23

Is there any way to change the key mapping of the apple keyboard?

As programmer I find annoying there's a comma instead a dot in numeric keypad. I would remap this key to have dot ...

koalaok
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6 Answers6

39

The simplest solution is to create the file DefaultKeyBinding.dict in /Users/[user]/Library/KeyBindings if it does not already exist, and add the remapping:

{
   "#," = ("insertText:", ".");
}

Then logout or restart the mac.

The # indicates the remapping is for the keypad only. More reference for that file: https://gist.github.com/trusktr/1e5e516df4e8032cbc3d

twlscnds
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Matías González
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    Thanks ! I've been looking for something like this for few months. I didn't wanted to download a tool for this purpose.... – ZazOufUmI Aug 06 '18 at 06:28
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    This should be accepted as the answer, +1 for not needing another tool. By the way, a restart isn't necessary, just log out and log back in. – BoDeX Aug 21 '19 at 02:16
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    This solution is working in Catalina (10.15 Beta) with no problems. – Rodrigo García Sep 19 '19 at 02:23
  • Working on Catalina 10.15.2 – floatingpurr Jan 27 '20 at 13:38
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    Hi! I wanted to achieve the same result but in reverse, so dot to a comma. I placed this: { "#." = ("insertText:". ","); } in ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict but it doesn't seem to work. I also tried with { "#," = ("insertText:". ","); }, but still not working... :( – panosru Oct 10 '20 at 11:01
  • This does not work everywhere. It does not work in JetBrains products. – Hunsu Sep 13 '21 at 08:57
  • Don't be disturbed if you need to actually CREATE both the KeyBindings folder and the DefaultKeyBinding.dict file. It worked perfectly on my Apple Silicon M1 Macbook. I used UTF-8 and LF line endings for the file format. – cprcrack May 13 '22 at 18:35
9

based on Matías González answer:

Step 1, Add the remapping (paste this command on your console):

mkdir ~/Library/KeyBindings && cd ~/Library/KeyBindings && touch DefaultKeyBinding.dict && echo '{"#," = ("insertText:", ".");}' > DefaultKeyBinding.dict

Step 2, Restart the mac

The # indicates the remapping is for the keypad only. More reference for that file: https://gist.github.com/trusktr/1e5e516df4e8032cbc3d

Jose Paez
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5

If anyone is reading this in 2022 and using Mac OS X 12.1 (Monterey) and wants to change dot (.) to comma (,) on a number keypad, try the following steps:

  1. Open the Terminal application;
  2. Paste this code on it:
hidutil property --set '
{"UserKeyMapping": [
    {
        "HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc": 0x700000063,
        "HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst": 0x700000036
    },
]}'
  1. Press enter;
  2. Enjoy it!

0x700000063 means dot char .

0x700000036 means comma char ,

Reference: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2450/_index.html

Daniel
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Arthur Duarte
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  • Excellent, thanks for the update. Since I use a different keyboard layout (bépo), thanks to the table you have referenced, I managed to figure out that I needed to replace 0x700000063 by 0x700000019. Now it works as expected It prints a v when I change the keyboard back to French, but that's no big deal for me. – Arnaud P Sep 03 '21 at 06:17
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    BTW if anyone wants to cancel their changes after experimenting with this: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/374073/ – Arnaud P Sep 03 '21 at 06:19
2

I changed my keyboard from "Dutch" to "US international - PC" and my numpad dot works as expected. It's no longer giving me a comma.

Tycho Pandelaar
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    So easy and exactly what fixes the problem in a sensible way! After all, I am using a International board.... It makes total sense! – RemyNL Oct 12 '22 at 08:48
1

One solution is Karabiner (prior to version 9.3.0, Karabiner was called KeyRemap4MacBook). It allows you to remap specific keys or change then entire keyboard layout, as described here.

It is a powerful keyboard remapper that can change not only the functionality of keys and key combinations, but just about everything related to how a key repeats when you hold it down. Keyboard remappings are highly customizable (although it's not a so simple process). You can change practically anything: you can search through all the options and quickly find what you're looking for, or just browse by category. It's very powerful and usage is pretty straightforward.

The drawback is that keyboard remapping functions are predefined and you can just check them off. If you want to add custom remapping functions, you have to edit an XML file. When you're using a GUI application this is not exactly the ideal experience. That said, this is the only significant drawback.

mgiordi
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1

For the reverse that Panosru is looking for I believe that the correct syntax within ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict should be:

{
   "#." = ("insertText:". ",");
}

As the comma after "insertText" is a separator between the command and the wanted character.

L. Ars
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SmartPenwin
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