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redditMac Mini, OS X: Part 5: keyboard shortcuts: why alleged think different is EPIC FAIL
Keyboard Shortcuts
One of the biggest things that’s a disappointment so far is the keyboard shortcuts. They’re not the same as on Windows! ARGGG, why???
What the hell is Command Control Option? Where is my Ctrl Windows Alt? Windows+D, Alt+Tab, Alt+Shift+Tab, Ctrl+Tab, Ctrl+Shift+Tab; really using a mouse is for n00bs. Okay, so (Command is like Control, Option is like Alt, and Control is like right-click). That’s a start, but Alt-Tab doesn’t seem to work, though Windows+Tab does. Obviously the problem is that I’m using a Windows keyboard with Mac OS-X. But honestly, why don’t they just make it work out of the box anyway? Come on Apple, this is NOT true simplicity. Apple says “simplicity is you have to use our special keyboard or your life will suck”. True simplicity would be my keyboard works with your stupid OS. Ranting aside, I’ll wait to judge whether it’s an actual concern until after I research keyboard remapping, add-on software for Windows-like shortcuts on Mac OS X, or whatever.
(System Preferences –> keyboard & mouse –> modifier keys), the first thing I tried is to remap (Option to Command) and (Command to Option). This makes alt+tab work (instead of being windows+tab). However, copy/paste is alt+c alt+v, which is very annoying.
As far as which button on my keyboard maps to a software action in Mac OS X:
* ctrl key => control key
* windows key => command key
* alt key => option key
So what I did is map them like this:
* Control maps to Command
* Option maps to Control
* Command maps to Option
This person (http://www.tuaw.com/2008/09/11/mac-101-using-your-windows-keyboard/) said to do something different. But my remapping let me do ctrl+a, ctrl+c, ctrl+v, ctrl+x, ctrl+n (for select all, copy, paste, cut, new). My remapping Ctrl+Tab does the task-switching instead of Alt+Tab, and then Alt+Tab changes tabs in Safari web browser. Not perfect, but at least a lot better.
Frankly it’s kind of driving me crazy at this point. I prefer to use the keyboard as much as possible. I was really annoyed that ctrl+e doesn’t let me do a google search in Safari. And to do word-highlighting I have to do win+shift+right/left instead of ctrl+shift+right/left. I was excited to open up an xterm console. But when I wanted to kill a program, it was alt+C instead of ctrl+C !!! Arg, I can only take so much of this horrible Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts…
To some (novice who uses the mouse too much?), this might sound petty. But for me, it’s entirely a deal breaker – basically the difference between whether I will enjoy using the Mac vs. find it annoying and slow (slow in terms of UI, due to lack of standard Windows keyboard shortcuts). It feels wayyy too slow for me to use the mouse for most things, after I am so used to using the keyboard shortcuts.
It’s bad enough that there are software engineers who write software programs that don’t use the correct standard Windows shortcut keys. But changing the standard OS short-cuts like this? It is just too much! It is just too horrible!
This is not just an annoyance – it is a matter of life and death. Of course I just with the hyperbole: I realize it’s just a keyboard (and keyboard shortcuts) and maybe in the long-run we’ll replace keyboard shortcuts with human-brain interfaces, or some alternative to Windows Ctrl Windows Alt keys (and the mouse/application key, which I also love btw, because it lets you right-click without using the mouse!). But honestly, it drives me crazy, and using standard keyboard shortcuts is a huge improvement on efficiency for advanced keyboard-shortcut users who want the standard hotkeys to do the right thing (the standard thing)!
Probably long-term I will look into some settings/program that lets me completely replace my OS X keyboard shortcuts with Windows keyboard shortcuts. This is one place where thinking different I think is really annoying. Why can’t they just use the standard hotkeys that everyone already has muscle-memorized?
While we’re on the subject… I really wish at least Microsoft itself would do a better job with making the Windows Mobile keyboard shortcuts for the next version of Windows Mobile be more like normal Windows (XP, Vista, 7). Microsoft doesn’t make their own hardware smart phones, but they should enable the shortcuts in Windows Mobile and push the hardware smart phone OEM’s to use them for the tiny smart phone QWERTY keyboards.
While we’re on the subject… Any video game (or other interactive 3d application) that uses the keyboard to control a camera, should, in the vast majority of cases (possibly 100%) use WASD please! And for my personal tastes, please use QE for rotate or orbit too!
Here are some references for the standard Windows keyboard shortcuts:
* http://www.seoconsultants.com/windows/keyboard/
* http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449
* http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms971323.aspx
Pardon the narrow-minded rant, but please, go forth and implement it correctly! That means you Apple!
Pem (Admin) :: Jul.11.2009 :: Mac OS :: 2 Comments »
It doesn’t get any better with time. I switched from Windows to a Mac at home more than two years ago, and OS X is still a massive pain to use.
Architecturally, I prefer OS X to Windows. Aesthetically OS X is beautiful to look at thanks to the Quartz rendering engine.
But all this aside, some of us live or die by our keyboard shortcuts and the Mac is hostile to keyboards in general. Any Windows power user is hereby warned: Get ready to click on things if you buy a Mac. You’re productivity will be slowed like nothing you have experienced before.
Wintermute, thank you for the comment. I am still finding the pointlessly different keyboard shortcuts slightly annoying. What I’ve stuck with is to map it so that the ctrl key does all the Mac shortcuts, so ctrl+tab on mac os x does the equivalent of alt+tab on Windows and alt+tab on mac os x does the equivalent of ctrl+tab on windows in tabbed browsing apps such as a web browser.
I feel like this is wrong because it means I’m training myself to use something different than the Mac OS X standard – I’d rather they change their standard keyboard shortcuts to be more like Windows O:-). So whenever I use a Mac, I will basically have to swap the Ctrl vs. Windows key. Even if I used an actual Mac keyboard, I would still do this (ie, switch control and option).
That said, I’m pretty used to it by now, and I’m now reasonably comfortable using Mac OS X, albeit with my minor shortcut remapping, albeit with a bit of distaste for thinking different for no point other than to be annoying.
Yes I agree that at least so far I am using the mouse more often than on Windows, which is bad. However, it’s not entirely extreme, and I think a huge part of it is just that it’s still new and different to me. But, for example, with web browsing I can do ctrl+tab (to alt-tab into it), then ctrl+K to do a google search, then alt+tab to switch between browser tabs, and ~+tab to switch between browser windows within Firefox). This mac os x ~+tab I especially like, though in Windows 7 you can do win+num (for taskbar docked items) then win+tab, to do something similar. Similar, but different. In this case I’m not actually sure which I like better.
However, that does not excuse Mac OS X from making different therefore weird default shortcuts in terms of putting the ctrl key where the windows key goes and calling it an option key. Insanity.