Here's a tip that has been a huge time-saver for me on MacOS. I only discovered it a few months ago, but it's generally well-known among self-respecting Vim developers: remapping the Caps Lock ⇪ key.
What ?
Caps Lock ⇪ key is rarely used, so why not repurpose it?
The idea is to remap Caps Lock ⇪ to an hyper key, meaning a key combination like cmd+option+ctrl+shift on Mac.
Why ?
This combination is generally never used by apps because it's too complex for users. But by mapping it to a hyper key, we gain access to an entirely new layer of shortcuts
By combining the ease of assigning shortcuts to a variety of commands with Raycast, I can now access my most-used apps super quickly.
Use cases
When I started, I've created over 20 shortcuts in less than an hour. Thanks to some mnemonic devices, there's no need to memorize them. Adopted in a flash !
I feel like I have superpowers now, accessing everything I need with just a few keystrokes.
- CAPSLOCK+AWeb browser (Arc)
- CAPSLOCK+KAkiflow
- CAPSLOCK+BBeeper
- CAPSLOCK+CVisual Studio Code
- CAPSLOCK+PRecent Projects (from VSCode)
- CAPSLOCK+FFigma
- CAPSLOCK+MMail (Mimestream)
- CAPSLOCK+NNotion
- CAPSLOCK+,See my Schedule
- CAPSLOCK+TTerminal
- CAPSLOCK+LLinear
- CAPSLOCK+VClipboard History
- CAPSLOCK+GGitHub
- CAPSLOCK+WKill a process
- CAPSLOCK+SFile Search by Raycast
- CAPSLOCK+ISet Input audio device
- CAPSLOCK+OSet Output audio device
- CAPSLOCK+RRecord my voice and paste transcription to with superwhisper
- CAPSLOCK+=Make current Window larger
- CAPSLOCK+-Make current Window smaller
- CAPSLOCK+←→↓↑Move the active tab to a given direction
- Inside VSCode:
- CAPS+DFind previous occurrence (inverse of cmd+D)
- CAPS+EnterSmart Select from the cursor
- Shift+EnterMove current cursor to Smart Select
How ?
To remap Caps Lock, I use HyperKey, which is free and made by Ryan Hanson. There might be other similar tools for Mac or Windows.
To install, download it directly from their site or use
brew install --cask hyperkey
It's a small change with a big impact for me. Give it a try !