Using Caps Lock as Esc in Mac OS X

Question

How do I make Caps Lock work like Esc in Mac OS X

User · Answer

I wasn t happy with any of the answers here  and went looking for a command-line solution  In macOS Sierra 10 12  Apple introduced a new way for users to remap keys   No need to fiddle around with system GUIs No special privileges are required Completely customisable No need to install any 3rd-party crap like PCKeyboardHack   Seil   Karabiner   KeyRemap4MacBook   DoubleCommand   NoEjectDelay  If that sounds good to you  take a look at hidutil  For example  to remap caps-lock to escape  refer to the key table and find that caps-lock has usage code 0x39 and escape has usage code 0x29   Put these codes or d with the hex value 0x700000000 in the source and dest like this  hidutil property --set    quot UserKeyMapping quot     quot HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc quot  0x700000039  quot HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst quot  0x700000029      You may add other mappings in the same command   Personally  I like to remap caps-lock to backspace  and remap backspace to delete  hidutil property --set    quot UserKeyMapping quot     quot HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc quot  0x700000039  quot HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst quot  0x70000002A     quot HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc quot  0x70000002A  quot HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst quot  0x70000004C      To see the current mapping  hidutil property --get  quot UserKeyMapping quot   Your changes will be lost at system reboot   If you want them to persist  configure them in a launch agent  Here s mine   lt  xml version  quot 1 0 quot  encoding  quot UTF-8 quot   gt   lt  DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC  quot -  Apple  DTD PLIST 1 0  EN quot   quot http   www apple com DTDs PropertyList-1 0 dtd quot  gt   lt  -- Place in   Library LaunchAgents  -- gt   lt  -- launchctl load com ldaws CapslockBackspace plist -- gt   lt plist version  quot 1 0 quot  gt     lt dict gt       lt key gt Label lt  key gt       lt string gt com ldaws CapslockEsc lt  string gt       lt key gt ProgramArguments lt  key gt       lt array gt         lt string gt  usr bin hidutil lt  string gt         lt string gt property lt  string gt         lt string gt --set lt  string gt         lt string gt   quot UserKeyMapping quot     quot HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc quot  0x700000039  quot HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst quot  0x70000002A    quot HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc quot  0x70000002A  quot HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst quot  0x70000004C    lt  string gt       lt  array gt       lt key gt RunAtLoad lt  key gt       lt true  gt     lt  dict gt   lt  plist gt   I ve placed this content into a file located at    Library LaunchAgents com ldaws CapslockBackspace plist and then executed  launchctl load com ldaws CapslockBackspace plist

User · Answer

Seil isn t yet available on macOS Sierra  10 12 beta   As such  I ve been using Keyboard Maestro with these settings    Credit to this github comment  https   github com tekezo Seil issues 68 issuecomment-230131664

User · Answer

It s possible   Solution 1  From an arcticle on TrueAffection net           Download PCKeyboardHack and install it      Go to PCKeyboardHack in System Preferences      Enable    Change Caps Lock    and set the keycode to 53       Solution 2  This solution doesn t involve patching the keyboard driver  but gives you a Vim specific solution   OS X supports mapping the Caps Lock key to a whole bunch of keys  but you have to do it  by hand   editting  plist files   The process is described in this article   As addendum to that hint I suggest you first set Caps-Lock to None in the System Preferences  then you only need to change one value in the  plist file   Also  you can of course use the Property List Editor instead of going through the XML conversion steps   The trick is to map the Caps Lock key to the Help key  code 6   which isn t on most keyboards   But if it is  it will be treated as the insert key  which you probably don t use anyway  since you ask about remapping your Caps Lock to prevent stretching your hands     You can then map the Help and the Insert key to Esc in vim   map   lt Help gt   lt Esc gt  map   lt Help gt   lt Esc gt  map   lt Insert gt   lt Esc gt  map   lt Insert gt   lt Esc gt    This will work for gvim  Vim app    I didn t get it to work with vim in the Terminal and I haven t tested it with MacVim   So  it s rather a complicated  half-baked solution or installing a third-party piece of hackery   Your pick     Edit  Just noticed solution 3  if you re using MacVim you can use Ctrl  Option and Command as Esc   With the System Preferences it s trivial to map Caps Lock to one of those keys

User · Answer

You can also use DoubleCommand to remap this  and other keys   IIRC  it will map Caps Lock to Esc

User · Answer

It is now much easier to map the Caps Lock key to Esc with macOS Sierra    Open System Preferences   Keyboard  Click the Modifier Keys button in the bottom right-hand corner  Click the drop down box next to the hardware key that you   d like to remap  and select Escape  Click OK and close System Preferences      https   9to5mac com 2016 10 25 remap-escape-key-action-macbook-pro-macos-sierra-10-12-1-modifier-keys

User · Answer

Seil doesn t work on macOS Sierra yet  so I m using Karabiner Elements  download from https   pqrs org latest karabiner-elements-latest dmg   Either use the GUI or put the following into    karabiner d configuration karabiner json        profiles                   name     Default profile          selected    true         simple modifications               caps lock     escape

User · Answer

You can also use DoubleCommand to remap this  and other keys   IIRC  it will map Caps Lock to Esc

User · Answer

Karabiner-Elements A powerful and stable keyboard customizer for macOS   freeware   https   pqrs org osx karabiner index html  Worked for me for Mojave to change caps-lock to backspace

