Table of Contents
Introduction
Limitation: AutoHotkey's remapping feature described below is generally not as pure and effective as remapping directly via the Windows registry. For the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, see registry remapping.
Remapping the Keyboard and Mouse
The syntax for the built-in remapping feature is OriginKey::DestinationKey
. For example, a script consisting only of the following line would make the A key behave like the B key:
How to use a Windows keyboard with Mac: Remap the keys. Open System Preferences on your Mac. Click Keyboard (on the second row of options), then Modifier Keys. At the bottom right of the window.
If you don't like the way your keyboard is laid out, a keyboard remapper can change it. There are only a few for Mac OS X, and the lack of development on many of your options makes your choice. Karabiner, previously called KeyRemap4MacBook, is a very powerful keyboard remapper for Mac OS X. In addition to simple key remapping, it has special remapping modes like Emacs-mode, SandS-mode (Space and Shift). You can add new key remappings very easily if the ones you need are not in the existing key remapping options. Free Open Source Mac.
The above example does not alter the B key itself. The B key would continue to send the 'b' keystroke unless you remap it to something else as shown in the following example:
The examples above use lowercase, which is recommended for most purposes because it also remaps the corresponding uppercase letters (that is, it will send uppercase when CapsLock is 'on' or the Shift key is held down). By contrast, specifying an uppercase letter on the right side forces uppercase. For example, the following line would produce an uppercase B when you type either 'a' or 'A' (as long as CapsLock is off):
However, a remapping opposite to the one above would not work as one might expect, as a remapping never 'releases' the modifier keys which are used to trigger it. For example, A::b
is typically equivalent to A::B
and ^a::b
is equivalent to ^a::^b
. This is because each remapping internally uses {Blind} to allow the key or key combination to be combined with other modifiers.
Mouse Remapping
To remap the mouse instead of the keyboard, use the same approach. For example:
MButton::Shift | Makes the middle button behave like the Shift key. |
XButton1::LButton | Makes the fourth mouse button behave like the left mouse button. |
RAlt::RButton | Makes the right Alt key behave like the right mouse button. |
Other Useful Remappings
CapsLock::Ctrl | Makes CapsLock become a Ctrl key. To retain the ability to turn CapsLock on and off, add the remapping +CapsLock::CapsLock first. This toggles CapsLock on and off when you hold down the Shift key and press CapsLock. Because both remappings allow additional modifier keys to be held down, the more specific +CapsLock::CapsLock remapping must be placed first for it to work. |
XButton2::^LButton | Makes the fifth mouse button (XButton2) produce a control-click. |
RAlt::AppsKey | Makes the right Alt key become the Menu key (which is the key that opens the context menu). |
RCtrl::RWin | Makes the right Ctrl key become the right Win key. |
Ctrl::Alt | Makes both Ctrl keys behave like an Alt key. However, see alt-tab issues. |
^x::^c | Makes Ctrl+X produce Ctrl+C. It also makes Ctrl+Alt+X produce Ctrl+Alt+C, etc. |
RWin::Return | Disables the right Win key by having it simply return. |
You can try out any of these examples by copying them into a new text file such as 'Remap.ahk', then launching the file.
Future point kundli software free full version. See the Key List for a complete list of key and mouse button names.
Remarks
The directives #IfWinActive/Exist can be used to make selected remappings active only in the windows you specify. For example:
Remapping a key or button is 'complete' in the following respects:
- Holding down a modifier such as Ctrl or Shift while typing the origin key will put that modifier into effect for the destination key. For example,
b::a
would produce Ctrl+A if you press Ctrl+B. - CapsLock generally affects remapped keys in the same way as normal keys.
- The destination key or button is held down for as long as you continue to hold down the origin key. However, some games do not support remapping; in such cases, the keyboard and mouse will behave as though not remapped.
- Remapped keys will auto-repeat while being held down (except keys remapped to become mouse buttons).
Although a remapped key can trigger normal hotkeys, by default it cannot trigger mouse hotkeys or hook hotkeys (use ListHotkeys to discover which hotkeys are 'hook'). For example, if the remapping a::b
is in effect, pressing Ctrl+Alt+A would trigger the ^!b
hotkey only if ^!b
is not a hook hotkey. If ^!b
is a hook hotkey, you can define ^!a
as a hotkey if you want Ctrl+Alt+A to perform the same action as Ctrl+Alt+B. For example:
Alternatively, in [v1.1.06] and later, #InputLevel can be used to override the default behaviour. For example:
If SendMode is used in the auto-execute section (top part of the script), it affects all remappings. However, since remapping uses Send {Blind} and since the SendPlay mode does not fully support {Blind}, some remappings might not function properly in SendPlay mode (especially Ctrl, Shift, Alt, and Win). To work around this, avoid SendPlay in auto-execute section when you have remappings; then use the command SendPlay vs. Send in other places throughout the script. Alternatively, you could translate your remappings into hotkeys (as described below) that explicitly call SendEvent vs. Send.
