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Navigating folders with letter keys Desktop
Most people know that you can use letter keys to navigate a folder (hit B to go to the first item that starts witha B etc). But what I didn't realize is that you can navigate between items that start with the same letter by pressing the second letter of the item you want, immediately after you've hit the first one (within a half-second or so) Pretty cool!

[robg adds: The 'second letter' trick also works when navigating the menus via the keyboard, as explained in this hint.]
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Navigating folders with letter keys | 14 comments | Create New Account
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Navigating folders with letter keys
Authored by: sim on Jan 17, '05 10:44:10AM

If I'm right this highlighting feature works back from OS 8.



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Navigating folders with letter keys
Authored by: daily on Jan 17, '05 11:03:49AM

Yeah this was available in MacOS 8.5 for sure. It works in all apple apps, it's especially useful in itunes, this has been available for years, i'm surprised it's still unknown to some.

+daily



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Much older
Authored by: jolinwarren on Jan 17, '05 11:27:34AM

It actually goes back to System 7 to the best of my recollection. Let's see, that's coming up on 14 years now! :-) Very useful feature, and pretty standard throughout all applications on the Mac (though some break the rule).



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Navigating folders with letter keys
Authored by: xavierbdm on Jan 17, '05 11:07:25AM

you can actually type more than 2 letters... All first letters will be taken into account if typed fast enough. Then the buffer takes into account if there is a pause and starts again.
(it is often considered by my PC user friends as a .... bug! because they type another letter quickly and t just progress past first letter, instead of jumping to next letter in the list. So they complain. Ok, go back to Windows mate...)

---
iMac G4 17 800/512/80 + powerbook firewire G3 500/512/30



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Navigating folders with letter keys
Authored by: ssgelm on Jan 17, '05 12:04:32PM

Actually, the same thing is true in Windows as well.



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Windows letter keys: folders only
Authored by: PCheese on Jan 17, '05 12:24:49PM
Actually, the same thing is true in Windows as well.
For navigating folders, yes, but it is not consistent throughout Windows. Try tabbing to a popup menu in Internet Explorer and typing in the first few letters of what you want to set it to. If you want Connecticut and type CO, you end up setting it to Ohio...

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Navigating folders with letter keys
Authored by: rcameron2003 on Jan 17, '05 05:27:57PM

Actually not, and is one of my biggest gripes about Windows usability. If I'm in a list of files and want to navigate to one called "Parisian Night", I can start typing p-a-r-i etc at even a relatively slower speed. With "p" it jumps to the first alphabetical "P" file, with "p-a" it jumps to the first alphabetical "A" file, and so on.

But with Windows, with "p" it jumps to the first alphabetical "P" file, but then with "p-a" it jumps to the first alphabetical "A" file! If I want to find "Parisian Nights" I have to repeatedly hit the "P" key to navigate down the list of "P*" files. Not fun, not efficient. And I really wouldn't be surprised if Macintosh did this as early as System 6 (definitely was in System 7).



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Navigating folders with letter keys
Authored by: _merlin on Jan 18, '05 04:10:15AM

It didn't do it on System 6. On System 6, typing would rename the selected file immediately. It was too easy to accidentally rename files, so in System 7, it was changed so that you had to click the name and wait a second, or select the file and press return. This was also the point where they introduced selecting files by typing their names.



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Navigating folders with letter keys
Authored by: sjmills on Jan 17, '05 04:15:58PM

The time between keypresses is dictated by the Delay Until Repeat setting. I set that and the Key Repeat Rate to their max, so I have to type fairly fast to get the file name I'm after - can't just sit there and peck out a bunch of letters.



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Navigating folders with letter keys: even more power
Authored by: paulfank on Jan 17, '05 04:35:57PM

Once you've found the item you want via this tip, hit cmd+(down arrow) to launch the app/open the item/go into the folder. No need to reach for the mouse!



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Navigating folders with letter keys: even more power
Authored by: rcameron2003 on Jan 17, '05 05:26:28PM

This works, but it doesn't make as much sense to me as cmd-O.



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Navigating folders with letter keys: even more power
Authored by: mrturtle on Jan 17, '05 06:52:58PM

Well, if you consider that command-up goes up a directory, it makes sense that command-down would open the application/folder.



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Navigating folders with letter keys: even more power
Authored by: macteam on Jan 18, '05 08:46:14AM

And here command + alt + o is nice (as it closes your Finder window, same time as opening the app. :)



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Navigating folders with letter keys: even more power
Authored by: PDubNYC on Jan 18, '05 02:38:13PM

Command + Alt + Down Arrow does the same thing (closes window). As does Up Arrow to move up the folder hierarchy. And Command + A, and then Command + Right Arrow opens all sub folders in the window list, and then same with Laft Arrow would close them all.

Magic.



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