Guide: Using iMac Without Mouse: Tips and Tutorials
At first glance, it may sound tricky, if not impossible, to use your iMac without a mouse. However, there are some tricks to control your iMac even if the mouse dies suddenly. This writeup assumes that everything is okay with your keyboard. Needless to say, the following hacks are simple and mostly deal with using keyboard shortcuts. However, if the keyboard is also failing you, your best bet is to find the replacement as you won’t be able to use your iMac. Without much ado, let’s dive right in.
Mouseless navigation
Before you start
We recommend that you make sure that “Full keyboard access” is enabled. Allows you to use the Tab key to switch between dialog box controls. Otherwise, you could just switch between lists and text boxes. A lot of mouseless navigation works without this step, but it’s better to enable it anyway. Open the keyboard through System Preferences. Hit Cmd + Spacebar, type keyboard and hit Enter. Navigate to the Shortcuts tab and press Ctrl + F7 to select ‘All Controls’. (On some iMacs, this can be Fn + Ctrl + F7.) Now you can use the Tab key to toggle between options and select them by pressing the spacebar.
Switch via open apps
Hit Cmd + Tab and you can browse all running apps. Keep pressing Tab to open the app you want to open. You can press the Down key to view all open windows in a particular app. Navigate to the window you want to open with the arrow keys and press Enter to select.
To switch between full-window apps, press and hold Ctrl + Left Arrow or Right Arrow. To preview all open windows (not in full screen), press Ctrl + Up or Down key.
Navigate in Finder
Chances are, you have to use Finder without a mouse. To launch Finder, open Spotlight by pressing Cmd + Space, type Finder and hit Enter.
Use the arrow keys to navigate to the Go menu in the menu bar. Press the down arrow to select a specific destination such as Recent, Downloads, iCloud Drive, etc. Press Enter to enter and use the arrow keys for further navigation. To open a specific folder, you have to use the arrow keys again, Up and down to navigate and left and right to open the folder. If your folders are in the thumbnail preview, use Cmd + Down to open a folder and Cmd + Up going back. This also works in other types of folder previews. Reminder: Use Spotlight (Cmd + Spacebar) to access an app, file or folder without a mouse.
Navigate in Safari
Again, you can open Safari via Spotlight or switch to it using the window navigation tricks. To open a website from the bookmarks bar, press Cmd + Bookmark Number. For example, if the Compsmag website is the first bookmark in your list, press Cmd + 1. A new tab will open when you press Cmd + T and you can switch between the tabs with Cmd + Shift + Left / Right Arrow.
The Dock and App menu bar
App menu bar is easy to select and navigate with the arrow keys and you can choose an item by pressing Enter or Space. To access the app menu directly, press Fn + Ctrl + F2 and proceed with the arrow keys as described. The Dock can be accessed with the Fn + Ctrl + F3 combination on newer iMacs. For older models, it’s just Ctrl + F3. And again, move left and right with the arrow keys and select with Enter or spacebar.
How to Dealing with text documents
Once you get the hang of it, you may prefer to use shortcuts rather than the mouse to navigate a text document. Here’s a short list of the most useful shortcuts.
Cursor movement
Copy and paste
Change the text style
Other useful shortcuts
The following list of shortcuts is system wide and works in most applications, although there are some variations.
Magic trackpad
Longtime iMac users know that the Magic Trackpad is sometimes better than a mouse. It doesn’t take much time to get used to all of the navigation gestures, and you can customize most trackpad functions. That’s why you should consider getting a trackpad even if your mouse is working fine.
Tom ate Jerry
It takes some getting used to navigating your iMac using just your keyboard. But you have to be patient as sometimes the shortcuts are the fastest way to get to the desired destination. Anyway, what happened to your mouse? Are you using Apple Magic Mouse or another model? Share your concerns with the rest of the TJ community in the comments section below.
Using iMac Without Mouse: Tips and Tutorials: benefits
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