Keyboard shortcut for system preferences

I am getting a new "Evoluent" brand keyboard that does not have any software for the MAC, but they say it will work (USB). My question is how to set up the regular F1 to F6 keys to do system functions.
Have been looking at the system preferences/keyboard and it seems like there should be a way to program the F1-F6 keys for volume up, down; screen brightness up, down; print; and calculator. My present keyboard has special keys for those functions and would hate to lose that feature.
Can not seem to figure out how to assign these F keys to the system preferences for volume and screen brightness. I have tried using the + key and selecting System Preferences and then "Output volume" but no luck, any idea? Please include syntax examples if possible.
Ed Legenza

You might just have to take this up with the keyboard manufacturer - The mapping to their f keys may not be the same. Perhaps they have a patch or firmware or preference pane which will help you more easily integrate their product into your system.
Why are you buying a piece of hardware the manfacturer does not fully support for use with your system? If they do support the product for use with Macs then obtaining the info you are after will be a snap : - )

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Keyboard shortcut for a "preferences" detail setting

Some websites I often use are hard to read in their own colors, so I go to "edit -> preferences -> content -> colors" and uncheck "allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections above".
Other websites need this setting checked to display correctly.
Can I establish a keyboard shortcut for this setting?
FF 4.0.1 in both WinXP and Linux

Specifically for that and because it can be changed via the options, you can create a toolbar button to do that.
[http://codefisher.org/toolbar_button/toolbar_button_maker Custom Toolbar Buttons Maker] select "Toggle Page Colors", install, move custom button to toolbar. Toggles preferences, removes some but not all images (loses the entire mozillaZine banner exactly same as the preference). Another button that can be included is "Page Fonts", which toggles page fonts between your colors and the web page's colors. Another button that may be needed to read some pages is "Toggle Styles" to toggle CSS styling off or back on.
Also see page where the above came from, for other suggestions:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Use_my_colors
 Please mark "Solved" one answer that will best help others with a similar problem -- hope this was it.

Can't find a keyboard shortcut in System Preferences...

I'd like to change the command-w shortcut to the F13 key but can't find command-w in the list of keyboard shortcuts. What am I doing wrong?

In which Application?
Say it's the finder, 1st make sure F13 isn't used in Expose/Dashboard, then in KB & Mouse scroll down to Application Keyboard Shortcuts, choose Finder, hit the plus sign, tyope in Close Window, then hit the F13 key, exit, force quit the Finder or restart for it to take effect.

How can I set up a custom keyboard shortcut for volume control?

Hi all,
I use my black MacBook at work, connected to an external monitor and external keyboard. I'm looking for a way to set up the F buttons on my external keyboard as volume control, just as they do on my laptop keyboard. Looking for F3 to F5 to be volume mute, down, and up, respectively.
I tried going into Keyboard Shortcuts in System Preferences but since there is no menu item for volume control I can't seem to add it. Anyone know how I can go about doing this or what I'm missing?
Thanks
Mike

paste the following into Applescrpt Editor (it's in /Applications/Utilities)
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ADD8E6;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
set curVolume to output volume of (get volume settings)
-- work out the new setting
if curVolume < 96 then
set newVolume to curVolume + 5
else
-- can't go over 100
set newVolume to 100
end if
-- and apply it
set volume output volume newVolume</pre>
this script will increase volume by 5 (out of 100) any time you run it. you can adjust this of course. save the script somewhere.
You can use a 3rd part app launcher to bind a keyboard shortcut to it. I use Butler. there are many others: Quicksilver, ikeys, quickeys, Spark, Launchbar.
this will work the fastest.
If you don't want to use 3rd party tools for this you can make a service using automator but that might be a bit slower than the first option. open automator. it will give you a pulldown screen wiuth the choice of what you want to make. choose "service". set it to receive no input and be available in all applications. add the following "run apple script" action to the service
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ADD8E6;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
on run {input, parameters}
set curVolume to output volume of (get volume settings)
-- work out the new setting
if curVolume < 96 then
set newVolume to curVolume + 5
else
-- can't go over 100
set newVolume to 100
end if
-- and apply it
set volume output volume newVolume
end run</pre>
save the service, go to keyboard system preferences->keyboard shortcuts->services and make a shortcut for the service you just created.

