Shortcuts for Dialog Boxes

Several shortcut and screen reader keys are helpful when you are working with dialog boxes. Upon entering a dialog box, you may need to press the Tab key to put the focus on the first control and to initiate the screen reader. A complete list of special keyboard and screen reader shortcuts is provided in the following table.

Table 1. Dialog box shortcuts
Shortcut key	Function
Tab	Move forward through the items in the window or dialog box.
Ctrl+Tab	Move forward from a text box to the next item.
Shift+Tab	Move back through items in the window or dialog box.
Shift+Ctrl+Tab	Move back from a text box to the previous item.
space bar	Select the control or button that has focus.
Esc	Cancel changes and close the dialog box.
Enter	Validate changes and close the dialog box (equivalent to the OK button). If you are in a text box, you must first press Ctrl+Tab to exit the text box.