When a script is launched, each remapping is translated into a pair of hotkeys. For example, a script containing a::b
actually contains the following two hotkeys instead:
However, the above hotkeys vary under the following circumstances:
- When the source key is the left Ctrl key and the destination key is an Alt key, the line
Send {Blind}{LAlt DownR}
is replaced bySend {Blind}{LCtrl up}{LAlt DownR}
. The same is true if the source is the right Ctrl key, except that{RCtrl up}
is used. - When a keyboard key is being remapped to become a mouse button (e.g.
RCtrl::RButton
), the hotkeys above use SetMouseDelay in place of SetKeyDelay. In addition, the first hotkey above is replaced by the following, which prevents the keyboard's auto-repeat feature from generating repeated mouse clicks: - When the source is a custom combination in [v1.1.27.01+], the wildcard modifier (*) is omitted to allow the hotkeys to work.
Prior to [v1.1.27], DownTemp was used instead of DownR.
Note that SetKeyDelay's second parameter (press duration) is omitted in the hotkeys above. This is because press-duration does not apply to down-only or up-only events such as {b down}
and {b up}
. However, it does apply to changes in the state of the Shift/Ctrl/Alt/Win keys, which affects remappings such as a::B
or a::^b
. Rhw engine manuals. Consequently, any press-duration a script puts into effect via its auto-execute section will apply to all such remappings.
Since remappings are translated into hotkeys as described above, the Suspend command affects them. Similarly, the Hotkey command can disable or modify a remapping. For example, the following two commands would disable the remapping a::b
.
Key Remapper For Mac Osx
Alt-tab issues: If you remap a key or mouse button to become an Alt key, that key will probably not be able to alt-tab properly. A possible work-around is to add the hotkey *Tab::Send {Blind}{Tab}
-- but be aware that it will likely interfere with using the real Alt key to alt-tab. Therefore, it should be used only when you alt-tab solely by means of remapped keys and/or alt-tab hotkeys.
In addition to the keys and mouse buttons on the Key List page, the source key may also be a virtual key (VKnn) or scan code (SCnnn) as described on the special keys page. The same is true for the destination key except that it may optionally specify a scan code after the virtual key. For example, sc01e::vk42sc030
is equivalent to a::b
on most keyboard layouts.
To disable a key rather than remapping it, make it a hotkey that simply returns. For example, F1::return
would disable the F1 key.
The following keys are not supported by the built-in remapping method:
- The mouse wheel (WheelUp/Down/Left/Right).
- Pause and Break as destination key names (since they match the names of commands). [v1.1.32+]:
vk13
or the corresponding scan code can be used instead. - Curly braces {} as destination keys. Instead use the VK/SC method; e.g.
x::+sc01A
andy::+sc01B
. - A percent sign (%) as a destination key. Instead use the VK/SC method.
- 'Return' as a destination key. Instead use 'Enter'.
Moving the Mouse Cursor via the Keyboard
The keyboard can be used to move the mouse cursor as demonstrated by the fully-featured Keyboard-To-Mouse script. Since that script offers smooth cursor movement, acceleration, and other features, it is the recommended approach if you plan to do a lot of mousing with the keyboard. By contrast, the following example is a simpler demonstration:
Key Remapper For Mac Catalina
Remapping via the Registry's 'Scancode Map'
Advantages:
Key Remapper Serial Number
- Registry remapping is generally more pure and effective than AutoHotkey's remapping. For example, it works in a broader variety of games, it has no known alt-tab issues, and it is capable of firing AutoHotkey's hook hotkeys (whereas AutoHotkey's remapping requires a workaround).
- If you choose to make the registry entries manually (explained below), absolutely no external software is needed to remap your keyboard. Even if you use KeyTweak to make the registry entries for you, KeyTweak does not need to stay running all the time (unlike AutoHotkey).
Disadvantages:
- Registry remapping is relatively permanent: a reboot is required to undo the changes or put new ones into effect.
- Its effect is global: it cannot create remappings specific to a particular user, application, or locale.
- It cannot send keystrokes that are modified by Shift, Ctrl, Alt, or AltGr. For example, it cannot remap a lowercase character to an uppercase one.
- It supports only the keyboard (AutoHotkey has mouse remapping and some limited joystick remapping).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Limitation: AutoHotkey's remapping feature described below is generally not as pure and effective as remapping directly via the Windows registry. For the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, see registry remapping.
