Defining Your Own Shortcut Key Combinations

[Steve]

Over on the Storyist Facebook page, a user asked about keyboard shortcuts for styles, saying

Control + Command + # is pretty tough for a shortcut too (in regard to screenplay formatting). I mean can it just be command + #.

Keyboard shortcuts are a complicated issue, and anyone who has used a Mac for a while knows that Apple seems to claim a few more combinations for the OS in each release. What many people don't know is that it is possible to specify your own keyboard shortcuts on a per-app basis, so you can set up combinations to suit your needs.

 

To do so:

1. Open Keyboard pane in the System Preferences.
2. Select the Shortcuts tab.
3. Select App Shortcuts in the source list on the left.
4. Click the Add button.
5. Select the app (e.g. Storyist) for which you want to define the shortcuts.
6. Enter the title of the menu command you want to add.
7. Enter the keyboard shortcut you want to use.

For screenplay styles, you'll end up with something like this:

 

 

Shortcuts added in this way will override the original values, but you'll need to check for conflicts yourself. For example specifying Command+Control+C in the above example will remove the shortcut from the Edit > Insert > Comment command.

 

-Steve