User · Answer

In case you don t want to install a third-party app and you really only care about vim inside iTerm  the following works   Remap CapsLock to Help as described here   Short version  use plutil or similar to edit   Library Preferences ByHost  GlobalPreferences  plist  it should look similar to this    lt key gt HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst lt  key gt   lt integer gt 6 lt  integer gt   lt key gt HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc lt  key gt   lt integer gt 0 lt  integer gt    Restart  A simple log-out and log-in did not work for me   In iTerm  add a new key mapping for Help  send hex code 0x1b  which corresponds to Escape   I know this is not exactly what was asked for  but I assume the intent of many people looking for a solution like this is actually this more specialized variant

User · Answer

Edit  As described in this answer  newer versions of MacOS now have native support for rebinding Caps Lock to Escape  Thus it is no longer necessary to install third-party software to achieve this     Here s my attempt at a comprehensive  visual walk-through answer  with links  of how to achieve this using Seil  formerly known as PCKeyboardHack     First  go into the System Preferences  choose Keyboard  then the Keyboard Tab  first tab   and click Modifier Keys      In the popup dialog set Caps Lock Key to No Action     2  Now  click here to download Seil and install it     3  After the installation you will have a new Application installed   Mountain Lion and newer   and  if you are on an older OS you may have to check for a new System Preferences pane     4  Check the box that says  Change Caps Lock  and enter  53  as the code for the escape key     And you re done  If it doesn t work immediately  you may need to restart your machine   Impressed  Want More Control   You may also want to check out KeyRemap4MacBook which is actually the flagship keyboard remapping tool from pqrs org - it s also free   If you like these tools you can make a donation  I have no affiliation with them but I ve been using these tools for a long time and have to say the guys over there have been doing an excellent job maintaining these  adding features and fixing bugs   Here s a screenshot to show a few of the  hundreds of  pre-selectable options     PQRS also has a great utility called NoEjectDelay that you can use in combination with KeyRemap4MacBook for reprogramming the Eject key  After a little tweaking I have mine set to toggle the AirPort Wifi   These utilities offer unlimited flexibility when remapping the Mac keyboard  Have fun

User · Answer

Open up Keyboard preferences and click modifier keys    you can change the caps lock key to control  option  escape  or command

User · Answer

Since macOS 10 12 1 it is possible to remap Caps Lock to Esc natively  System Preferences -  Keyboard -  Modifier Keys

User · Answer

Having tried several of these solutions  I have some notes   DoubleCommand will not allow you to swap esc and caps-lock   PCKeyboardHack will allow you to map capslock to escape  but does not have the capability to map escape to capslock  Recent versions will allow you to perform a complete swap by editing both keys   This may or may not be sufficient for your needs  I know it is for mine

User · Answer

The only thing I know how to do is to map Caps Lock to Control  or Option  or Command   This can be done via the Keyboard  amp  Mouse pane of System Preferences   Click on  Modifier Keys  on the bottom left and you ll be able to remap Caps Lock  Control  Option  and Command  to any of those    Craig  This suggests that Caps Lock can be used as a normal -- that is  non-toggle -- key   On my MacBook  since I have re-mapped Caps Lock to Control  the Caps Lock light never lights up   It simply acts like the Control key

User · Answer

In order to actually swap the escape key with the caps lock key  not just map one to the other  using both PCKeyboardHack and KeyRemap4MacBook  you have to follow the instructions in this thread  mapping the caps lock key to a keycode not used by the keyboard but accounted for by KeyRemap4MacBook  eg  110   Then  in PCKeyboardHack  select the appropriate option that maps that keycode to escape  in the case of 110  it s  Application Key to Escape    Here s what your KeyRemap4MacBook preferences should look like  provided you ve selected the  show enabled only  checkbox      I originally attempted to post this information as an edit to cwd s excellent answer  but it was rejected  I encourage anyone who wants to go the route that I describe to first read his her response

User · Answer

It s possible   Solution 1  From an arcticle on TrueAffection net           Download PCKeyboardHack and install it      Go to PCKeyboardHack in System Preferences      Enable    Change Caps Lock    and set the keycode to 53       Solution 2  This solution doesn t involve patching the keyboard driver  but gives you a Vim specific solution   OS X supports mapping the Caps Lock key to a whole bunch of keys  but you have to do it  by hand   editting  plist files   The process is described in this article   As addendum to that hint I suggest you first set Caps-Lock to None in the System Preferences  then you only need to change one value in the  plist file   Also  you can of course use the Property List Editor instead of going through the XML conversion steps   The trick is to map the Caps Lock key to the Help key  code 6   which isn t on most keyboards   But if it is  it will be treated as the insert key  which you probably don t use anyway  since you ask about remapping your Caps Lock to prevent stretching your hands     You can then map the Help and the Insert key to Esc in vim   map   lt Help gt   lt Esc gt  map   lt Help gt   lt Esc gt  map   lt Insert gt   lt Esc gt  map   lt Insert gt   lt Esc gt    This will work for gvim  Vim app    I didn t get it to work with vim in the Terminal and I haven t tested it with MacVim   So  it s rather a complicated  half-baked solution or installing a third-party piece of hackery   Your pick     Edit  Just noticed solution 3  if you re using MacVim you can use Ctrl  Option and Command as Esc   With the System Preferences it s trivial to map Caps Lock to one of those keys

[macos] Using Caps Lock as Esc in Mac OS X

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