[ Previous | Next | Contents | Glossary | Home | Search ]
Motif 2.1 User's Guide



Using Keyboard Traversal

Motif applications that are Motif Style Guide compliant must support methods for interaction that do not depend on a mouse. For the purposes of keyboard navigation, components of the application are organized into groups called fields. To move the input focus forward from one field to the next, press Tab. To move the input focus in the reverse direction, press Shift Tab. Use the arrow keys to move the input focus among components within a field.

Menu navigation in Motif applications uses special key bindings, which are summarized in the following list:

  1. F10 traverses to and from the MenuBar.

  2. Menu or Shift F10 posts and cancels Popup menus in areas that have Popup menus.

  3. Space and Select activate Option Menus.

  4. The arrow keys traverse Menu panes.

  5. Cancel backs out of a Menu hierarchy.

    In addition, the Tab key may be modified to move forward like an arrow key until a tab group (one or more components that can be navigated) boundary is reached. At the boundary, the Tab key then moves forward or backward to the next tab group, depending on the direction it was navigating. This Tab key modification is possible only if the display is set up to be able to

    Applications may also use page navigation keys to scroll a region one page at a time. Appendix A contains the default Motif key bindings.


  6. [ Previous | Next | Contents | Glossary | Home | Search ]