Keyboard shortcut for creating new Desktop

Switching from primarily using keyboard shortcut navigation on a PC, I've realized that the OS X is missing a keyboard shortcut for creating a new Desktop or Space. You need to use the mouse to do this, either by clicking the Add Desktop icon in the upper right corner of Mission Control, dragging and dropping an open window to the Add Desktop icon, or entering full screen mode. Though it is possible to toggle full screen mode using a keyboard shortcut under Systems Preferences, not all applications can enable full screen.
Does anyone have a possible solution to this problem?

Hi- There is no longer a dedicated key on your keyboard to do that. However, follow these steps to make one...
Click on System Preferences, Keyboard, and then choose Keyboard Shortcuts tab. In the lefthand column, select Expose & Spaces On the right, you will see that Expose has several shortcut key options. Make sure that the checkbox for Desktop is filled in, and double click it, and press the keyboard key you would like to activate it. If I may suggest, F5 or F6 are good choices.
That is it! You are good to go.

Keyboard Shortcut for Create Archive?

Is there a way to create a keyboard shortcut to "create Archive" from the Finder file menu?
Dual 2 GHz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) 6.5 GB RAM

1255/3701
Hi Zina,
The quickest way I can think of, using the keyboard:
(firstly ⌃F1 keep Full Keyboard Access permanently On)
- highlight the item in Finder
- hit control+F2 then F then arrow down then C then return
Correction:
The quickest way is indeed to create a keyboard shortcut in
System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts
--> in Application, "Finder", name the keyboard shortcut "Create Archive" (case sensitive, no quotes), choose a key combination that is not yet in use (example control-command-A),
then relaunch the Finder (option+holdclick the Finder Dock icon).
Enjoy!
Axl

Fix for System Preferences Keyboard Shortcuts crash

This is not a question, but a solution to a problem that proved difficult to identify and fix for me and three Apple Support personnel, so I thought I should post it here in case others encounter the same issue. I spent a lot of time searching the web and Apple Discussions for this and related issues did not come up with any solutions.
After migrating from Snow Leopard on 2009 MacBook Pro to Yosemite on a new MBP using the Migration Assistant, things went surprisingly smoothly for the most part, until I opened the Keyboard pane of System Preferences. Then, clicking on the Shortcuts tab immediately caused System Preferences to crash, reproducibly.
Crash Reporter pointed loosely to a keyboard-related preference setting. But "com.apple.preference.keyboard" is the name of an OS process, not a .plist file. I searched the web to try to find out where Keyboard Shortcut settings are stored in Yosemite, and also for a possible way to reset the settings to default in Terminal (e.g. using the "defaults" routine), without success. (Apple Support was not happy that I had Terminal open when they shared my screen, and seemed never to have heard of this routine).
Process: System Preferences [948]
Application Specific Information:
objc_msgSend() selector name: retain
com.apple.preference.keyboard v.14.0 (Keyboard)
objc[948]: GC: forcing GC OFF because OBJC_DISABLE_GC is set
Repairing disk permissions, rebooting in Safe Mode, zapping the PRAM, and trashing ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences, some keyboard-related .plist files, and the system prefs and International prefs caches did not fix the problem. With Apple Support, we isolated the problem to my user account, as the same crash did not occur in a test account, or in another account migrated at the same time. Nevertheless, Apple's techs had me removing various menu items and programs also running in these accounts that I had deactivated (Sophos AntiVirus, Little Snitch, etc), and downloading and reinstalling Yosemite, which seemed unlikely to address the cause, given that my main user account was the only one affected.
Apple never had me check 3rd party preference panes (which I should have thought to do earlier myself). Opening and closing an older version of Default App ((RCDefaultApp 2.0.1), a free 3rd party utility, in the Preferences pane, transiently solved the problem. However, it recurred on removing it, and was not fixed by installing the latest release of this preference pane, nor did removing three other 3rd party preferences panes (MacFUSE, a Citrix app, and Flash Player).
Finally I went back to ~/Library/Preferences and looked for any files that had been modified around the time the problem transiently disappeared, and stumbled upon com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist. After viewing its contents with Property List Editor and finding this article, I thought that this file was likely the problem.
I logged into my root account, verified that Shortcuts worked fine there, and that this file changed with a change in Shortcut settings, and (after renaming the offender to save it as a backup), replaced the file in my main user account with a copy of the one from the root account.
I repaired permissions in the offending account, rebooted, and voilà - problem solved!
NB If you are in a similar situation, before trying this fix (at your own risk!), I strongly advise backing up your computer first, and saving a copy of the presumed offending file in case you have to put it back because of unforeseen consequences. You do not need to enable and use the root account; instead you could log in to a new administrator account, or another user account, verify that Shortcuts works fine there (it would not be a bad idea to set up any user-defined App Shortcuts you want there); and copy the file to a shared folder.
Then switch back into the offending account, go to your user Library/Preferences folder (~/Library/Preferences using Go To Folder in Finder), and replace com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist in that account with the one from the shared folder. You should then repair disk permissions afterwards and restart.
If it works, Shortcuts should open fine. Be sure to check each category in the left-hand panel of the Shortcuts panel (e.g. LaunchPad & Dock, Mission Control, etc.) for conflicts, and resolve those by disabling the offending duplicate key combination assignments (I had two, marked by yellow triangle alerts).

