Navigate your Mac using Full Keyboard Access
With Full Keyboard Access enabled, you can use the Tab key and other keys to navigate every UI element on the screen and navigate your Mac, instead of using a mouse or trackpad. Full Keyboard Access highlights the item on the screen that has focus. You can customize the color, contrast, and size of the highlight.
Turn on Full Keyboard Access
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
, click Keyboard, then click Navigation.Select the Enable Full Keyboard Access checkbox.
To change the appearance of Full Keyboard Access—for example, to change the outline color—click Options. To see a complete list of Full Keyboard Access shortcuts, click Commands.
Tip: When Full Keyboard Access is enabled on your Mac, quickly show the Full Keyboard Access shortcuts by pressing Tab-H, then using the arrow keys to navigate the lists.
Navigate using Full Keyboard Access
When Full Keyboard Access is enabled on your Mac, do any of the following:
Move to the next UI element: Press the Tab key.
Move to the previous UI element: Press Shift-Tab.
Move between items in a group (such as a list of files in a folder or items in a sidebar): Press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key, or the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key. Full Keyboard Access highlights the group and the item within the group that has focus.
Select an item: Press the Space bar.
Open a folder: Press the Space bar twice.
Jump to the menu bar: Press Control-F2.
Jump to the Dock: Press Fn-A.
Open Control Center: Press Fn-C.
Open Notification Center: Press Fn-N.
Temporarily disable Full Keyboard Access
When Full Keyboard Access is enabled on your Mac, you can use Pass-Through Mode to temporarily turn it off when needed—for example, if you’re playing an online game and don’t want Full Keyboard Access to interfere with game interaction—then turn it back on.
Turn Pass-Through Mode on or off: Press Control-Option-Command-P.