Modding Mac OS X

Chapter 8. Altering Keyboard Shortcuts

Bill of Materials

Mac OS X Software

• System Preferences (/Applications)

• Terminal (/Applications/Utilities)

• Calculator (/Applications)

• TextEdit (/Applications)

• Xcode Tools (/Developer)

• Property List Editor (/Developer/ Applications/Utilities; installed as part of the Xcode Tools)

• Various Unix commands, including cd, ls, and defaults

Third-Party Software

• Beholder (http://www.mesadynamics.com/main_beholder.htm )

• KeyCue (http://www.macility.com)

Imagine if there were no shortcuts for copying or pasting, or for closing windows or quitting a program. You’d have to do a lot more work—and probably face more repetitive stress injuries like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Keyboard shortcuts make repetitive tasks simpler, and provide ergonomic efficiency in the face of recurring tasks.

Fortunately, Mac OS X simplifies shortcut customization and creation. In this chapter, you’ll discover myriad ways to add shortcuts to your applications. Using various methods such as System Preferences and the defaults command-line utility, you’ll learn how to add, remove, and change keyboard shortcuts to meet your personal application needs. Work through the examples here to discover which shortcut definition method works best for you. You might prefer the simplicity of System Preferences or the directness of the Terminal’s command line, but whichever method you choose, you’ll find that ...