Ward Clark wrote:
Thanks, V.K., for your comments.
I wrote: Enter is accepted, but it's treated the same as Return
not for me. it's both displayed and treated differently. I suspect what you are seeing is a byproduct of using a haxie such as Menu Master.
no it's not. it's treated differently.
In Leopard, Menu Master let me assign Command+Enter to Address Book > Edit Card. When I attempt the same using Keyboard Shortcuts, both Command+Return and Command+Enter are displayed as Command plus a "return arrow." After that, in Address Book, both Command+Return and Command+Enter invoke the "Edit Card" menu action.
not for me.
if you want to use those keys in the shortcuts use one of the many 3rd party app launchers. any one of them will let you do this: Qucisilver, Butler, Spark, Launchbar, ikeys, quickeys etc.
I've been using QuicKeys since the beginning of time, and I have some experience with Butler and LaunchBar. They're useful for what they do. But, as far as I know, none add keyboard shortcuts that are displayed directly in the menus. That display feature is what makes Menu Master and Systems Prefs > Keyboard Shortcuts so attractive.
that's because Menu Master is a haxie. none of the other programs mentioned are. you want such functionality you are going have to use a haxie. personally - i stay away from them as they destabilize the system.
When I'm considering new shortcuts, I use KeyCue to display all current shortcuts in a single display. KeyCue now displays QuicKeys shortcuts in the same display, which is a big help.
-- Ward

Safari preferences: keyboard shortcut for going from pane to pane

Is there a keyboard command that allows to go from pane to pane in Safari 7.1 preferences?
I looked and didn't find any. That would be quite handy indeed…

Well, that's what I feared, Dominic. It solves my question anyway, I'm afraid.
It would have been a darned good thing though. You know, I've been a power user on Mac since the very beginning. And all that time, I've asked myself why there was no consistency in keyboard commands, and why there was no keyboard command at all. I've added a lot of shortcuts using System Preferences, but you can use this trick only if there is a Menu command to begin with. Same thing with Mail, and no doubt with a lot of other Apple apps. But it's such a wonderful machine that I can live with that! :-)
Thanks a lot for taking the time.

How do I setup a keyboard shortcut for an item in the Services menu?

