Hello, I'm using a windows keyboard with my macbook pro but OSX considers it as an Apple Keyboard so some symbols are not on the right place. Is there a way to select another keyboard type? I've googled for this and found only topics with some advanced keyboard remapping.:( Tex. KeyMo - mostly for mapping keys exclusively to your mouse. FastScripts - maps hotkeys/user-definable keyboard shortcuts to AppleScripts.I use Text Expander and FastScripts together and can't live without them. Rolling Your Own. It's fairly easy to create something with an AppleScript, or a shell script for just about anything imaginable in OS X.

1. Os X Keyboard Mapping Tutorial
2. Os X Keyboard Mapping Software
3. Os X Keyboard Mapping Keyboard

Click here to return to the '10.4: Remapping keys in Mac OS X 10.4' hint

Finally I can reassign that dreadful Enter key on my MBP to nice and useful Option key! Thank you!

Tell me, how exactly am I supposed to remap the Caps Lock key to the Escape key using DoubleCommand? :P

Be warned that DoubleCommand issues a kernel panic on boot with the lastest Mac OS X 10.4.7 on Intel machines, at least on my two laptops
I found the utility to be extremely useful until I found myself without the capability of booting my Macbook :(

Os X Keyboard Mapping Tutorial

I'm glad to hear it. :)

of course, the use of Apple's Plist Editor (I think every MOXH.com reader should know it, othervise it comes with developer tools) will spare you time about the conversion and Terminal stuff!

BTW: Does anyone know is it possible to remap multimedia keys?
(extra buttons that are ment to control Explorer/Media Player/Clipboard on Windows)
These seem to be very different than usual keys (Ukelele keyboard remapper doesn't see them pressed)

This is an absolutely horrible april fools joke. A good joke doesn't crash a system, it pranks it. Search for 'cocoa text system' for a hint with lots of pranking capabilities. Remapping the shift button to number pad 0 or something might be pretty good. But a kernel panic button… that's just cruel, in the worst way.

I feel the same way. A good prank can be undone by the victim, but this kernel-panic inducer would be too cruel because it'd be so hard to troubleshoot. Analogy: it's ok to saran-wrap a coworker's cube, because she can unwrap it, but not ok to spray-paint her cube or fill it with concrete.
A good prank idea: Back in oS9 days, I snuck a pair of Applescripts onto a coworker's machine. One of them set the Date and Time options to announce the time [every 15 min. I think]. The other script detected when the first script was deleted, and restored it immediately. It took her a few hours, not that she tried that hard, but she eventually found 'em both. Now that's a prank, and I would only have done it to her or one other person, the only 2 users I knew who were savvy enough to know where to look for the prank's parts.

Incidentally, the latest DoubleCommand (at the link above) works perfectly for me on a Macbook Pro + 10.4.8.

why am i just now learning about this hint?
caps lock = esc
1. remap caps lock to help
2. quicksilver trigger this script:
tell app 'System Events' to key code 53
3. set 'hot key = help' and 'activate = on release'

Is there a way to make arbitrary keys behave as modifier keys? I'm left-handed and my setup doesn't really allow me to have a full-size external keyboard, so I'd like to buy a USB numeric keypad and assign the frequently used modifier keys (cmd, opt, ctrl, fn and shift) to the keys on the keypad.
I looked into DoubleCommand and fKeys and Keyboard Maestro, none of which fit the bill. Perhaps there's a clever hack that strings multiple things together for a solution?
Anyone?

I really need this, so sorry for opening an old post. Anyone have any instruction updates for 10.5.7 in simple easy to understand steps? I'm a terminal newbie but have Apple's Property List editor if that helps. The .global files (I have several) referred to in this hint show no signs of having a 'com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping key' entry on my system.
I just want to make my right option key act as the enter key which they removed from the newer laptops. Any help is really appreciated, Thanks.

Still works in Snow Leopard. If you are unsure about which plist to edit, you can change the setting in the Keyboard preference panel. This will update the plist file so you can just select the most recent one. Also notice that there are now arrays for each keyboard your Mac has been used with. To be sure, make the changes to each of them. In my scenario, I wanted a separate meta key for Terminal (I want the symbols option and shift-option produces in addition to meta functionality). I have 'always' had caps lock as a control key. To accomplist the meta key task, I first mapped the left ctrl key (has been useless before) mapped to 'keypad 0' (code 5). Then I edited my custom keyboard layout (.keylayout) file with Ukelele:

• I created a new dead key map for 'keypad 0'.
• Then, for each key in the dead key map, I added  (ESC) plus the key itself
• For instance, the dead key for 'a' is configured as a (ESC + A)

This allows the ex-ctrl to be used as a better meta key, no Keyboard Maestro needed.

I bought a new Apple keyboard which has an extra tilde key to the left of the z and before the shift key which is now much less wide than the standard shift key I'm used to. I'd like to remap the tilde key to the left of my Z to also function as a shift key. Is there any way I can do this?

This still works with more recent OSX versions. There is no need to convert the plist to XML, just find the most recent ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/.GlobalPreferences.*.plist file, open it in the PropertyList Editor (double-click or call with open), find the section(s) com.apple.keyboard.modifiermapping.*

Os X Keyboard Mapping Software

(one for each keyboard), open the section, and copy/paste item entries, modifying as indicated in the hint. Save when finished.

Os X Keyboard Mapping Keyboard

For me, I swap Caps Lock and Control, but wanted the right Control key (just left of the arrow keys) to retain functionality as a Control key. So I simply highlighted and deleted the Item mapping between them, and saved; worked perfectly after a logout. Tested on Snow Leopard.