Do your Web pages have hot keys?

One of the most commonly forgotten attributes of form tags and links (including image maps) is the accesskey attribute. In fact, the most common reason that this attribute is used is by sites that have an accessibility requirement - having an access key on links and form fields means that customers without a mouse or pointing device can still navigate relatively easily through the links and fields. But that isn't the only value to this attribute. In fact, these days, many people are building Web applications and trying to get them to look and act like applications on the local machines. One thing that most local applications have that Web pages often don't, are "hot keys." These are keyboard characters that when used with the Alt (Windows) or Ctrl (Macintosh) keys will perform an action. For example Ctrl-N/Cmd-N in most word processors will open a new document. With the accesskey attribute, you can create similar shortcuts on your Web pages.

• Accesskey - Create Keyboard Navigation on Your Web Pages