In every Application, under the application menu is a "Services" folder. I would like to be able to setup a keyboard shortcut for one of these services (namely Skype).
I am a heavy user of the "Services > Skype > Call" command and I would love to have a keyboard shortcut for it.
I went to System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts, clicked on the plus sign to create a new shortcut (all applications) and entered "Services…Skype…Call" and assigned it to a keyboard command (shift-F1).
It doesn't work. Any clue as to what I am doing wrong?

Hi
Also - have a look at the reply I gave at the link below (sorry - don't know how to insert proper links here).
May be of interest, maybe not.
Best,
D
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7932030#7932030

How do I change the keyboard shortcut for Cycle through open documents in PS CC for Mac?

Sorry to bug the community with such a seemingly inconsequential task, but I am seriously tired of using the awkward default keyboard shortcut for cycling through open docs in PS. I'd like to change it to what I am used in in Chrome, which is Cmd+Option+[left] or {right} arrow keys. I noticed this is not a command listed in the in keyboard shortcuts, for whatever reason. Where on Earth can I change this?
If it is not possible to do it by default, is there a plug-in or a change to the code that will allow this basic functionality?
Thanks again guys and gals!

As far as I know, you can't. It's "hard wired" in. Not even Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts is allowed to change it.
However I did find this tip:
Anyway i never found tabs in Adobe application useful, instead i prefer the old school method: simply switch off tabs feature via illustrator/ preferences/ user interface/ open documents as tabs. Then in Mac preferences panel, under keyboard, just search for the “focus on next application window” field (under menu, keyboard and text) and assign a shortcut if the default option doesn't fit you. And there is now you can easily switch between open documents!.
The best part of this is that it can be used in all mac applications, not only Adobe ones. And remember, if you want this working on Indesign, Photoshop, etc be aware of first switch off the tab features so that the system could “see” multiple documents opened not only one single tabbed document.
Gene

Customized keyboard shortcuts for microsoft Word not working

Hi,
My Macbook Pro retina 15' with an updated Yosemite iOS 10.10.1 has an american keyboard. I am trying to create keyboard shortcuts for brazilian accent marks to use in Microsoft Word. I went to "system preferences", "keyboard", "shortcuts", "App Shortcuts", added Microsoft Word and, for the brazilian accent mark " ˜ ", which in the original keyboard is obtained with "option+n", I set the shortcut "option+left arrow".
It just does not work. I created other shortcuts for other brazilian accent marks with the other arrows + control but none of them worked.
Can anyone tell me what went wrong?
Thanks!

Amy~ Yep the lasso tool was what I verified with another user. 'L' seems to be bound indefinitely to loop through different types of lasso tools and it was annoying them because they just wanted L to be the regular freehand lasso. I removed 'L' from being an option on the polygon lasso and even set it explicitly to SHIFT+L as well as set the lasso tool to a completely different keyboard combo. 'L' still cycled through lassos haha. It needs some fixes.
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Preview How To - change keyboard shortcut for dictionary def.

Hi,
I would like to know how to change the keyboard shortcut for checking the dictionary definition of a highlighted word in Preview.
Thanks,
Brandon

Keyboard shortcuts are handled in System Preferences/Keyboard/Keyboard Shortcuts/Keyboard & Text Input...

Change keyboard shortcut for "Find"

The default keyboard shortcut for the "find" function is Cmd-Opt-F. As you know, for virtually every other Mac app (if not all Mac apps), the shortcut for "find" is simply Cmd-F. In iTunes, though, Cmd-F turns the visualiser full-screen mode on and off. I never use the visualiser, and decades of Mac use have hard-wired my fingers for Cmd-F to be "find." I know that there is a method in System Preferences by which to change or assign associations between drop-down menu items and keyboard shortcuts, but there is no menu item for "find" so that method seems like a dead end.
Is there a way to replace Cmd-Opt-F with Cmd-F in iTunes?
Help, please!!!

to be quite honest i dont no how exactly to do this,
i just know it can be done. i have had no problem
opening .plist files in vi-make sure you are in root
account for system files.
They (the .plist files) don't seem particularly readable in vi -- they seem to contain a lot of binary content. In earlier versions of OS X they were plain text and easily edited.....
Solaris huh? how powerful
is that? i dont know much about solaris . . . . like
to try it though. recommendations?
It's a more "traditional" Unix, meaning that it's very powerful, fairly bulletproof, very configurable, and pretty obtuse if you're not familiar with it. I like my Mac better!

