[Targon]

Curious

I notice both Safari and Finder windows, (with Toolbar enabled) utilize the

command+[ for Back
command+] for Forward

however, on the Powerbook to navigate pages in Safari an nearly all other browsers i have always used

command+arrow Left for 'Back'
command+arrow Right for 'Forward'

Unfortunately these key commands don't work in Finder windows. Im wondering why. It makes sense to me that these 'command+arrow left/right' combinations should be more appropriate since we already have our hands on the arrow keys to navigate up/down the hierarchy... Having to move the right hand off the arrow keys and reposition on the '[ ]' keys is probably unwarranted.

Although this is very minor in the scheme of things, and im not terribly concerned, it does make me wonder what logic reasons are behind this implementation of using the command+[] for 'forward' and 'back'.

[mishakim]

It's probably because in the Finder, command-left arrow and command-right arrow were already used to expand and contract folders in list view long before the finder had any browser-style navigation.

That's not to say such things can't change, since OS X changed command-n to new window (like a browser) instead of keeping it's long-established function of new folder (like a file-centric program). Now that column mode and single-window behavior has changed the finder to a browser-style interface for most people, it wouldn't be unreasonable for apple to change these keys too.

[Amorya]

Command [ and ] are actually the Mac standard shortcuts for forwards and back. The arrows were added by one of the browser makers, and slowly gained popularity with the rest.

Amorya