Keyboard shortcuts
I've found keyboard shortcuts really useful. Not quite a poweruser but I end up learning a few when I get a new tool.
Karabiner-elements is just excellent when it comes to Mac keyboard shortcut customization. It's open-sourced and has a great community, however it's a bit of a challenge trying to find a complex-modification (as it's called) for the thing you want.
For instance, I wanted ESC to close a chat in the Signal desktop app. Needless to say, I searched on the Signal community if there's a feature request and found it. It was tersely closed with a link to the keyboard shortcuts page. While ⌘ Shift C makes sense, I found myself agreeing with the requestor that ESC makes sense too. In fact, ESC works in the WhatsApp desktop app!
I searched through Karabiner-Elements complex modifications without success. Then I asked ChatGPT to create one for me (I assert I could have done it myself, of course, pffft) and it did a pretty good job of it.
{
"title": "Escape → ⌘⇧C only in Signal",
"rules": [
{
"description": "Map Escape to Command+Shift+C in Signal Desktop",
"manipulators": [
{
"type": "basic",
"from": {
"key_code": "escape"
},
"to": [
{
"key_code": "c",
"modifiers": ["left_command", "left_shift"]
}
],
"conditions": [
{
"type": "frontmost_application_if",
"bundle_identifiers": [
"^org\\.whispersystems\\.signal-desktop$"
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
}
It got the bundle ID wrong the first time but helped me get it with osascript -e 'id of app "Signal"'. Et voila! It works! Hit ESC to close a chat.
Published .
Last edited 7 months, 1 week ago.