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dialogapplescriptkeyboard-shortcutsinteraction

Enabling keyboard shortcuts to confirm Dialogs in AppleScript

I am looking for a way to allow a user to complete a Dialog entry using keyboard shortcuts. Is this possible?

Other questions have discussed assigning shortcuts to the options in an AppleScript dialog box, but not to the "Continue"/"Okay" etc. button.

The main difficulty is that I'm using a multi-line text entry form, so the Enter button simply creates a new line, instead of targeting the default button as it would conventionally. I'm hoping cmdenter can be assigned to the default button instead.

The line of script defining the dialog in question is:

set theResponse to display dialog "Enter tasks:" default answer "





" buttons {"Cancel", "Continue"} default button "Continue"
Solution

  • Running your AppleScript code from Script Editor on a US English MacBook Pro, whether or not something is typed in, fnenter presses the Continue button.

    The same keyboard shortcut works on an US English Apple Magic Keyboard when connected to the MacBook Pro and I'd assume any US English Mac it was connected to would do the same. I only have the MacBook Pro to test with at the moment.

    In macOS, by default, pressing the tab key in this use case will not move between the controls as the controlling setting in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts is not set to allow it to act on all controls.

    You must select one of the following options, depending on the version of macOS one is running, in order to use the tab key on all controls.

    If you see:

    Full Keyboard Access: In windows and dialogs, press Tab to move keyboard focus between:

        (•) Text boxed and lists only
        ( ) All Controls

    Select: (•) All Controls

    If you see:

    [] Use keyboard navigation to move between controls
        Press the Tab key to move focus forward and Shift Tab to move focus backward.

    Check: [√] Use keyboard navigation to move between controls

    With this done, one can then use tabtabenter to press the continue button, with the dialog box produced by the code shown in the OP.

    Side Note: One can also try fncommandenter as that was necessary from within a VMware macOS Catalina virtual machine that I also tested in.