On the latest episode, someone had written in asking how to keep up with keyboard shortcuts. My work around for this is that I put all keyboard shortcuts into Keyboard Maestro. I mean every single one, even the stock shortcuts. I then add a comment action with the Application that the shortcut is created in and any notes about the shortcut in the comment field.
With this method, I can keep up with where all my keyboard shortcuts are created and what each shortcut does. I have a terrible memory and used to forget an older shortcut or would accidentally trigger it without knowing where I needed to go to make any changes to what the shortcut does.
Great idea. I also use comments in Keyboard Maestro (and Shortcuts) to remind myself what a macro does. In Keyboard Maestro, being able to color-code comments makes them even easier to spot visually.
I haven’t listened to the episode yet, but my own method for keeping track of keyboard shortcuts is to keep a note in Bear. I group shortcuts by key combination—for example, all my Hyperkey + letter shortcuts are together, plus a few other patterns I use. Since I access and update the note through the Bear plugin in Alfred, it’s quick to manage, and having this information in one place has been invaluable.
Supercharge (available directly from the developer and on Setapp) has a “Keyboard shortcut inspector” that can be helpful. As noted, in the overview, it can have false positives.
Hopefully Apple with add a Global Keyboard Shortcut API in the future so apps can register their keyboard shortcuts and determine which ones are currently unused.
Supercharge’s “Keyboard Shortcut Inspector” is fine, but it doesn’t know about shortcuts defined inside apps. Or, at least it doesn’t know about shortcuts defined in apps I use. For example, shortcuts assigned inside Obsidian, or TheBrain, are not detected. “Keyboard Shortcut Inspector” also reports that almost any shortcut is used by Typinator, which is usually false.
Are you making a new macro for every keyboard shortcut and each macro has only a comment action, or are you just adding a comment to existing macros? I’m trying to understand how this helps with recall and how you avoid conflicts with duplicate hot key triggers.
It’s global keyboard shortcuts that tend to trip me up. This is where Supercharge can be helpful. I don’t think it has anyway of detecting global shortcuts defined by certain apps (e.g. Typinator), though I can always go into these apps and see what global shortucts they have defined (e.g. in Typinator I only use two global shortcuts).
On a side note, KeyCue (which is from the same developer as Typinator) can also helpful. It’s available directly from the developer and is included with Setapp.
I mainly use Keyboard Maestro for my keyboard shortcuts, but if I have one in another app that isn’t in KM, I will create it and only have the comment. Nothing ever happens in KM, but if I am trying to remember what a certain shortcut is, I can search for the shortcut and find it along with my comment on what its use is.
I have used the shortcut inspector, but I have found my method of putting every shortcut into KM with the application as the title instantly lets me know which app the shortcut is set in and then the comment tells me what the shortcut does. It’s a bit of work on the front end, but it saves me when I am trying to create a new shortcut or remembering one that I have not used in awhile.
