The Question:
Where can I find a resource to help me implement a powerful, holistic, cross-application approach to keyboard shortcuts on MacOS that maximizes productivity and minimizes movement that would hurt my wrists?
The Explanation:
Recently, I've started having wrist pain related to my keyboard/trackpad use. While I am now taking many proactive steps to address that (ergonomic keyboard, stretches, breaks, adjusting desk), I am also wanting to setup and master a comprehensive set of keyboard shortcuts (on MacOS) that will allow me to:
- maximize productivity with minimal keystrokes,
- minimize awkward stretches (ex: moving my left hand from from ASDF to
cmd+ctrl+shift+g
) - navigate using the keyboard and avoid the trackpad/mouse whenever possible
- have an comprehensive and organized approach to shortcuts (ie when I want to define a shortcut in Atom for beautifying the editor there's some logic to why it's
ctrl+option+b
versusoption+shift+b
versuscommand+control+option+shift+b
...) rather than a piecemeal, disorganized and application-specific approach. - unlearn bad habits (ex: I noticed I move my entire right hand to hit
shift+/
to make a?
) by defining the good habits.
I have got to believe that someone has already thought this all through and that I don't need to map out existing keyboard shortcuts for different programs, decide on a universal scheme for mapping/remapping that minimizes conflicts/confusion, write my own configuration scripts from the ground up, etc.
I am aware of:
- Hammerspoon for automating OS X actions and assigning to keybindings
- Alfred for quickly doing things via a "command line-like" interface.
- Emacs and Ergomacs, which allow you to define a comprehensive set of keyboard shortcuts within the application.
What I'm looking for is essentially an implementation of emacs-like keyboard shortcuts for the whole OS, thoughtfully-organized and ergonomically-friendly
The ideal solution would combine:
- A guide that orients the user to the approach, principles, etc
- A software utility that handles universal mapping of the shortcuts across applications.
- A set of pre-made config scripts that implement the beautiful, powerful, sensible approach defined in the guide.
Bonus points if this solution includes window management/resizing/positioning, and makes use of emacs-style prefix keymaps to create shortcut "domains" that simplify the shortcuts and group them into logical units.