J&P
Sverige / USA
J&P

Keyboards, Keyboard Shortcuts

Apple:

macOS Monterey, version 12.0

Introduces conflicts with our previously defined shortcuts. So fix:

System Preferences … > Keyboard : Shortcuts tab.

  1. App Shortcuts – section, ADD ‘Mail.app’ application-specific shortcuts
    1. “Hide Sidebar” : Ctrl+Command+Shift+S (as we use Ctrl+Command+S for saving email to disk)
    2. “Show Sidebar” : Ctrl+Command+Shift+S (to also provide the toggling functionality of this shortcut)

 

MS Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000

(General description of MS 4000 Ergo)

Overview of Currently Used Solution

(Added Sun 2022-10-09 including tweaks in apps/scripts.)

  1. Login item: [Dropbox]/Office/Apps/Start Special Key Handler.app is called at login
    • System Preferences > Users & Groups; user, Login Items: make sure app is on list
  2. This in turn executes: [Dropbox]/Office/Apps/startSpecialKeyHandler.sh shell script
    • This for enabling putting things in background and making sure app in 1 really ends, not also creating a never-ending process
  3. The .sh script starts [Dropbox]/Office/Apps/Special Key Handler.app in background

Additional notes:

  1. Make sure ALL items in [Dropbox]/Office/Apps/ are downloaded and available offline.
  2. Make sure to add/have scripts in 1 and 2 above in the System Preferences > Security & Privacy, Input Monitoring list of apps

 

History of Used Solutions

  • up to 2017: Original driver from Microsoft, worked for quite a while also after stopped being supported by MS
  • ControllerMate. For macOS 10.13 (IM2713; 2018-2020)
    • (only never bothered briefly with macOS 10.14 but got so annoyed with endless popping up of warning dialogs that 32-bit apps will stop working… like MS Office 2011)
  • MS Natural Keyboard HID Handler. For macOS 10.15, Catalina

For Catalina, macOS 10.15: MS Natural Keyboard HID Handler

Sources and info: github.com/Orangenhain/MS-Natural-Keyboard-HID-Handler

Special Key Handler, Input Event Dumper

The two apps build from the sources.

Installed Use: /Software-IN-USE/

In one specific folder, created by us, …/Software-IN-USE/:

  1. Input Event Dumper.app
  2. Special Key Handler.app
  3. Start Special Key Handler.app
  4. startSpecialKeyHandler.sh

 

VERY IMPORTANT – IF / WHEN editing ‘Start Special Key Handler.app’, apparently MUST do the following (again):

(If not, when run the app – ‘Start Special Key Handler.app’ – and it announces it has started, it will NOT work.)

  1. Preferences > Security & Privacy > Input Monitoring
  2. Unlock
  3. TOGGLE existing item ‘Start Special Key Handler.app’
  4. Kill and restart any running ‘Special Key Handler’
  5. Allow access to Desktop and Download folders when pressing Special Key 1 and 2

 

Configuration

Key General
Functionality		 ***** CURRENT *****
Special Key Handler (IM2720)		 More, History
Home Web … MS-Ergo4000-Web-Key.app * Old-CM: ‘Browser Toggle’, own AppleScript inside CM
Search Search ‘x’ – see also below for more * Old-CM: ‘Search’, own AppleScript inside CM
Mail Email … MS-Ergo4000-Mail-Key.app * Old-CM: ‘Mail Toggle’, own AppleScript inside CM
Favorites 1 Desktop ~/Desktop * (2022..2022:) ~/Dropbox/Office/Apps/E4 Fav 1 Handler.app
* Old-CM: ‘Desktop’, Finder item, absolute path, inside CM
Favorites 2 Downloads ~/Downloads * Old-CM: ‘Downloads’, Finder item, absolute path, inside CM
Favorites 3 Photos
(latest uploads)		 ~/Dropbox/…/Go Finder 3 Photos.app * openCurrentDropboxCameraUploads.sh
* openCurrentDropboxCameraUploads.sh.app
* Old-CM: ”current month of camera uploads’, AppleScript inside CM calling external bash-script
Favorites 4 Dropbox ~/Dropbox * Old-CM: ‘Documents’, Finder item, absolute path, inside CM (IM2713)
Favorites 5 Emails
(on file system)		 ~/Dropbox/…2sort * Old-CM: ‘2sort’, Finder item, absolute path, inside CM
Favorites ‘star’ kbd handler
config.		 Brings up Special Key Handler * Old-CM: ‘ControllerMate’, own AppleScript inside CM
Mute sound * Old-CM: (no special handling by CM)
Volume – sound * Old-CM: (no special handling by CM)
Volume + sound * Old-CM: (no special handling by CM)
Play / Pause media player controls * Old-CM: (no special handling by CM)
Calculator (undefined) (brings up Special Key Handler) * Old-CM: (no special handling by CM)
..
‘Back’ (below Spacebar) (undefined) (brings up Special Key Handler)
‘Forward’ (below Spacebar) (undefined) (brings up Special Key Handler)

