J&P
Sverige / USA
J&P

Keyboards, Keyboard Shortcuts

Mac startup key combinations – support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255 – good to have handy when need to work with problematic computer and need starting in special modes.

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

MS 4000 Ego

Overview 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 ControllerMate (‘CM’) (IM2713) External Resources Special Key Handler (IM2720)
Home ‘Browser Toggle’, own AppleScript inside CM … MS-Ergo4000-Web-Key.app
Search ‘Search’, own AppleScript inside CM … MS-Ergo4000-Search-Key.app
Mail ‘Mail Toggle’, own AppleScript inside CM … MS-Ergo4000-Mail-Key.app
Favorites 1 ‘Desktop’, Finder item, absolute path, inside CM ~/Desktop
Favorites 2 ‘Downloads’, Finder item, absolute path, inside CM ~/Downloads
Favorites 3 ”current month of camera uploads’, AppleScript inside CM calling external bash-script openCurrentDropboxCameraUploads.sh
openCurrentDropboxCameraUploads.sh.app		 ~/Dropbox/…/Go Finder 3 Photos.app
Favorites 4 ‘Documents’, Finder item, absolute path, inside CM (IM2713) ~/Dropbox
Favorites 5 ‘2sort’, Finder item, absolute path, inside CM ~/Dropbox/…2sort
Favorites ‘star’ ‘ControllerMate’, own AppleScript inside CM
Mute (no special handling by CM)
Volume – (no special handling by CM)
Volume + (no special handling by CM)
Play / Pause (no special handling by CM)
Calculator (no special handling by CM)

 

  • 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.
  • 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).