So I recently got my first Mac, which runs Yosemite and I’m loving it. I’ve used Linux at home for a while now and this has been a great transition, much better than I expected actually… but I seriously need to fix my keyboard shortcuts.
I use a Windows machine at work and I also do a lot of remoting into Windows boxes. And the whole cmd+? shortcut instead of ctrl+? is absolutely driving me nuts and besides just being frustrating, it’s actually pretty dangerous when working with code.
I have a habit of hitting ctrl+s every time I finish a block of code… only to find out that it did nothing! And to make it worse, I’m starting to do cmd+s at my work computer!
Has anyone figured out a hack to get windows/linux shortcut keys on a Mac? Or can you suggest any other forums/sites that I should go to ask this?
I’ve had the machine for a couple weeks now and I’ve spent a decent amount of time looking for a solution and I haven’t found anything yet, so now I’m reaching out for some help.
Two tools I can’t live without for dealing with keys on a mac are Seil and Karabiner.
Seil allows you to remap things like your caps lock key (I remap to escape on short press). Karabiner allows you to absolutely mess with everything when it comes to your keys, for example I remap parts of my keys into vim bindings for normal writing, when used in conjunction with a modifier (caps lock long press).
Seil used to be called PCKeyboardHack and Karabiner used to be called KeyRemap4MacBook. I’m glad they changed.
You can do some level of customisation via System Preferences. If you go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard | App Shortcuts etc. you can change the keys for doing certain actions or add new ones.
I think Karabiner is exactly what I was looking for, thank you. After just poking around at it it looks like it could actually be way more useful than what I was hoping for.
I ran into some AutoHotkey replacements, which I’ve used on Windows in the past and I really didn’t want to go down that path. This is much more simple.
Actually I forgot to say, you can swap ⌘ and ctrl natively in your keyboard preferences, under modifier keys.
Yeah, but there are other keyboard shortcuts that are useful being the way they are. Like ctrl+⇧ for mission control.
My previous comment to @cpradio about it breaking keys was user error, I half switched them back.
[quote=“cpradio, post:4, topic:103091”]
I unfortunately do not own a Mac I like them, just never found a reason to put out the cash for one, when Linux suits me very well.
[/quote]Same here - I’m a Linux bear.
Welcome to the Mac. I was in the same place about 8 years ago.
I had a dual-boot Windows/Linux machine that was my workhorse.
The ability to jump into a real command window [natively] was so refreshing; immediately.
Today, I use my MacBook Pro but, at work I am forced to work on Windows machines (yes. plural) all day long.
The transition is difficult.
I wanted to make a tangential recommendation: ShortCat It is an application I use on my Mac (in the App Store, I am sure) and I simply love it. It allows me to use the mouse much less by “Keyifying” my operations on the Mac. (It is difficult to describe. You really should just see it in action).
Not entirely related to your stated problem but may help you out.
but 
I like them, just never found a reason to put out the cash for one, when Linux suits me very well.