Redefining default keyboard shortcuts for dashboard, exposé, etc.

Hi,
I would like to redefine the keyboard shortcuts for the Dashboard, Dock, and Exposé functions, i.e. I don't want these functions to be bound to the f8-f11 keys. I can redefine the shortcuts manually using the Keyboard pane of the System Preferences, but there are two problems. The first is that the shortcuts for these four items are reset whenever the computer is restarted (my changes to the other keyboard shortcuts are maintained). Is there a way to permenantly change these shortcuts? The second problem is that I am not able to change the keyboard shortcuts for the "slow" versions of these shortcuts accessed by using the shift key.
Basically, I want to be able to use f8-f11 and shift + f8-f11 as keyboard shortcuts in other applications. I'd like to assign the Dashboard, Dock, and Exposé commands to be command + f8-f11 and shift + command + f8-f11.
Thanks.
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.1)

Does it hold if you change in the Dashboard&Exposé preference pane? You should be able to at least set the Cmd+F#, not sure if it will work for the slow open.
For more direct control, see this site
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/remapfunctionkeys.html
The Powerbook is more limited in that it doesn't have the F13,F14,F15 keys, but editing the com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist will give you direct control of the hotkey assignments.
Other F key codes courtesy MacOSXHints:
F# Key Code
1 122
2 120
3 99
4 118
5 96
6 97
7 98
8 100
9 101
10 109
11 103
12 111
13 105
14 107
15 113

Keyboard shortcut for Control+F2, F, Enter

Hello,
I am trying to create a keyboard shortcut that would be available to all Applications deliveres the same result as these keystrokes:
1. Control + F2 (move focus to menu bar)
2. F (moves focus to the File menu bar menu)
3. Enter or down arrow (Displays the File menu)
WHat I am looking to do is create the Windows equivalent of alt+F (displays the contents of the File menu)
I have created a System Preferences Keyboard Shortcut for All Applications that has "File" as the description and ^F has the Shortcut...this doesn't work. Is there a way to assign a shortcut to display the menu bar File menu in its open state?

ReidRik_Von
Here's one approach to try...
1) Open System Preferences > Universal Access and make sure "Enable access for assistive devices" is checked.
2) Highlight and copy the block of code below and paste it into your AppleScript Script Editor (located inside your Applications > AppleScript folder):
*tell application "System Events"*
*keystroke tab using command down*
*set theApp to name of (first process whose frontmost is true)*
*tell process theApp*
*click menu bar item "File" of menu bar 1*
*end tell*
*end tell*
Choose Save As from the Script Editor's File menu, File Format: application, leaving the Options unchecked. Give the script application a name (Display File Menu, e.g.), and press Save.
3) To assign a keyboard shortcut, you might consider downloading and installing the excellent Spark program.
From Spark's File menu, set up a New Hot Key to launch an Application, in this case the application being your newly created AppleScript application. When the new System HotKey sheet drops down, hit the Choose button and navigate to the location where your new AppleScript application was saved. Select it and press Open. Click inside the editable Shortcut field to make it active, and on your keyboard keystroke Option (alt), plus the letter "f." Then press Create.
Start the Spark Daemon by selecting it from the File menu, or by pressing the Stark Spark Daemon button on the Spark panel itself, and then quit Spark altogether. The Spark Daemon and your enabled keyboard shortcut will run as a hidden process, using a minimal amount of RAM.
It worked for me...
Good luck!
Regards, Andrew99

Keyboard shortcut for system preferences

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