Stop using Mac keyboard Option as a modifier to character

I have a much better solution than creating own custom keyboards: just use the "Unicode Hex Input" input source. It's the regular QWERTY minus all this weird stuff on the ⌥ button.

Not sure which OS version it is available from though. If you have any information about this, feel free to edit it into the answer.

The alt key on the Macintosh is primarily used for international character keyboard mapping. This is a much more sane and reasonable approach to extended characters than windows alt-numpad tricks. Because of this, it is not typically used alone as a keyboard shortcut key (except with Function keys), although it is used in some shortcuts in conjunction with command and control.

Keyboard remapping can be done with a utility called Ukelele:

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=ukelele

However, this won't help you, since you are expecting the alt key to act like a shortcut (command/control) key.

There is a free utility that lets you swap around modifier keys, if their placement is unfamiliar to you:

http://doublecommand.sourceforge.net/

Here's the Netbeans article explaining MacOS X keyboard shortcuts, and how to adjust either the Netbeans shortcuts or the Mac OSX shortcuts:

http://netbeans.org/kb/articles/mac.html

EDIT: Solution for button shortcuts in netbeans dialog boxes.

OK, so the Netbeans IDE is a brain-dead cross-platform java application. Ensure you don't have a text field highlighted before using the alt-key button shortcuts. This can be quickly accomplished by hitting tab or shifttab.

The question also appears here on StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11876485/how-to-disable-typing-special-characters-when-pressing-option-key-in-mac-os-x

On that question, I found Dan's answer to go to wordherd.com and generate a keyboard map without the [option] key shortcuts to be the quickest and easiest solution. https://stackoverflow.com/a/16019737/266531