There are times when the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune lead OS X users into using Windows keyboards. Should you find yourself in such a situation, one of the first things you need to deal with is the lack of a standard Command key. The following mini tutorial will show you how to identify keyboard mappings and, if needed, switch around those mappings so you can touch type on that keyboard with familiar shift-modifier placements.
Here is an image of a Dell keyboard. It's unusual only in how extreme its OS X-unfriendly layout is. Other than that, it offers typical keys, including the Alt and Windows items near the space bar.
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On the left side, there's the control key, a function key, the Windows key, and then the Alt (option) key. On the right, there's Alt, the quote key, and then three arrows. From a Mac OS X point of view, this is less than ideal; the Alt key (which appears on both sides) is the best candidate for use as the Command key. Obviously this configuration varies by laptop.
Although this layout is uniquely awful, it's not extremely common. Larger notebooks and desktop systems use a more standard layout with the left and right sides mirrored. As a rule, notebooks have pretty good layouts; netbooks (their smaller brothers) do not.
Whether or not the keyboard layout 'makes sense,' you'll want to know how keys are being interpreted by OS X and maybe make some changes to have them behave better with your touch-typing skills.
Detecting Keyboard Configurations
When remapping keys, you'll first want to see how the original configuration is mapped. To find this out, take the following steps. They'll show you which physical key matches which logical key.
- Open System Preferences > International > Input Menu and enable the Keyboard Viewer. This option appears in the first group, toward the top of the settings pane.
- At the very bottom of the settings pane, check Show Input menu in menu bar. This creates a flag-emblem item in your menu bar. Mine looks like the US flag. Yours may vary based on your International settings.
- Choose Flag-Menu (U.S.) > Show Keyboard Viewer to open the floating keyboard panel. The panel looks something like this:
Once you see this palette, start tapping each of the shift modifiers on your keyboard, including the Control, Alt and Windows keys. OS X uses the Keyboard Viewer palette to mirror all your keyboard entries. When you press those modifier keys, you'll see exactly how they're mapped and being interpreted.
Updating the Command Key location
Switch Alt And Windows Key For Macos Download
For touch typists, the Command key should ideally be placed just to the left or right of the space bar. If your keyboard has Alt and Windows mixed up relative to that space bar, you can remap them in System Preferences.
Switch Alt And Windows Key For Macos Mac
Go to System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse and click Modifier Keys.. Use the following dialog to map your keys into place. Often this involves nothing more than switching the Command and Option keys.
Testing and mapping your keyboard allows you to touch-type with ease. Plus, it's good to know that you're not limited to Mac-specific equipment when Windows keyboards abound. The steps you've just seen will help you evaluate and adjust your mappings as needed.
Ars Tip!
Having problems with a missing-in-action character palette? This tip, which shows you how to delete your International data caches may do the trick. It worked perfectly for me!