KB179848 - XL98: Command Underlines Not Available in Some Dialog Boxes

Article ID: 179848

Article Last Modified on 9/11/2002

Microsoft Excel 98 for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q179848

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, if you hold down the COMMAND key while a dialog box is displayed, access keys (underlined letters that activate specific commands) may not appear in the dialog box. This may make it difficult to use the keyboard to select controls and move between tabs in the dialog box.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when any of the following dialog boxes are displayed:

AutoCorrect (on the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect)
New (on the File menu, click New)
Properties (on the File menu, click Properties)

These dialog boxes do not display access keys no matter how many times you press or hold the COMMAND key.

WORKAROUND

Even though these dialog boxes do not display access keys, it is possible to control these dialog boxes by using only the keyboard. To control these dialog boxes, use any of the following methods:

To move between tabs in the dialog boxes, press CONTROL+TAB or CONTROL+SHIFT+TAB.
To move from one box to the next within a dialog box, press TAB or SHIFT+TAB.

In the AutoCorrect dialog box, press the specified keystroke to use the controls in the dialog box. The controls and their keystrokes are listed in the following table.

      Control                                          Keystroke
      ----------------------------------------------------------

      "Correct TWo INitial CApitals" check box         COMMAND+O
      "Capitalize first letter of sentence" check box  COMMAND+S
      "Capitalize names of days" check box             COMMAND+N
      "Replace text as you type" check box             COMMAND+T
      Replace box                                      COMMAND+R
      With box                                         COMMAND+W
      Exceptions button                                COMMAND+E
      Add button                                       COMMAND+A
      Delete button                                    COMMAND+D

To select the View list in the New dialog box, press COMMAND+V. Then, use the UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW keys to move through the list. Then, press the TAB key to activate the list of files.
To select or clear the Save Preview Picture check box in the Summary tab of the Properties dialog box, press COMMAND+P.
To select Yes or No next to Value in the Custom tab of the Properties dialog box, press COMMAND+Y or COMMAND+O.
To select the Add button in the Custom tab of the Properties dialog box, press COMMAND+A. To select the Delete button, press COMMAND+D.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Normally, when you press the COMMAND key while a dialog box is displayed, underlines appear under certain letters of control names in the dialog box. To see an example of this behavior, follow these steps:

On the Tools menu, click Preferences.
Press and hold the COMMAND key for two seconds.

Underlined letters appear on the controls in the dialog box. You can use a specific control by pressing the COMMAND key followed by the underlined letter for the control. For example, to activate the Formula Bar check box, press COMMAND+F.

The three dialog boxes listed in the "Symptoms" section do not display the underlined letters. However, if you use workaround in this article, you can operate these dialog boxes by using only the keyboard.

For more information about access keys and accessibility issues in Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, please click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

176345 XL98: Access Keys Do Not Appear in Customize Dialog Box

176403 XL98: How to Select Chart Subtype by Using Keyboard

176405 OFF98: How to Use Menus and Menu Commands with the Keyboard

179645 XL98: Cannot Use Keyboard to Select Items in Special List

Additional query words: XL98 accessibility

Keywords: kbbug kbenablemove kbenablelearn kbui kbenablesight KB179848