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You can use tab, enter, space etc. to navigate dialogs of course. But perhaps you can't use the arrow keys, I don't know.

You can use arrow keys, just perhaps not in the way that Thom wants to use arrow keys. I was bored enough to throw a video together showing it, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBqPfsDkGcU

Basically, the comic's claim that you cannot use the arrow keys for navigation in dialog boxes is false, however, (later in these comments) Thom is correct in stating that you cannot use arrow keys to cycle through buttons (which is accomplished with Tab/Shift+Tab). IMO, it's a lot of quibbling over a triviality, but the assertion in the comic is incorrect.

You didn't look at the comic very well, did you?

That's a nice video, but it does not refer to the comic at all. Look at the Windows box, and see what kind of dialog is on there. Not a print dialog, not a save dialog - but a confirmation dialog. You can only use tab to navigate a confirmation dialog in OSX - and again, even THAT is disabled BY DEFAULT.

Comics are not just about the words, people.

In my experience, the number of people who use keyboard for navigation (on either platform) is very low. Since 3.11, I used Windows on my personal machines, followed by Linux on my web server, and eventually replaced my Windows 2000 Professional desktop with a Mac. On numerous occasions I have been asked, "how did you do that?" when navigating interfaces with the keyboard instead of a mouse, because it was quicker.

I tend to feel that it's quibbling to complain that Apple does not enable full keyboard access to all controls by default; the users that would take advantage of this feature should be sufficiently advanced in their use of Mac OS X to enable it, much like Windows users who are advanced enough to use Alt+key shortcuts in Windows can enable it to underline the Alt+key shortcut letters in their menus (which is also disabled by default). It's clearly placed in a logical place in the preferences, and it is (in my opinion) quite clearly explained.

Personally, I feel Mac OS X provides a lot more control and room for customization via the Keyboard Shortcuts panel in System Preferences, and agree with a lot of Neebe's comments on its behavior. Why is it an issue that you can't arrow-key to Cancel if you can use Tab/Shift-Tab to select it, and better yet use Esc to cancel out of the dialog box? I definitely prefer being able to use one key (Esc) instead of two.

Thom: I hope that you don't interpret this comment as slagging your comics, I've been reading them since you started posting them on OS News (and will continue to do so), and have been entertained by them. I just feel that it's quibbling to complain that something doesn't work exactly like Windows on Mac OS X, when there is similar functionality (albeit, in my experience, more logically implemented on Mac OS X).

No offense intended, Thom, but I don't see how one could recognize the type of dialog from the cartoon. It isn't so much about your drawing ability, which to be honest, far surpasses mine, but rather one of size. It wouldn't have been a big deal if you had made the dialog disproportionately larger than you did; there is quite a bit of artistic license that can be (and often is) taken in the cartooning world to get a point across. More detail would have made the difference between getting the joke right away vs. having it qualified in the comments.

As to the punchline, I have no real opinion as I'm a keyboard-guy on PCs and a mouse-guy on Macs. I'm not sure why I do that but it's purely instinctual for me.

You are incorrect.

You cannot use the arrow keys in dialogs, even when you enable that option you mentioned. That option ONLY enables the use of the TAB KEY, NOT the arrow keys.

And it is even disabled by default.

Edited 2008-02-19 16:43 UTC

With the keyboard preferences set to all controls the arrow keys work exactly the same as they do in windows, you tab between different elements then you can use the arrow keys to move within that element. Your claim that the arrow keys don't work is wrong.

In Windows, you can use the arrow keys to move from 'ok' to 'cancel'. You can NOT do this in OS X, whether that option is enabled, or not.

And that would be because they are different GUI elements, it's about consistency, since each button is a separate element you use tab to move between them. I Just double checked and it seems that the behavior you describe in Windows only works in some dialogs, mostly warning types, it doesn't work in most save or print dialogs. I suppose it's a choice between inconsistency and convenience. it works some places but not all. I would think that you'd be against that kind of behavior Thom, seeing how you are interested in interface design. But your claim was that you couldn't use arrow keys at all and in that you are wrong.

Edited 2008-02-19 17:07 UTC

As the comment by Neebe describes, this behaviour is intended. You use tab / shift+tab to navigate through the dialog elements, and then the cursor keys to navigate within these elements. Just imagine if you scroll through a list on n items; if you have selection focus on item n and you press the "down" arrow, what would happen? You would get out of the list and move to the next dialog element, maybe. But how would you use the cursor key to move fro mitem n - 5 to a nearby element, say, a pushbutton or a checkbox? More strange behaviour could be assumed for a text input line or text field. Here, the arrow keys have the same function they have in "ordinary" editing dialogs. What happens when you are at the first char on the first line and press the "left" arrow? Would you go to the previous element of the dialog itself? And the "home" and "end" keys, where would they lead you to?

As it has been described too, the habit of moving between pushbuttons using the arrow keys is not omnipresent in all dialog windows in "Windows". I have seem some where it works, and some where it doesn't work. And this behaviour does not include other elements than pushbuttons as I tried to illustrate above.

To directly access elements of a dialog window, you can press a modifier along with the respective highlighted or underlined character corresponding to the dialog element, e. g. Alt+F for the file name input line.

And according the move from OK to Cancel: Why not press Enter or Escape? (NB: Preselection item, I know.) I will investige on this further as soon as I have revived my "new" iBook G4 (actually sitting disassembled in a box, baka in a box.)

But hey, tell me who uses the keyboard anyway to navigate dialog windows, that's what the mouse is for, on "Windows" and on Mac OS X. :-)

So OSX uses different keybindings. What's fun about that?

I would've understood it if OSX didn't have any method to navigate diaglogs with the keyboard, but it does and it's simply other keys.

Maybe we need Stone Soup more than we need a Focus Shift?

I'd like to see this advance beyond Thom presenting work which then gets criticized as a matter of course. I would prefer to see a collaborative effort evolve from this beginning. Where community members contribute a basic idea. Someone says "I'd like to do the artwork on this one". Someone else contributes actual dialog. They get some feedback. Polish it up some more. And present it. Members of OSNews could have fun making it. And members of other sites could have fun reading it, if other sites come to feel that it is worth linking to. Penny Arcade, OSNews style.

Just a thought. Obviously, it would require that people be interested in more than just nitpicking about what someone else does.

I agree. I was starting to think I was the only one who saw this for what it was, a comic!

Your post may not be the most eloquent in this thread, but you're one of the few who actually gets the concept of these comics.

Thank you.

thanks to you and your great work man, keep it up!
also, my native language is not english if that justifies a little my lack of "eloquency" hehehe

anyways, thanks and we'll be lookin' forward to the next comic!