Remap right Command key

I saw in this post that someone re-mapped their right command key to be SHIFT+CONTROL+OPTION+COMMAND all at the same time.

How do you do this?

possibly with https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/

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And wouldn’t you be better doing that to the Caps Lock key?

I recently realized that I almost never use my right Command or Option keys, so it’s possible the OP uses their Mac the same way.

I have my Caps Lock set to a “hyper key” but now I also use those right two keys for specialized tasks (Right-Command = Quick Enter Drafts, including launching Drafts if needed, and Right-Option = Quick Enter Fantastical, including launching Fantastical if needed ).

Using Keyboard Maestro? What’s your end to end setup for this?

I have taken a few stabs at a shortcut to show/hide Drafts (using the same KM macros that seem to work fine for all other apps) but can’t seem to make anything work reliably. Most of the time Drafts remains hidden. (It may have something with un/plugging from my dock. That seems super flaky in many ways with MBP16/Catalina/whatever.)

Are you remapping a shortcut key that is set in Drafts preferences? Or do you have that unset?

I am using Karabiner to map right-control and right-option to F-keys (I think F18 and F20, as F19 was already in use for my caps-lock hyper key.

I tend to do the same thing for any app which has a “global” key:

  1. make a Keyboard Maestro macro that uses that same key

  2. in the macro, I use an if/else action which says "If the app is NOT already running, then launch the app, pause until the app is running, and then execute the keyboard shortcut again.

  3. in the macro, if the app IS already running, then I don’t have my macro do anything, and the keyboard shortcut should just be passed along to the app.

So, for example, here is my Drafts shortcut:

Note: Click to embiggen. Also, the “Pause for 3 seconds” is probably too long. Adjust to your Mac.

Note that ⌘⇧1 is Drafts’ default keyboard shortcut, so I use that, but I also use F18 (which Karabiner has mapped to my right-command key).

Does that help? If not, feel free to ask.

If you want to use my macro as a starting point, you can download it here.

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So the net of it is: The more hyperkeys you can devise the better.

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Precisely! Especially because you can do things with Karabiner such as:

  1. If I press this key (e.g. right-command) by itself, then it equals “F18”

  2. If I press this key plus others it equals “command”

which means that you don’t lose the regular functionality, you just gain a special key that you can use for your own purposes. Each of these can be made to do “double duty”:

  1. Caps Lock
  2. Control
  3. Left-Option
  4. Left-Command
  5. Right-Command
  6. Right-Option

If you are reading this but aren’t familiar with Brett Terprstra’s instructions, you can find them here:

A Hyper Key with Karabiner Elements, full instructions - BrettTerpstra.com

Exactly on the double duty. You can do it with other keys, too. For example, I have function keys mapped to the F key + a number key. So F = F, 8 = 8, F+8 = F8 function key. Super handy on the MBP with touchbar.