Someone asked about this today – it’s useful stuff that’s not obvious, so I figured I’d share it here. If there are navigation keys or shortcuts that I’ve missed, please comment.
There are a number of keyboard navigation keys that are standard in all Open and Save dialogs, but they vary a bit depending on the view mode you’ve got selected.
In List View:
- Up and down arrows move up and down the file listing
- ⌘+Right-Arrow displays the contents of a folder without opening it (it turns the little twisty-arrow next to the folder)
- ⌘+Up-Arrow goes up to the parent folder
- ⌘+Down-Arrow opens the selected item
In Column View:
- Up and down arrows move up and down the file listing
- Left and right arrows traverse left and right in the column listing
- ⌘+Up-Arrow goes up to the parent folder (when you’ve gotten all the way to the leftmost column)
- ⌘+Down-Arrow opens the selected item
In Icon View:
- Up, down, left and right arrows traverse among files
- ⌘+Up-Arrow goes up to the parent folder
- ⌘+Down-Arrow opens the selected item
And of course, when keyboard focus is on the file list, typing the first few letters of a file or folder’s name selects it. Note that in Save dialogs, this requires tabbing 3 times (usually) to get the keyboard focus from the filename edit box to the file list.
There are also some command key shortcuts, I’ve borrowed this list from http://www.productivityorchard.com/keyboard-shortcuts-for-mac-os-x-open-save-dialog
- Spacebar – View the selected item in Quick Look
- ⌘+D – changes focus to your Desktop
- ⌘+Shift+A – Changes focus to your Applications directory
- ⌘+Shift+H – changes focus to your Home directory
- ⌘+Shift+N – Creates a new folder.
- ⌘+Shift+Period (.) – Toggle hidden files & folders on and off.
- ⌘+Shift+G – Brings up Go To Folder window
- Tab – Tab key auto-completes paths and file names from the aforementioned Go To window
- ⌘+R – Reveals the file in Finder
- ⌘+F – Move the cursor to the Find field
- ⌘+Period (.) – Close the Open/Save dialog window
