Tell me more ×
Graphic Design Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professional graphic designers and non-designers trying to do their own graphic design. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote -1 down vote favorite

The standard mac shortcut (Command+?) for opening the menu item search field doesn't work.

As Beibei mentioned - This is about cueing the cursor to the "Search" box of the help menu, not invoking the Adobe help system.

share|improve this question

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

I've been annoyed by the same problem.

I posted this thread on MacRumors in the hopes of finding a solution. Will crosspost here if anything turns up.

Also note that the solution suggested by Scott above doesn't work because Illustrator doesn't seem to play nice with OSX system shortcut overrides. Also, this is about cueing the cursor to the "Search" box of the help menu, not invoking the Adobe help system.

share|improve this answer
1  
All one needs do is go to System Preferences > Keyboard and tick the "Use F keys as standard function keys" – Scott Oct 24 '12 at 3:19
Scott - the solution you are proposing will invoke Adobe's help system. Perhaps the OP can clarify whether they are trying to get to the OSX "Search" function in the help menu, or open the Adobe help system. My interpretation of the post was the latter. Also, what I mean by "doesn't play nice" is that OSX gives you an error message "You cannot add keyboard shortcuts for the application Adobe Illustrator CS6.app." when you try to apply any custom shortcuts to Illustrator. – beibei Oct 25 '12 at 4:41
if you get an error for any shortcut, you've got other issues. I use AICS6 every day with mac OS 10.6.8 and 10.7.5 without issues and I apply my custom shortcuts without any problems. – Scott Nov 27 '12 at 1:32
Well, I'm on 10.8.2, maybe this explains the discrepancy. this image is the error I'm getting. – beibei Nov 30 '12 at 1:15
1  
The question has to do with the shortcut for the Search bar in the Help menu, normally invoked with Command-Shift-/ It is universal to all cocoa OSX applications. You can't assign a shortcut to it from the Adobe Keyboard Shortcuts editor. See this image – beibei Dec 1 '12 at 5:09
show 1 more comment
up vote 0 down vote

the F1 key will bring up help.

You can alter the shortcut if you'd like by choosing Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts > Menu Commands > Help

There are a few areas in Adobe applications which do not honor the Mac OS shortcuts. This is generally because Apple implemented their shortcut years after Adobe implemented theirs. Therefore the Adobe shortcuts are generally favored since users are accustomed to them within the applications. And, since you can always change shortcuts, as I've outlined here, there's no need for Adobe to strictly stick to the Apple OS shortcuts in every instance.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

F1 brings up help.

In the menu bar, if you click on an option on every option that has a shortcut will be shown on the right. 

______________________________
|  option             Shortcut|
-------------------------------

If this doesn't, you must have not clicked the option in system prefs to use f keys as their standard function so and fn. FN+F1

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.