Install RibbonKeys, and fix it when it is still not working

RibbonKeys is a direct download: open the disk image, drag RibbonKeys to Applications, open it, and switch it on under Privacy & Security, Accessibility. Then tap Option in Excel, Word or PowerPoint. If nothing appears, the checklist at the end of this page goes through what to look at.

Before you start

• macOS 13 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel.
• Excel, Word or PowerPoint for Mac. Other apps, Outlook and OneNote among them, get no letters. One licence covers all three.
• It is not in the Mac App Store, which does not take apps that need the Accessibility permission. The download is on this site.

Install it

1. Download

   Use the Download button on this page. It gives RibbonKeys.dmg, a disk image signed and notarised by Apple.

2. Copy it to Applications

   Open the disk image. It holds RibbonKeys and a shortcut to the Applications folder; drag RibbonKeys onto that shortcut.

3. Open it

   Open RibbonKeys from Applications. It has no window and no Dock icon: it is a menu-bar app, and its icon, an Option key folded out of a ribbon, appears at the top right of the screen. Your 7-day trial starts now. It asks for no account and no card.

4. Allow it to press the ribbon

   macOS shows its own prompt for the Accessibility permission once, when RibbonKeys opens. The next section says what to switch on.

A newer version later installs itself: about once a day RibbonKeys looks for one, shows a window, and Install Update downloads it, replaces the app and opens it again. The Accessibility permission stays.

The Accessibility permission

macOS only lets an app notice a key press in another app, read where that app's buttons are and press them with this permission. Without it RibbonKeys cannot draw a letter, so the menu-bar icon has a ⚠️ beside it and its menu says that the permission is off.

1. Open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Accessibility. The menu's Open Accessibility Settings… button goes straight there.
2. Switch on RibbonKeys.
3. The ⚠️ goes away within a second. Nothing needs to be reopened.

RibbonKeys asks macOS for its prompt only once, at launch, and after that looks every second whether the permission is there. If you switch it off while RibbonKeys runs, the ⚠️ comes back within a second; switch it on again and it listens again.

Using the Option key

Tap Option by itself while Excel, Word or PowerPoint is the app in front: press it and let go with no other key between. The letters appear over the tabs. Or hold Option down together with the first letter, as Alt+H works on Windows.

• It must be a tap. Any other key pressed while Option is down, or a mouse click, means it was not a tap on Option alone.
• While you edit a cell. Holding Option with a letter goes on typing accents and symbols in a cell or a text box. Leave the cell, or tap Option by itself, to start a sequence.
• Esc and a second tap. Esc steps back one level, as on Windows. Another tap of Option, or a click, cancels the whole sequence.
• Other keys end it. An arrow key, Return, Tab or a Command shortcut ends the sequence and goes to the app, so that an open dropdown or dialog can still be driven by hand.

Excel, Word and PowerPoint versions

• Excel is made and tested with the current Excel for Mac, version 16, on macOS 13 or later. Excel's language does not matter: RibbonKeys reads the names from the language folder of the Excel in use, and the letters stay English.
• Word and PowerPoint get the letters of the tabs from Home to View, their commands and the menus they open. The tabs they add for what is selected, such as a picture or a table, get no letters. They have no dialog letters and no Excel 2003 menu keys.
• Greyed-out commands have no letter, and get one once they can be used.
• A narrow window folds a group of controls into one button, and a control scrolled out of the ribbon gets no letter. Widen the window.
• After an update of Office that changes the ribbon, letters can be missing or wrong until RibbonKeys has been updated too. Check for Updates… in its menu looks at once.
• Excel's Draw and Automate tabs have letters that have not been tested, because they need a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Still not working: what to check

1. Is there a ⚠️ beside the icon? Open the menu. It says either that the Accessibility permission is off, which is the section above, or that the trial has ended, which is item 3.
2. Are the letters switched off? The menu has a switch that turns them off and on again.
3. Has the trial ended? After 7 days the letters stay off until the Mac has a licence. The menu says where the licence stands, and Settings…, Licence, has Buy. The settings window opens by itself on that tab when RibbonKeys starts while the letters are locked.
4. Is the right app in front? Only Excel, Word and PowerPoint get letters.
5. Is it a tap on Option alone? See the section above.
6. Is the command greyed out? Copy something before Paste Values, for example. A command that cannot be used has no letter yet.
7. Quit and open again. Quit RibbonKeys from its menu and open it from Applications. Under Settings…, General, you can have it open at login.

If it is still not working, write to [email protected] and say which versions of macOS and of Excel, Word or PowerPoint you have, and which sequence does nothing. The questions page has the answers about licences, working offline, privacy and updates.

Free for 7 days, with no account and no card. After that €3.99 a month or €59.99 once, including VAT.
The same licence covers Word and PowerPoint.
Needs macOS 13 or later and Excel for Mac.

Windows Excel shortcuts on a Mac · Every shortcut · RibbonKeys