Remapping the Keyboard and Mouse
The syntax for the built-in remapping feature is OriginKey::DestinationKey
. For example, a script consisting only of the following line would make the A key behave like the B key:
How to use a Windows keyboard with Mac: Remap the keys. Open System Preferences on your Mac. Click Keyboard (on the second row of options), then Modifier Keys. At the bottom right of the window.
If you don't like the way your keyboard is laid out, a keyboard remapper can change it. There are only a few for Mac OS X, and the lack of development on many of your options makes your choice. Karabiner, previously called KeyRemap4MacBook, is a very powerful keyboard remapper for Mac OS X. In addition to simple key remapping, it has special remapping modes like Emacs-mode, SandS-mode (Space and Shift). You can add new key remappings very easily if the ones you need are not in the existing key remapping options. Free Open Source Mac.
The above example does not alter the B key itself. The B key would continue to send the 'b' keystroke unless you remap it to something else as shown in the following example:
The examples above use lowercase, which is recommended for most purposes because it also remaps the corresponding uppercase letters (that is, it will send uppercase when CapsLock is 'on' or the Shift key is held down). By contrast, specifying an uppercase letter on the right side forces uppercase. For example, the following line would produce an uppercase B when you type either 'a' or 'A' (as long as CapsLock is off):
However, a remapping opposite to the one above would not work as one might expect, as a remapping never 'releases' the modifier keys which are used to trigger it. For example, A::b
is typically equivalent to A::B
and ^a::b
is equivalent to ^a::^b
. This is because each remapping internally uses {Blind} to allow the key or key combination to be combined with other modifiers.
Mouse Remapping
To remap the mouse instead of the keyboard, use the same approach. For example:
MButton::Shift | Makes the middle button behave like the Shift key. |
XButton1::LButton | Makes the fourth mouse button behave like the left mouse button. |
RAlt::RButton | Makes the right Alt key behave like the right mouse button. |
Other Useful Remappings
CapsLock::Ctrl | Makes CapsLock become a Ctrl key. To retain the ability to turn CapsLock on and off, add the remapping +CapsLock::CapsLock first. This toggles CapsLock on and off when you hold down the Shift key and press CapsLock. Because both remappings allow additional modifier keys to be held down, the more specific +CapsLock::CapsLock remapping must be placed first for it to work. |
XButton2::^LButton | Makes the fifth mouse button (XButton2) produce a control-click. |
RAlt::AppsKey | Makes the right Alt key become the Menu key (which is the key that opens the context menu). |
RCtrl::RWin | Makes the right Ctrl key become the right Win key. |
Ctrl::Alt | Makes both Ctrl keys behave like an Alt key. However, see alt-tab issues. |
^x::^c | Makes Ctrl+X produce Ctrl+C. It also makes Ctrl+Alt+X produce Ctrl+Alt+C, etc. |
RWin::Return | Disables the right Win key by having it simply return. |
You can try out any of these examples by copying them into a new text file such as 'Remap.ahk', then launching the file.
Future point kundli software free full version. See the Key List for a complete list of key and mouse button names.
Remarks
The directives #IfWinActive/Exist can be used to make selected remappings active only in the windows you specify. For example:
Remapping a key or button is 'complete' in the following respects:
- Holding down a modifier such as Ctrl or Shift while typing the origin key will put that modifier into effect for the destination key. For example,
b::a
would produce Ctrl+A if you press Ctrl+B. - CapsLock generally affects remapped keys in the same way as normal keys.
- The destination key or button is held down for as long as you continue to hold down the origin key. However, some games do not support remapping; in such cases, the keyboard and mouse will behave as though not remapped.
- Remapped keys will auto-repeat while being held down (except keys remapped to become mouse buttons).
Although a remapped key can trigger normal hotkeys, by default it cannot trigger mouse hotkeys or hook hotkeys (use ListHotkeys to discover which hotkeys are 'hook'). For example, if the remapping a::b
is in effect, pressing Ctrl+Alt+A would trigger the ^!b
hotkey only if ^!b
is not a hook hotkey. If ^!b
is a hook hotkey, you can define ^!a
as a hotkey if you want Ctrl+Alt+A to perform the same action as Ctrl+Alt+B. For example:
Alternatively, in [v1.1.06] and later, #InputLevel can be used to override the default behaviour. For example:
If SendMode is used in the auto-execute section (top part of the script), it affects all remappings. However, since remapping uses Send {Blind} and since the SendPlay mode does not fully support {Blind}, some remappings might not function properly in SendPlay mode (especially Ctrl, Shift, Alt, and Win). To work around this, avoid SendPlay in auto-execute section when you have remappings; then use the command SendPlay vs. Send in other places throughout the script. Alternatively, you could translate your remappings into hotkeys (as described below) that explicitly call SendEvent vs. Send.
