System Wide Keyboard shortcuts

F5 on my macbook (in any application) opens a 'Quick Task Entry' window.
( I am not sure where this behaviour comes from but I suspect it was from one of any number of apps I have tried out over the years).
I would like F5 to do nothing.
In the System Preferences>Keyboard & Mouse>Keyboard Shortcuts, there is no 'mention' of F5 and this action. Other applications (like Things) also create System Wide shortcuts that do not show up in this window.
How can I change this F5 behaviour?
Thanks.

Thanks Tim, you're a genius. That gave me the clue.
The new user 'test' does not have the F5 behaviour problem.
Therefore I checked through my list of login items, and found that it was 'Contactizer Pro' that used F5 to add a Quick Task.
Changing that default stopped the problem.
(The reason this is an issue is that I have a new Kensington Wireless Presenter, and it appears that pushing the laser pointer button also sends an F5 keystroke (for some reason)- which would stop my Keynote presentation and open the 'Quick Task' window!)

Similar Messages

System wide Keyboard shortcuts in Full Screen Apps

As a new ibook user I am trying to figure out how to make the best use of my system, and have run into a problem:
When running full screen applicationsn (like games), system wide keyboard shortcuts don't seem to behave as expected: they simply don't work. Specifically I cannot use the keyboard shortcuts for Expose or Desktop Manager when in any full screen application.
In fact, it doesn't even seem possible to leave a full screen application running and get back to my desktop. In windows I could alt-tab to another application and it would hide the full screen application minimized in the taskbar, but command-tab simply doesn't work in OSX when in a full screen app.
Is there any way to make all or particular system wide keyboard shortcuts work while running full screen applications? With the terminal or something? I'm just lost. Thanks for helping a mac newbie.
ibook G4 1.33 12" Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Thanks Tim, you're a genius. That gave me the clue.
The new user 'test' does not have the F5 behaviour problem.
Therefore I checked through my list of login items, and found that it was 'Contactizer Pro' that used F5 to add a Quick Task.
Changing that default stopped the problem.
(The reason this is an issue is that I have a new Kensington Wireless Presenter, and it appears that pushing the laser pointer button also sends an F5 keystroke (for some reason)- which would stop my Keynote presentation and open the 'Quick Task' window!)

System wide keyboard commands not responding

My mac stops responding to system wide keyboard commands such as the Dashboard, Expose and Spotlight shortcuts. It also does not respond to Command-Tab to switch between applications. Hitting the keys for any of these leads to no response whatsoever.
I have run into this problem several times over the last few months, and the only solution I have found is to restart the computer. Initially, it appeared to be related to the ScreenSaver process crashing. I could look in the System Monitor and see that this process had gone red, when I forced the process to quit, the keyboard commands were restored. More recently, though, this has not been the case, and I have had to restart.
Any guesses what could cause this or suggestions on how to diagnose it? Thanks for any help.

I'll answer in reverse.
When I've experienced the problem, I have tried other (older style) keyboards, and that did not resolve the problem.
I've never tried creating another user account.
I'll try disabling the screen saver, but part of the problem is that this issue is sufficiently intermittent that it take a while to determine if this has a benefit. I was hoping to find some more systematic way to diagnose what has been happening. Any suggestions along these lines?
Thanks for your help and interest.

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

System-wide kb shortcut for mail functions

I'd like to be able to program a system-wide, universal kb shortcut to:
-- start a new, blank mail message
-- check for new mail (in other words, poll my mail server) without bringing mail to the front
ideas? I've been using Butler now for a while and I like it, but it seems limited in its ability to handle something like what I want to do. an automator script could work but I don't know how to assign a script to a system-wide kb shortcut.
thanks!

QuicKeys will let you do pretty well anything.

System Preferences Keyboard Shortcuts

Why oh why didn't Apple update the Keyboard Shortcuts System Preference for the new thin keyboard. It still shows F12 as Dashboard, not F4. I tried changing it to F4 but couldn't. It is also screwing up my Wacom tablet. I tried assigning one of the buttons to F4 but it didn't work. I tried F12, didn't do anything. Re-assigned the keyboard shortcut to F19 but the Wacom preferences don't go up to F19. (am using most recent Wacom drivers.)

