Custom Keyboard Shortcuts in OS X
Posted by Van Lam on 11/10/07 in Featured, Tips & Tricks, Tutorial
The one-two punch of the mouse and GUI are an intuitive duet, but sometimes you just want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Keyboard shortcuts give you that.
While OS X offers keyboard shortcuts for most commands in the menu bar, there are a few orphaned commands worth adopting. Not a problem though, because OS X allows you to easily adopt any menu bar function and map it to a keyboard command, without the assistance of any third party software.
To access this often forgotten tool, simply navigate your way into the ‘Keyboard & Mouse’ preference pane and tab over to ‘Keyboard Shortcuts.’ When you click on the plus sign, you’ll be presented with three inputs.

First select which application you want to commandeer. You can have your new keyboard shortcut effect a certain application, or work globally across all applications. The great thing about this trick is that you can also remap existing keyboard shortcuts. Secondly, choose which menu command to map by simply typing the menu title. For example, to add a keyboard shortcut for the ‘Zoom’ command under the ‘Window’ menu, simply enter “Zoom.” Finally, decide what you want the keyboard command to be.
It’s that simple. Restart the application and marvel at your new custom keyboard command. What are some of your essential custom keyboard commands in OS X?
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