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TICKET ARCHIVE -> How to activate the blue Apple icon without the mouse?

RobinS - Mar 24, 2006 - 10:56 am

Its so tedious to use the mouse needlessly because I can't seem to find a keyboard shortcut to go to the Apple icon (left hand blue apple logo on the left side of the menu bar in OS X programs). Surely there is a way of activating this thing so I can then use the arrow keys to go where I want? Mice suck. I'm forever hopping from the keyboard to mouse to keyboard to mouse. If only I was left handed and didn't have so much distance to travel, hundreds and hundreds of times a day! Apple sure seems to be ignorant ergonomically. There preference for the mouse (ironic that they make just about the most useless mice in the industry) runs rampant in all their software. And when there is a keyboard shortcut they don't put it in the drop down menu. It takes up no space. Yet they want to keep this a secret for some inexplicable reason. Bizarre software designers - or management. Its got to be the upper management.

earthsaver - Mar 24, 2006 - 1:11 pm

There *are* shortcuts for accessing the menubar, Dock, and many more aspects of the visible display. You'll find them, naturally, in the Keyboard Shortcuts section of Keyboard & Mouse preferences. See Keyboard Navigation. You can configure them there, too.

You can also create more keyboard shortcuts for specific applications in that preference pane. However, given your addiction to the keyboard, you'd probably be better off investing in Unsanity's MenuMaster, which allows you to easily add or remove new shortcuts. Just highlight a menu command for an application, service, or menu extra and press the desired shortcut; to remove, highlight the command and press delete.

- Ben

RobinS - Mar 24, 2006 - 2:15 pm

so you don't know of any way of going to System preferences or just activating the blue Apple icon in the Menu bar?

earthsaver - Mar 24, 2006 - 5:28 pm

The Apple menu is the first menu to be selected when you press the menubar-activating shortcut, as defined where I described. If you want a faster way to access System preferences, however, use an accessory like LaunchBar or Quicksilver. Then, you need not go to any menu; just activate the accessory, type the abbreviation that make sense to you, and you're practically there.

You can do similarly (though not quite as smooth-and-conveniently with Spotlight).

RobinS - Mar 26, 2006 - 4:53 pm

You'd have to be a circus contortionist to be able to hit Ctrl+F2 easily. And that's coming from someone plays the piano. Is there any way of remapping this shortcut? It would be nice if I could had a keyboard shortcut but I don't see any way of doing so. Is there?

earthsaver - Mar 26, 2006 - 7:34 pm

Did you try changing the shortcut, Control+F2, to something else?

RobinS - Mar 27, 2006 - 10:33 am

I'd love to but I can't see how. If I want to add a shortcut, I can click the + then input System Preferences but then I need to specify where I'm going. I don't see how one changes an existing one. Sometimes I think a shortcut that I want to introduce interferes with another shortcut used somewhere else. Is there any way of knowing where they are? I guess every program has different one.
This is getting complicated!

earthsaver - Mar 27, 2006 - 6:25 pm

Have you tried clicking a shortcut you want to change?, as you would a file's name in the Finder.

If you want greater control over shortcuts that Apple's implementation allows (due to conflicting shortcuts), you need to try Unsanity's MenuMaster instead.

RobinS - Mar 28, 2006 - 10:50 am

> Have you tried clicking a shortcut you want to change?, as you would a file's name in the Finder.

Have you? Have you ever tried this? Unless you're using totally different software than me, you would know it doesn't too very much. As in nothing. I haven't tried tossing the computer against the wall either....

Yes - of course 3rd party apps can do lots of things. I want to know (for sure) if things are possible without using them. Hence the original post.

earthsaver - Mar 28, 2006 - 5:46 pm

I'm using Tiger the same as you. When I click on an existing shortcut in the list, I get the ability to edit it. To change, I just press the new shortcut I want to use. Of course, I don't ever go there to do it because I use MenuMaster. But that is my experience. Do you want to find out if another tech has a different experience?

RobinS - Mar 29, 2006 - 11:33 am

This is indeed odd. When I highlight the shorcut, say:
Move focus to the menu bar (which is Command+F2)
and I hit Enter, or click with th mouse, nothing happens.
How exactly do you change the value of Command+F2 to something else?

earthsaver - Mar 29, 2006 - 1:55 pm

Are you clicking on the shortcut itself?, or just anywhere on the line containing it. Because, remember, it's the shortcut you want to change, not its action.

RobinS - Mar 30, 2006 - 5:02 pm

I can't believe I didn't see that! Thanks. I was clicking on the line......duh... Now I"m a very happy camper. And I don't even like camping that much.