I've been on a bit of a Keyboard-only kick lately, enabled chiefly due to the Chrome Keyboard Shortcut Extension, and I've begun bumping into a few difficult situations in everyday Desktop App use.
In applications like iTunes, or Code Editors, they have a unified sidebar with categorically organized content. iTunes has categories for your library, other people's libraries, your device, and playlists, Coda has a file picker, etc. But what is the easiest way to move keyboard focus to these sidebars? My current solution is to alternate Tab and ▼ aimlessly until I see an item on the sidebar highlighted. Needless to say this is frustrating and can lead to unintended changes being made in content panes.
I notice that most all apps have a function to hide the sidebar in the app menus, but restoring it doesn't move the focus to the sidebar.
I've looked at the Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcut Question but didn't find what I was looking for. Is there some kind of a global shortcut that will move focus between different interface elements, easily? Reliably?
Best Answer
Thinking outside the box:
If the only reason you want the keyboard shortcut, is to avoid your mouse, have you considered a trackpoint keyboard?
Because I had RSI in the past, trackpoint keyboards are about the only ones I can use (even at clients, I usually bring my keyboard, or work from my laptop that has such a keyboard).
The big upside of those keyboards is that you don't have to take your hand of the keyboard in order to use the mouse.
For trackpads I still need to (somehow using my thumb is far less accurate on trackpads than using my index finger, o I still need to lift my hand for pointing).
It takes a little while to get used to a trackpoint, but I can't do without them any more.
USB trackpoint keyboards work equally well on Mac and PC.
--jeroen