Stop using Mac keyboard Option as a modifier to character

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.

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.