Productivity tip: Remapping caps lock to hyper key

Here's a tip that has been a huge time-saver for me on MacOS. I only discovered it recently, 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 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 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 + A Web browser (Arc)
• CAPSLOCK + K Akiflow
• CAPSLOCK + B Beeper
• CAPSLOCK + C Visual Studio Code
• CAPSLOCK + P Recent Projects (from VSCode)
• CAPSLOCK + F Figma
• CAPSLOCK + M Mail (Mimestream)
• CAPSLOCK + N Notion
• CAPSLOCK + , See my Schedule
• CAPSLOCK + T Terminal
• CAPSLOCK + L Linear
• CAPSLOCK + V Clipboard History
• CAPSLOCK + G GitHub
• CAPSLOCK + W Kill a process
• CAPSLOCK + S File Search by Raycast
• CAPSLOCK + I Set Input audio device
• CAPSLOCK + O Set Output audio device
• CAPSLOCK + R Record my voice and paste transcription with superwhisper
• CAPSLOCK + = Make current Window larger
• CAPSLOCK + - Make current Window smaller
• CAPSLOCK + ←/→/↓/↑ Move the active tab to a given direction

Inside VSCode:

• CAPS + D Find previous occurrence (inverse of cmd+D)
• CAPS + Enter Smart Select from the cursor
• Shift + Enter Move 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 !

Hope it helps,
Jules

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