&Mike.McBride; &Mike.McBride.mail;
&Jost.Schenck; &Jost.Schenck.mail;
2002-02-13
3.00.00
KDE
KControl
key bindings
bindings
shortcuts

## Shortcuts

### Introduction

While most of the functionality offered by &kde; can be accessed using a simple point and click interface, many people prefer using the keyboard for some tasks. Pressing something like &Ctrl;F is often just faster than moving your hands off the keyboard to the mouse, opening the Edit menu and selecting Find.

As different people have different preferences about keyboard shortcuts, &kde; offers full customization of so-called key bindings. A key binding or shortcut is a combination of an action with a key or a combination of keys.

### Use

In the Shortcuts control module you'll see a list of key schemes, a list of key bindings in the currently selected scheme and a frame where you can customize the currently selected key binding. Also, you'll see a tab for Global shortcuts and one for Application shortcuts.

#### Global Shortcuts and Application Shortcuts

Global shortcuts and application shortcuts work just the same. Actually, in a certain way application shortcuts are global as well. The only difference is:

- Global shortcuts are shortcuts for actions that make sense even when no application is opened. These shortcuts usually refer to actions like switching desktops, manipulating windows etc.

- Application shortcuts refer to actions that are often available in applications, such as Save, Print, Copy etc.

Please note, that the application shortcuts configured here are only the standard actions often found in applications. Most applications will define their own actions as well, for which you have to customize key bindings using the application's key bindings dialog.

#### Configuring Key Bindings

Configuring key bindings is pretty easy. In the middle of the key bindings control module you'll find a list of available actions. If there's a key binding configured for that action you'll find it right next to it. Just select the action you want to configure.

After you've selected an action you'll notice that most of the controls below the action list are enabled. There you can configure a combination of keys or maybe no key binding at all for the selected action.

- No key: the selected action will not be associated with any key.

- Default key: the selected action will be associated with &kde;'s default value. This is a good choice for most actions, as &kde; comes with reasonable key bindings we have thought about.

- Custom key: if this option is enabled, you can create a key combination for the selected action. Just select any modifiers (&ie; &Shift;, &Ctrl;, or &Alt;) and then select a key: just click on the key symbol and after that press the key you want to assign to this key combination.

As with all control modules, your changes won't take in effect until you click OK or Apply. Click Cancel to discard all changes.

#### Configuring Schemes

A key binding scheme is a set of key bindings that you can access using its name. &kde; comes with one pre-defined key binding scheme called KDE default for 3 modifiers. In addition to that scheme, you'll always see a scheme named Current scheme that stands for the set of key bindings you are using right now (&ie; not the current settings you are playing with, but what you've been using up to now).

When you are playing with the key bindings for the first time you don't have to be afraid of changing the default bindings: &kde; won't let you overwrite the defaults, so you can always switch back to the factory presets. By choosing Current scheme you can return to the set of key bindings you've been using up to now. However, be careful not to select a scheme when you've made changes to the key bindings you don't want to lose.

When you are satisfied with a set of key bindings you've created, you may want to save them to a scheme of your own, so that you can still experiment with the bindings and always return to a certain scheme. You can always do this by clicking on the Add button. You will be prompted for a name and then the new scheme will appear in the key schemes listbox. You can remove your own schemes again by selecting a scheme and clicking the Remove button. Click the Save changes button to save any changes you have made to the currently selected scheme. Note that you can not remove or save changes to KDE default or to Current scheme.

If you want to save your changes while a read-only scheme is selected, you always have to add a new scheme first! If you select one of your own schemes because you want to save the changes to that one, the control module will switch to the key bindings of that scheme, discarding your changes.

### Modifier Keys

Different keyboards offer different sets of modifier keys. A &Mac; keyboard, for example, does not have a &Ctrl; key, and instead has an Option key. Here you can see what the available modifier keys for the current keyboard are.

If you enable Macintosh keyboard the list of modifiers will change.

If you have enabled the &Mac; keyboard, you can further enable MacOS-style modifier usage, to make &kde; behave more like &MacOS;.

Finally, you can change what a keypress sends to the &X-Server; in the X Modifier Mapping section. A common example is to reconfigure the Caps Lock key, which is rarely used, to be another &Ctrl; key. This is especially nice if you are a touch typist, as Caps Lock is much easier to reach than either of the &Ctrl; keys on a standard keyboard.