10.3: Assign unassignable keys to Exposé

Jan 06, '04 08:19:00AM

Contributed by: reg

If you use a laptop computer, the function keys which are normally used as hot keys for Exposé are very far from the track pad, making them awkward to use. The modifier keys are special, and I didn't want to use them for Exposé. However, there is one key I do not normally use which would be optimal for Exposé: the Enter key (bewtween the right Apple Key and the cursor keys). Digging around, I found the following file:

 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist

This file contains the keycodes for the keys used in Exposé: F9=101, F10=109, and F11=103 are the keycodes for the normal function keys. Note that each keycode appears twice in the file -- once for the normal version, and once for the shifted, slow-mo version.

The integer in the next line after the Keycode encodes the modifier key for the hot key (I hope I got these right):

Multiple modifiers can be specified by adding these values together. If you want to use modifier keys only, the entries in this file will look somewhat different; you can do your own experimenting to find out what to use...

In order to find the key codes, I downloaded a small application that prints the keycode for each pressed key.

In order for your changes to take effect, you need to log out and back in again. If you open the Exposé Preference Panel, your changes will of course be lost. BTW, the Enter key has key code 52!

[robg adds: I have not experimented with editing this file by hand, so I can't confirm that this one works (but it should, based on similar hints involving the keyboard keys and plist files). The above description assumes a fair bit of knowledge regarding reading and editing plist files, if you have questions, just post them as comments...]

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