The best way to quickly access a menu item is to hit CMD+?. Then just type in the name of the menu item. That, IMO, is a much faster way of accessing the menu than the ALT+foo shortcuts from Windows-land.

Great tip! I wish firefox behaved like a good OS X app. just tried it in firefox and it brings up a help tab.

I've been using the Mac for some time and didn't know about this feature. Thanks for the tip. I'd been missing a way to do this behavior as well.

CTRL-F2 puts focus on the menu bar and you can use cursors from there. The &Accelerator keys common on windows menus though.. often aren't around, but at least in some apps have a zillion hotkeys assigned.

It's a good idea to leave out the &Accelerator keys anyway, as there isn't much gain in them. I try the shift the option and the command key while looking at menu in every app I use. Sometimes something interesting happens ... At least in most of the apps I pay for. And there are ways to overcome such shortcuts with other shortcuts, as long as the app is scriptable and you have a keyboard enhancer. Rumors has it that there are many scripts at places like macscripter.net and others with scripts to start with. If it nags you that much ... I lift my fingers ... :-)

The ease of menu access on windows is eons ahead. Compare alt-f to reach the file menu with pressing ctrl-f2 to focus on the menu and then using arrow keys to reach the menu you want to get to.