If you’re set up with fzf and vi mode in your command line like I am, this mapping is awesome. Now I’ve got easy access to Escape for all of my Vim needs, but I also have easy access to any shortcuts based on Control. But hitting any other key in addition to Caps Lock behaves just like hitting Control with that other key.

Now a single tap of my Caps Lock behaves just like tapping Escape. I installed Karabiner-Elements and imported one of their dozens of rules: “change caps_lock to control if pressed with other keys, to escape if pressed alone.” It does exactly what it says with no fuss. While I definitely saw some benefits (especially with tools like t-mux and fzf, which rely heavily on the Control key), the loss of my easy-access Escape key drove me crazy in no time.Įnter Karabiner-Elements, which bills itself as “a powerful and stable keyboard customizer for macOS.” It’s available for macOS back to 10.9 Mavericks. I gave it a shot and used the same OS setting to remap Caps Lock to Control instead of Escape. I believe there can be a ton of value in that kind of off-hand advice, so I was curious. I was surprised, then, when a colleague told me I was crazy for not having Caps Lock mapped to Control instead. It’s an easy change to make in most operating systems, and it’s much easier to tap Caps Lock than to reach up for the Escape key (especially on MacBooks with the Touch Bar). One of the first bits of advice I found after starting my Vim journey was to remap my Caps Lock key to Escape. Vim is a great tool in my professional tool belt. edited my /Users/username/.config/karabiner/karabiner.Lately, I’ve been trying to learn and use Vim keybindings whenever possible. I don’t have any hard stats to prove that my productivity has increased, but I feel like I spend less time bumbling around editors and more time putting the cursor where I want it. installed karabiner-elements which allows any keyboard/mouse changes: ģ. changed the keymap in IntelliJ to 'Default for XWin'Ģ.

Ive finally succeeded at having the same layout and I also swapped the control/command buttons on the keyboard (i am using a regular windows keyboard) in all applications except IntelliJ so I can use ctrl + c/v/a/f/. Iam working at sometimes at IntelliJ in windows, linux and macOS and just don't want to handle the different layouts mentally.

Osx karabiner