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

System Preferences Keyboard Shortcuts does not recognize some keys

Upgrading to Snow Leopard meant leaving Unsanity's elegant Menu Master behind. I've been trying to make do with System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Applications Shortcuts. I've had some success. I'm now looking for help dealing with unfortunate shortcomings.
At the top of my list:
Keyboard Shortcuts doesn't let me use some keys I was accustomed to using in Menu Master:
• Delete, Help, forward Delete, Home, End, Page Up and Page Down just beep.
• Enter is accepted, but it's treated the same as Return -- these are two different keys!
Is there some way to trick/force Keyboard Shortcuts to accept these keys?
For example, I seem to recall Menu Master required a mouse-down to enter some special keys.
-- Ward

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

IMac System Preferences Keyboard Shortcut Settings have disappeared ... ?

Hi all,
Yesterday and again today, the Keyboard Shortcuts, System Preferences pain is empty on my Intel iMac running Lion/10.7. IE: the Settings options under Keyboard Preferences isn't populating any options, it's just empty.
This happens on and off throughout the day and no amount of waiting, restarting, opening/closing apps, re-syncing my aluminum Apple bluetooth keyboard, or checking for updates has helped.
Is anyone else having this issue and if so, is there a 'fix?' As I am typing this the settings started showing options once again, so the screenshot I was going to include is rather obsolete as far as helping give a better understanding of the issue, but I am including a shot of the Keyboard Settings pane when it is properly displaying items, just for app/preference clarification.
Thanks in advance!
~ Krissi

Hello Eric,
yes, restart is done after removing the user library. Still, the shortcuts are in the system preferences pane.
To explain why I'm after these files: I'm not trying to clear the settings, i'm actually trying to find the file, so i might safe/load them on different users.
My biggest bet did not work: ~/Library.
Is there any other location where I will find saves user settings?

Change ctrl+alt+s System Information keyboard shortcut

Hello,
since last HP update, there is this new keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+S that opens the System Information panel. That shortcut is also used by other applications i.e. Adobe Photoshop. How can i change/disable that shortcut?
My OS is windows 8.1.
I've already unsuccessfully tried the steps described in the document http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=it&lc=it&dlc=it&docname=c00761879. It does not work for me because I have windows 8.1 and there is no such program as "HP Help and Tools".
Thanks

Use Windows System Restore to return to a checkpoint made on the date of the update. Each checkpoint will list details on the update that it was made for.
Use system restore, not Refresh or reset.
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

Keyboard shortcut for sending messages on Mail suddenly stops working

I've created a keyboard shortcut (Command + Return) specifically for sending manssages on Mail. When I open Mail, this keyboard shortcut works perfectly but suddenly it stops working.
If I close and reopen Mail, the keyboard shortcut starts to work again, but for a while.
I'm using OS X 10.9.1 and Mail 7.1 (1827).

Howdy Guilherme
Give this a try if you haven't already.
System Preferences
Keyboard
Shortcuts
At the bottom of the left panel go to:
App Shortcuts
If Mail.app isn't there, add it.
Under it add Send.
Now choose your key combo i.e.
⌘↵
Worked for me mail Version 7.1 (1827) running OS X 10.9.1.

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.

How can I create a keyboard shortcut to export to pdf in Pages for Mac

Can anyone explain how to create a keyboard shortcut that works in pages?

Reluctant as I am to contradict Viking OS X, yes it is possible.
This is for Yosemite, it is slightly different in other versions of OS X.
Menu > Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts > + > Applications > Pages > Menu Title: PDF… > Keyboard Shortcut > hold down whatever combination you want > Add
As Viking says this won't choose Good, Better, Best but at least it gets you to that point. Unfortunately it always defaults to Good.
NB that PDF… has to be typed with ALL CAPS and the ellipsis is option ; or copy from here. It has to be literally what is in the menu.
You could make a more intelligent keyboard shortcut with 3rd party Apps like Spark [free] or QuicKeys or iKey or Shortcuts for Mac or Keyboard Maestro.
Peter

BUG: KEYBOARD SHORTCUT KEYS DO NOT ALWAYS ACTIVATE A SERVICE (A WORKFLOW)

