

TEG

macrumors 604
Jan 21, 2002
6,625
173
Langley, Washington
I get my first mac ever, a macbook with leopard and all the updates applies as today.

Ok, so this OS X look good and start & run overally good.

But the way the keyboard shorcuts work are driving me crazy. Because I'm a developer I depend more in working on the keyb, and after 4 days on this still get confused in how:

- Start, End, PG Up, Pg Down not work as expected. Start not go to the star, End not go to the end (move char by char ?), Pg up & down only move a line at time.

The build in keyboard, you will find that these commands will only work when you hold down the 'fn' key as they are on multi-use keys (the arrow keys). PgUp and PgDn work as expected, but Home and End take you to the top of the page or bottom of the page, except in certain programs where it goes to the beginning or end of the document. If you are in a single line input box, such as an Address Bar in a web browser, pressing up will take you to the start of the line and pressing down will take you to the end of the line.

I can shift-end to move to the end of a line, and instead select a whole block of text.
This is my main problem. How emulate this?
Shift-Down will select the whole line.

- Del key not delete. I know about the crazy control-backspace for deleting but...
Delete is Backspace, to get the 'forward' delete, 'fn'-Delete will do it, or use the delete key on a regular keyboard.

- Is normal that keyboard navigation barelly work on forms? I can cycle on text-edits but when, for example, a form have:

- TextEdit
- TextEdit
- CheckBook

the checkbook can be focused with tab or enter. Is necesary move the mouse

- So, what trully is the enter key replacement here?
Not sure what you mean, but tab works, just like Windows.

Enter work a bit weird, IMHO. When hit some file, I hit enter and put the thing to rename!. Plop! Also, ENTER is USELESS in dialogs... if a dialog have visually the Accept button selected I expect that hitting enter clik on that button. But not.
To Open a file in finder, use Command-O or Command-DownArrow.
Dialogs will respond to enter on the solid blue button, or Command-First letter for others, or you an change the Universal Access settings to allow you to cycle between buttons with tab, and activate the one highlighted with space.

- Leopard can set a whole font size. That sucks. Thinker do more or less something but on this 13" screen the font look very bad... and lowering the resolution is worst.
There are some utilities to change the font size, but that distorts the screen, just deal with the size, or get an external monitor.

I have synergyKM so I can use my windows keyboard and some thing work better, but in short, exist a guide for how use the keyboard in mac????
This link as many shortcuts you may find useful http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

TEG
 

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
- Is normal that keyboard navigation barelly work on forms? I can't cycle on text-edits but when, for example, a form have:

- TextEdit
- TextEdit
- CheckBook

the checkbook can't be focused with tab or enter. Is necesary move the mouse

There's a setting in Keyboard Shortcuts in your System Preferences, "Full Keyboard access", set this to "All Controls".
 

mamcx

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 13, 2008
210
28
Thank you.

Still not "perfect" for my tste but improved. Anyway I know that must learn new tricks, so.. ;)
 
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