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KeyRemap4MacBook: the utility keyboard lovers have dreamed of

by Brett Terpstra Jan 5th 2010 at 2:30PM

I'm not a keyboard-only guy; I know when a mouse makes more sense. That being said, if I can do it from my keyboard, I do. So, as a followup to my post on the handy BetterTouchTool, I'd like to point out another free utility, KeyRemap4MacBook. It's an awkward moniker, and it's not pretty, either, but it's stable, works with any Mac (not just MacBooks, as the name would indicate) and offers drool-worthy functionality.

So, what does it do? Out of the box, it offers you dozens and dozens of options for remapping keys and key combinations to potentially more useful actions. Turn your space bar into a shift key when it's pressed in combination with another letter. Turn your trackball into the world's biggest Mighty Mouse scroll ball when you're holding control and command.

My favorite right now is remapping control-i,j,k and l to arrow keys, meaning I no longer have to move my right hand for basic cursor functions when Emacs mode isn't supported or applicable. I've also got the right option key on my aluminum Apple keyboard set up to turn my arrow keys into page up, page down, home and end when used in combination. In short, the usability of my keyboard has skyrocketed. I shudder to think what will happen the next time I jump on someone else's computer and my muscle memory has to re-adjust.

KeyRemap4MacBook can be used to improve accessibility, or to offer familiar shortcuts to switchers. You can even have it remap keys only in certain applications, meaning I can have Command-R remap to Control-R in VMWare or Fusion ... that will save me a lot of fumbles when testing multiple browsers! There's also the capability to add your own mappings, with sample definitions included. It's not exactly a breeze to customize, but it could be worse. I recall it being much more difficult to pull off this kind of extensive remapping in the past, even with tools like ControllerMate in the game.

KeyRemap4MacBook is free, and you can grab a copy at the pqrs.org website. There's even source code available, if you're savvy with C++ and wondering how it works. There's a fully-functional uninstall feature in the preference panel, so you can try it worry-free!



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I'm not a keyboard-only guy; I know when a mouse makes more sense. That being said, if I can do it from my keyboard, I do. So, as a...
 

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18 Comments

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Tony

Anyone else found that this and BTT do not work together. Installed KeyRemap4MacBook and BTT mappings stopped working.

January 06 2010 at 3:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ned

@tyten: Thanks! Controllermate looks really powerful.

January 06 2010 at 6:52 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

You said "I've also got the right option key on my aluminum Apple keyboard set up to turn my arrow keys into page up, page down, home and end when used in combination."
I am looking for the preset for that setting but don't see it in KR4MB 5.1.0 on Leopard. Tips?

January 06 2010 at 1:38 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Andrew's comment
Brett Terpstra

On Snow Leopard it's under Remap Arrow… haven't tried it in Leopard, so I'm not sure. What _I_ want to do is have shift function normally in combination with other keys, but send a numpad "Enter" when hit by itself… gotta get the custom commands thing figured out.

January 06 2010 at 2:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MikeWard1701

On the subject of keyboard remapping, I recently bought an Apple Wired Keyboard with Numeric Keypad for use with my MBP and Windows desktop machine.

Can anyone recommend good software for getting the most functionality out of the keyboard whilst in Windows?

Many thanks in adnvance and my apologies for a slightly off topic comment.

January 05 2010 at 6:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
PetitPrince

"KeyRemap4Macbook works in all Mac such as MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro, etc."
Right under the download icon.

January 05 2010 at 6:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jessethejumbojet

"KeyRemap4MacBook"

Why is it marketed specifically to MacBook users? Does it work on regular desktop keyboards? I can't seem to find an answer on the site.

January 05 2010 at 5:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to jessethejumbojet's comment
Brett Terpstra

The site states (on the download page) that:

"KeyRemap4Macbook works in all Mac such as MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Pro, etc."

I've only tested on a MacBook Pro (Unibody), but it should work anywhere.

January 05 2010 at 6:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
-wsn

Nevermind...

-------------------------------
Remap Delete Key
Delete to Backquote(`)
Delete to Backslash()
Command+Delete to Option_L+Delete
Control+Delete to Command_L+Delete
Delete to Forward Delete
***Shift+Delete to Forward Delete***
Shift+Delete to Tilde(~)

January 05 2010 at 4:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to -wsn's comment
-wsn

Loving fwd delete :-)

January 05 2010 at 4:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ds

I can't rave enough about KeyRemap. Picked up an Air (with the second Option key instead of the Enter key), and this handled the task without a second thought. Remapped the Eject key to Forward Delete, but havin' a bit of trouble in SL.

January 05 2010 at 4:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ned

Does anyone know of an application to create combination mouse and keyboard macros?

At the moment, I'm using USB Overdrive with my Razer Deathadder, and I've got the thumb buttons set up for Forward/Back in Safari, but set to open Twitterrific and Exposé when any other application is active.

What I would really like to be able to do is use the thumb buttons in combination with a modifier key to enable these macros while Safari is active.

I hope someone can help me out!
Thanks in advance.

January 05 2010 at 4:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Ned's comment
tyten

Controllermate. You'll thank me.

January 05 2010 at 5:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
-wsn

Can you remap delete to be a 'fwd-delete' key, since there is no full-size apple wireless keyboard at this time?

January 05 2010 at 3:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to -wsn's comment
Brett Terpstra

Sure can. You can essentially make any of the compact keyboards gain all of the functionality of a full-size, including modifier-based number pads on jkl,uio,789. Good stuff.

January 05 2010 at 4:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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