BUG: KEYBOARD SHORTCUT KEYS DO NOT ALWAYS ACTIVATE A SERVICE (A WORKFLOW)
When you assign a keyboard shortcut to a Service (such as a Service Workflow created in Automator) using the System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts, if that shortcut key combination includes the Command key, pressing that shortcut will always successfully activate the Service. No problem there.
However, shortcut key combinations that do not include the Command key (for example, the shortcut key combo Ctrl-Shift-D) WILL NOT activate the Service in any newly opened application, until you click on the Services Menu option in that application.
As soon as you click on the application's Services Menu, this seems to bind the shortcut key combo to the Service, and thereafter, that keyboard shortcut will activate the Service in that particular app. But if you then quit and reopen the app, you'll find the Service will once again lose its binding to the shortcut key combination and will thus fail to work again.
This means that shortcut key combinations such as Ctrl-D, Ctrl-Shift-D, F15, Alt-F15, etc are not really viable shortcuts for Services, because they will not work in any newly-opened application until you click on the Services Menu in that application.
This bug thus greatly limits the shortcuts that you can employ for Services, because you can only reliably use shortcut key combos that contain the Command key. This is a fault that Apple really needs to fix. This is a very old glitch: I notice it is present in Snow Leopard 10.6.8, as well as Yosemite 10.10.1.
This bug does not apply to application shortcuts, however, or to other shortcuts in the Shortcuts Preference Pane, just to Services shortcuts (including the Mac's default Services, or any Services you make yourself using Workflows on the Automator software).
To give some examples:
The following keyboard shortcuts for Services WILL NOT work until you click on the Services Menu in the application you are using (and they will cease working again when you quit and reopen the app):
Ctrl-X
Ctrl-Shift-X
Ctrl-Alt-X
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-X
Alt-X
Alt-Shift-X
F1, F2, F3, etc
So until Apple fixes this bug, the above type of key combinations, that do not contain the Command key, are best avoided as shortcuts for Services. It is particularly unfortunate that function keys F1 to F19 do not work reliably, as these would make great single-key shortcuts to Services.
However, the following sort of keyboard shortcuts for Services, all containing the Command key, once set up will always work without fail:
Command-Alt-X
Command-Ctrl-X
Command-Shift-X
Command-Ctrl-Shift-X
Command-Alt-Ctrl-Shift-X
Command-F1, Command-F2, Command-F3, etc
So all the above can be reliably used as shortcuts to Services.
Here X denotes keyboard keys such as A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, =, \, [, etc.
Note that even for keyboard shortcuts containing the Command key, you may very occasionally need to click the Services Menu to get them to work initially in an application (notably in the System Preferences application itself). But if this is necessary, it is just required once when they are first set up, and thereafter the shortcuts containing the Command key will always work without fail.
The above was tested on Yosemite 10.10.1, but most likely applies to other versions of OS X as well, as I believe this bug is an old one. This bug is definitely present in Snow Leopard 10.6.8, because I have observed this same fault in an old Mac I have that runs Snow Leopard.
I have reported this bug to Apple, so hopefully they will see my report and act upon it. However, it might be an idea if others also report this problem of Services shortcuts not working property, to ensure that Apple get the message. You can report a bug to Apple via their bug feedback page here.

Exactly where do you want to use a GO BACK "shortcut" in Bridge? Maybe I don't even understand what you mean by Go Back. Bridge is only a file browser, nothing more. It doesn't open, edit, manipulate or save files at all.
Are you simply referring to going back to view a folder that you viewed before?
Please don't take this a criticism. As someone who will gladly pay money not to have to learn any shortcuts at all, I'm just puzzled and curious, that's all.

Fit Frame to Content Bug in InDesign CC? Keyboard shortcut not working

Using InDesign CC 9.1 in Mountain Lion, recently installed and has been working fine except I noticed that the keyboard shortcut for Fit Frame to Content won't work, even though the other frame fitting shortcuts work. I searched this forum and elsewhere to see if there was any reported bug for this but came up with bubkis.
When using the contextual menu option or toolbar button for Fit Frame to Content I don't have any problem. I thought perhaps my own set of shortcuts had overridden this default shortcut somehow so I reverted to the default set without any luck. I quit and re-opened ID with the default shortcut set, no luck either.
In the Keyboard Shortcuts menu options, when I try to assign Opt-Cmd-C it does say it's already assigned to that function. I'm at a loss here to understand why this one particular function isn't working as a shortcut. Any ideas why? What can I do? Thanks.

It's working for me in InDesign CC on the same operating system.
Here's a couple ideas:
Make sure there's not a Mac OS X system shortcut already set to this shortcut. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts and check all the tabs for existing system shortcuts (I didn't find any but maybe you had set one). InDesign CC now gives preference to the system.
You could also try restoring your InDesign preferences.

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.
fertolg~ At least you have a workaround for now. I'd go nuts if I couldn't use keyboard text selection writing code, oy! You're welcome and if you're all set please mark correct so we can filter unanswered. Good luck!

System Wide Keyboard shortcuts

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