How to swap Ctrl, Cmd, CapsLock and Option buttons on macOS? Users who switched to Mac from Windows computers often ask themselves the question: “How to remap some buttons on the keyboard?”. Most of all, they are interested in the ability to swap ⌘Cmd and Ctrl. Many users, even after months of working on a Mac, cannot get used to shortcuts with the ⌘Cmd button.
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For quick copy, paste, cut or selection on Windows, you used the well-known combinations Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, Ctrl + X and Ctrl + A, while on the Mac, out of habit, the little finger of the left hand reaches into the corner of the keyboard. As a result, you have to look down at the buttons and hold down ⌘Cmd with your thumb.
Apparently, macOS developers are familiar with similar problems and user complaints. The system has a standard mechanism for remapping some keys.
How to change the assignment of the Ctrl, ⌘Cmd, CapsLock and ⌥Option (Alt) keys on macOS
In order to change the desired buttons, perform the following steps:
- Open macOS System Preferences;
- Go to the Keyboard section;
- Click “Keyboard Shortcuts…”.
- In the window that appears, select the menu “Modification keys …”.
- Reassign the desired buttons.
In older versions of macOS, the path is slightly different – “System Preferences” → “Keyboard” → “Keyboard Tab” → “Modify Keys …”:
As you can see, in this dialog menu you can change assignments for five buttons: CapsLock, Ctrl, ⌘Cmd, ⌥Option (Alt) and Fn (Function). For our case, to change the assignment of Ctrl and Command, set Ctrl to ⌘Cmd and vice versa. Please note that you can not change the positions of the buttons, but simply duplicate one of them. For example, specify the value ⌘Cmd for the Ctrl button, and do not reassign the ⌘Cmd button itself. In addition, in this menu, you can disable any of these keys. To do this, select the item “No action”.