osx - Keyboard Shortcut to Right Click in Mac OS X

22
2013-10
  • Alan Storm

    Is there a keyboard shortcut for right clicking in Mac OS X?

    If not, when using the built in spell check, is there a way to drive spelling correction via the keyboard?

    Also if not, is there a third party application that can give you a keyboard shortcut that allows to you right click?

    If your answer is "press control while clicking the main mouse button", you're not paying attention.

  • Answers
  • Chris Johnsen

    Right Click via Keyboard

    • Activate “Mouse Keys” (in System Preferences, search for “mouse keys”, turn it on).
    • Position the mouse cursor.
    • Hold Control.
    • Press and release the keypad's 5 key.
    • Release Control.

    Spell Check via Keyboard

    There are standard shortcuts for the built-in spell checking. Not all applications may have these menu items.

    • ⌘; — Edit > Spelling > Check Spelling
      • This selects the next ‘misspelled’ word.
    • ⌘: — Edit > Spelling > Spelling…
      • This selects the next ‘misspelled’ word and opens the Spelling floating window.
      • To focus the floating window without using the mouse, you can use the “full keyboard access” shortcuts (enable them in System Preferences, search for “full keyboard access”, it (and the extra shortcuts it enables) are under the “Keyboard Navigation” subtree.
        • You may need to reassign the shortcuts.
        • The default for “move focus to the floating window” is ⌃F6, but that seems to be used by the editor here on SO, so I needed to change it to test it while composing this answer (I used ⌥F6).
        • Once focus is on the Spelling floating window, you can
          • dismiss it with Escape, or
          • use Tab to move to the various controls, and
          • with the replacement textbox focused, you can
            • use Up and Down to select replacements, and
            • type a replacement, and
            • use Return to activate the default button: Correct

  • Related Question

    osx - Switching between keyboards in mac - shortcut key?
  • alok

    What shortcut key do you use to switch keyboards on your mac? Windows uses Alt + Shift, and on the Mac the default is Apple + Space. However, that's also the shortcut for spotlight.

    I ended up disabling the spotlight shortcut.

    What's your preferred keyboard switching shortcut?


  • Related Answers
  • Jasper

    On a Mac I use Command + Shift + Z to switch languages. I was already used to Alt + Shift from Windows and, since Command + Shift alone wasn't a valid combo, I just added the nearest key (Z).

  • Jasper

    Since I use GNOME-DO on Linux, and used to use Google Desktop Search on Windows, I changed the spotlight shortcut to Ctrl + Space, and use Apple + Space for language switching.