Skip to main content

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts are probably one of the most used features in BTT. Record a shortcut and make it do whatever you want by assigning one or more actions. They run as soon as you press the shortcut.

keyboardshortcutsetup

Advanced Shortcut Settings

In most cases, recording a shortcut is simple and straightforward. But there are also various advanced options, for example to show a HUD overlay, to differentiate between left and right modifier keys or to set repeat rates. You'll find most of them in the shortcut's settings column under "More Options...".

Modifier Key Only Shortcuts?​

A shortcut in BTT always requires at least one normal (non-modifier) key. However, BTT supports any other key combination via Key Sequences. For example, if you want to trigger something by pressing only one or more modifier keys (cmd, ctrl, shift, fn, option), you can set up a Key Sequence for this. See Key Sequences

HUD Overlay​

BetterTouchTool can show a little HUD overlay (like the ones that appear when you change the volume or brightness on your Mac). This works the same way as for gestures in BTT.

Differentiate between left and right modifier keys​

Recent versions of BetterTouchTool can differentiate between left and right modifier keys on your keyboard.

By default, a recorded shortcut works with both the left and the right modifier keys. For example, if you record cmd+space, it doesn't matter whether you press the left or the right cmd key together with space.

If you check "Differentiate left/right modifier keys.", BTT tells them apart. This can be very useful and gives you many more shortcut options. For example, cmd+space usually opens Spotlight on macOS, but you probably always press it with the same cmd key (left or right). Wouldn't it be useful if you could assign right cmd + space to some other action?

Auto adapt to keyboard layout​

If you work with different keyboard layouts, BTT offers two options. By default, BTT saves the physical location of the keys on the keyboard. This means the shortcut's meaning may change when you switch keyboard layouts.

To prevent this, enable the "Auto adapt to current keyboard layout." option. BTT then looks up the key by the character it produced when you recorded the shortcut. BTT stores that character every time you record a shortcut, so you can also enable the option for existing shortcuts. You only need to re-record a shortcut if it was recorded with a very old BTT version and the option has no effect on it.

Trigger on key-down / key-up​

BetterTouchTool lets you choose whether a shortcut triggers on key down or on key up. This is useful if you want to trigger one action on key down (for example middle-mouse down via the custom click predefined action) and another action on key up (for example middle-mouse up).

The easiest way is to use the action trigger categories of a single shortcut: click "Action For Trigger Category" and add actions to "Actions Executed On Key RELEASE" (other categories: "Actions Executed On Long Key Hold Down", "Actions Executed On Quick Key RELEASE", "Actions Executed On Key RELEASE After Long Hold" and "Actions Executed After All Modifier Keys Released").

Alternatively, you can configure two shortcuts with the same keys and choose "Trigger on Key Down" for one of them and "Trigger on Key Up" for the other.

Key Repeat​

By default, BetterTouchTool triggers the action you assign to a keyboard shortcut only once. You can also make it trigger repeatedly while you hold down the shortcut.

To do this, check the "Repeat assigned action" checkbox (this automatically enables the "Trigger on Key Down" option). Then use the "Repeat Rate" and "Repeat Delay" sliders to set the repeat rate and the delay before the first repeat.

Prevent recursive triggers​

There's one more checkbox in the settings, called "Prevent recursive triggers".

Say you've defined multiple shortcuts in BTT, e.g. "cmd+a" and "cmd+b". If you assign an action or shortcut to cmd+a that, for some reason, triggers cmd+a again, you'd get an endless loop: BetterTouchTool would catch and trigger that shortcut again and again. To prevent this, check the "Prevent recursive triggers" checkbox.