When a script is launched, each remapping is translated into a pair of hotkeys. For example, a script containing a::b
actually contains the following two hotkeys instead:
However, the above hotkeys vary under the following circumstances:
- When the source key is the left Ctrl key and the destination key is an Alt key, the line
Send {Blind}{LAlt DownR}
is replaced bySend {Blind}{LCtrl up}{LAlt DownR}
. The same is true if the source is the right Ctrl key, except that{RCtrl up}
is used. - When a keyboard key is being remapped to become a mouse button (e.g.
RCtrl::RButton
), the hotkeys above use SetMouseDelay in place of SetKeyDelay. In addition, the first hotkey above is replaced by the following, which prevents the keyboard's auto-repeat feature from generating repeated mouse clicks: - When the source is a custom combination in [v1.1.27.01+], the wildcard modifier (*) is omitted to allow the hotkeys to work.
Prior to [v1.1.27], DownTemp was used instead of DownR.
Note that SetKeyDelay's second parameter (press duration) is omitted in the hotkeys above. This is because press-duration does not apply to down-only or up-only events such as {b down}
and {b up}
. However, it does apply to changes in the state of the Shift/Ctrl/Alt/Win keys, which affects remappings such as a::B
or a::^b
. Rhw engine manuals. Consequently, any press-duration a script puts into effect via its auto-execute section will apply to all such remappings.
Since remappings are translated into hotkeys as described above, the Suspend command affects them. Similarly, the Hotkey command can disable or modify a remapping. For example, the following two commands would disable the remapping a::b
.
Key Remapper For Mac Osx
Alt-tab issues: If you remap a key or mouse button to become an Alt key, that key will probably not be able to alt-tab properly. A possible work-around is to add the hotkey *Tab::Send {Blind}{Tab}
-- but be aware that it will likely interfere with using the real Alt key to alt-tab. Therefore, it should be used only when you alt-tab solely by means of remapped keys and/or alt-tab hotkeys.
In addition to the keys and mouse buttons on the Key List page, the source key may also be a virtual key (VKnn) or scan code (SCnnn) as described on the special keys page. The same is true for the destination key except that it may optionally specify a scan code after the virtual key. For example, sc01e::vk42sc030
is equivalent to a::b
on most keyboard layouts.
To disable a key rather than remapping it, make it a hotkey that simply returns. For example, F1::return
would disable the F1 key.
The following keys are not supported by the built-in remapping method:
- The mouse wheel (WheelUp/Down/Left/Right).
- Pause and Break as destination key names (since they match the names of commands). [v1.1.32+]:
vk13
or the corresponding scan code can be used instead. - Curly braces {} as destination keys. Instead use the VK/SC method; e.g.
x::+sc01A
andy::+sc01B
. - A percent sign (%) as a destination key. Instead use the VK/SC method.
- 'Return' as a destination key. Instead use 'Enter'.
Moving the Mouse Cursor via the Keyboard
The keyboard can be used to move the mouse cursor as demonstrated by the fully-featured Keyboard-To-Mouse script. Since that script offers smooth cursor movement, acceleration, and other features, it is the recommended approach if you plan to do a lot of mousing with the keyboard. By contrast, the following example is a simpler demonstration:
Key Remapper For Mac Catalina
Remapping via the Registry's 'Scancode Map'
Advantages:
Key Remapper Serial Number
- Registry remapping is generally more pure and effective than AutoHotkey's remapping. For example, it works in a broader variety of games, it has no known alt-tab issues, and it is capable of firing AutoHotkey's hook hotkeys (whereas AutoHotkey's remapping requires a workaround).
- If you choose to make the registry entries manually (explained below), absolutely no external software is needed to remap your keyboard. Even if you use KeyTweak to make the registry entries for you, KeyTweak does not need to stay running all the time (unlike AutoHotkey).
Disadvantages:
- Registry remapping is relatively permanent: a reboot is required to undo the changes or put new ones into effect.
- Its effect is global: it cannot create remappings specific to a particular user, application, or locale.
- It cannot send keystrokes that are modified by Shift, Ctrl, Alt, or AltGr. For example, it cannot remap a lowercase character to an uppercase one.
- It supports only the keyboard (AutoHotkey has mouse remapping and some limited joystick remapping).
How to Apply Changes to the Registry: There are at least two methods to remap keys via the registry:
- Use a program like KeyTweak (freeware) to visually remap your keys. It will change the registry for you.
- Remap keys manually by creating a .reg file (plain text) and loading it into the registry. This is demonstrated at www.autohotkey.com/forum/post-56216.html#56216
Related Topics
List of keys and mouse buttons
GetKeyState
Remapping a joystick