Questions

Giving the right Command and Option keys their own job

Most people never use the right-hand Command, Option or Shift. macOS cannot change them on their own: its Modifier Keys setting treats both sides as one key. There are two ways around that. You can turn the right-hand key into a different key, with a command built into macOS or with Karabiner-Elements. Or you can keep it as a modifier and give it an extra job when you hold it or double tap it, which is what InputConfig, the free app I make, does. Pick by whether you still want the key to work as Command.

What macOS does on its own

System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Modifier Keys swaps Caps Lock, Control, Option, Command and Globe, per keyboard, but always both sides together. Caps Lock to Escape is in that list, so that common request needs no app at all.

If all you want is Dictation from a modifier, look first at System Settings, Keyboard, Dictation, Shortcut: one of its choices is pressing Control twice.

Keep it as Command, add a job when held

InputConfig reads each side of every modifier separately, and listens alongside macOS, so a right-hand key keeps working in every shortcut. The built-in Modifier Holds preset gives the right-hand keys a job only when held on their own or double tapped:

A plain press does nothing extra. Change any output to Open App, a macro, Type Text, a Siri Shortcut or anything else in the list, and change the timing in the row's Options.

1. Install InputConfig from the Mac App Store and allow Accessibility access.
2. Open the built-in Modifier Holds preset, or add a row, press Scan and press Right Command.
3. In the row's Options, turn on a hold action or a double-tap action and pick what it does.
4. Activate the preset.

InputConfig is free on the Mac App Store. macOS 14 or later, no account, no tracking, open source.

The one catch

The hold fires as soon as the key has been down past the threshold, even if you press another key meanwhile. Hold Right Command through a slow Command Tab and Spotlight opens as well. Most people fix it by using the left-hand key for long shortcuts, or by raising the hold to around 700 ms.

Turn it into a different key

InputConfig cannot do this part, because it adds to a key rather than replacing it. macOS can, with the built-in hidutil command in Terminal. It lasts until the next restart. Right Command into Right Option:

hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x7000000E7,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x7000000E6}]}'

Right Command into F18, a key nothing uses, which InputConfig can then give up to three jobs:

hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x7000000E7,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x70000006D}]}'

Put the keyboard back to normal:

hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[]}'

To keep a remap after a restart, or to have a key do one thing when tapped and another when held while still acting as a modifier, use Karabiner-Elements. It is free and open source, and it installs a driver that macOS asks you to approve.

Which one to use

• You want the right key to be a different key, for good: Karabiner-Elements.
• You want to try a remap with nothing installed: hidutil.
• You want the key to stay Command and also open Spotlight, start Dictation or launch an app when held: InputConfig's Modifier Holds.

They combine. With Right Command sent as F18 by hidutil, InputConfig can make a tap, a hold and a double tap on it three different things.

Questions

Related

• Keyboard, mouse, and trackpad as input
• Hold and double-tap
• Can Karabiner-Elements map a game controller?
• Dictation, zoom, and speak selection on any button
• System functions
• Emergency stop

Free. macOS 14 or later. No account, nothing leaves your Mac. Open source on GitHub.