Legend:
* Old-CM: what was used on old ControllerMate (‘CM’) (on e.g. IM2713), before Apple macOS updates made CM breaking, stopped being maintained by developer (orderedbytes.com/controllermate/, last ver is v4.11.1, October 10, 2018 – still per 2023-01-06 when do a small rewrite around this table and section, CM compatible up to macOS 10.13 High Sierra and 10.14 Mojave).

 

~/Dropbox/Office/Apps/Email Archive2FSx-OpenFolder.workflow.app

  • MS-Ergo4000-Web-Key.app
    1. Press keyboard button in question (upper left area keyboard)
    2. Install / use / (select path to) app in [ $HOME/Dropbox | $DROPBOX ] / Office / Apps / MS-Ergo4000-Web-Key.app
    3. Close dialog
    4. First-time, get dialog ‘”MS-Ergo4000-Web-Key.app” wants access to control “System Events.app”.’…  Select OK.
    5. And it works. Toggles bringing web browser as front app or hide. (i.e. Hide app and all its windows – quite nice to quickly hide lots of windows).
  • MS-Ergo4000-Search-Key.app
    • Press keyboard button in question (upper left area keyboard)
    • Actually doesn’t seem to need any longer. (For Ergo 4000.) Brings up Spotlight search dialog when press eye-glass/search key on upper-left part of physical keyboard anyway.
      • need to have something in the field to avoid getting also keyboard handling app dialog popping up, but just an ‘x’ is actually sufficient.
        • Did use ‘/Users/johan/Dropbox (Personal)/Office/Apps/MS-Ergo4000-Search-Key-DUMMY.app’ for a while
  • MS-Ergo4000-Mail-Key.app
    1. Press keyboard button in question (upper left area keyboard)
    2. Install / use / (select path to) app in [ $HOME/Dropbox | $DROPBOX ] / Office / Apps /  MS-Ergo4000-Mail-Key.app
    3. Close dialog
    4. First-time, get dialog ‘”MS-Ergo4000-Mail-Key.app” wants access to control “System Events.app”.’…  Select OK.
    5. And it works. Toggles bringing email app (Mail.app) as front app or hide. (i.e. Hide app and all its windows – quite nice to quickly hide lots of windows).

 

Apple articles:

Control-Option-Command-Power button

Control-Command

Shift-Command-Q

Control-Shift-Command-T

Option-Shift-Command-Q

  Control
8		 Option
4		 Shift
2		 Command
1		 key Std Where
1 Command Space Yes <global> Show or hide the Spotlight search field.
“Show Spotlight search” (Shortcuts>Spotlight)
2 Shift Space
3 Shift Command Space NO <global> Show or hide HoudahSpot search
4 Option Space ### IS THIS A POSSIBLE COMBINATION (Alt/Option+key>
5 Command Space Yes <global> “Show Finder search window” (Shortcuts>Spotlight)
6
7
8 Control Space Yes Toggle keyboard, “Select the previous input source”
9 Control Command Space Yes <texts> “Show Emoji & Symbols” – CANNOT FIND how to actually (re)configure this shortcut… 2022-11-26 macOS 12.6 Monterey
10 Control Shift Space No <global> Show Tembo search
11 Control Command
12 Control Option
13 Control Option Command
14 Control Option Shift
15 Control Option Shift Command (a bit too many keys to press simultaneously…)
Control Shift Command P NO Mail.app Save email to file system (eml/emlx)
Control Shift Command S NO Mai.app Save email to file system incl. print to PDF

 

Control Option Shift Command
Control Command Space

 

Command Shift Alt Alt Function
A X – – – A
B B
C C

 

Ctrl-Space