Hyper CapsLock Unified

Make CapsLock Consistently Great on MacOS and Windows!

Hyper CapsLock Unified

https://github.com/darkato42/Capslock

I’m an user switching between my work PC and my personal Mac for different coding projects. My goal is to create configurations so I can have almost identical experiences when on MacOS and Windows, with or without my small external ANSI 60 keyboard.

Highlights

Based on Vonng/Capslock, some extra features are introduced:

  • Consistent shortcut combinations between MacOS and Windows with different keyboard layouts.
  • Duplicated key combos for a greater redundancy, less typo and ease of use.
  • Simplified to have only one extra modifier, the left Cmd key, when Hyper is used.
  • Removed hard to reach and less used key combinations for better ergonomics.
  • Remapped the app launch keys accoding to their initials.
  • Remapped frequent IDE functions to keys with close semantic meanings, such as - and + for Fold and Unfold.
  • Remapped #, £, ` and ~, so they are typed in consistent fashions across keyboard and OS.

ANSI 60 Key and Keycap change

My external keyboard has a small ANSI 60 keys layout that is different from both my Mac and Windows laptop’s UK ISO keyboards. It’s reprogrammed with firmware to have the left modifier keys (Ctrl/Win/Alt) swapped to (Ctrl_L/Alt/Ctrl_R) to allow the same finger positions for the same Hyper shortcuts defined in both MacOS and Windows.

ansi-60

CapsLock Enhancement Windows

The additional Ctrl_R key gives a close ⌘ experience when in Windows, While the original Ctrl_L key on the left makes Windows users feel at home by keeping Windows Ctrl+ shortcuts unchanged.

Only the top Hyper+ layer are kept for the middle T, G, V and B keys because they are difficult to reach for the Hyper+Ctrl+ layer.

hyper-win

CapsLock Enhancement Mac

Mac keyboard layout is designed slightly different than normal ANSI/ISO layouts. Its wider and slighly left moved ⌘ key is more ergonomics for usual ⌘+C or ⌘+V. And it allows slighly easier reach for T, Y, G, V and B keys when CapsLock and ⌘ are both pressed.

Use Karabiner-Elements’s simple rule to change Ctrl_R to Cmd_L for the external ANSI keyboard only. All other complex rules defined in the JSON file can then be loaded for consistent Hyper features.

hyper-mac

Installation

It only takes two steps to enable Capslock on your Mac: Download & Enable

  1. Download

    Download & Install Karabiner-Elements.

    Following the wizard and grant required permissions (Settings - Security - Privacy)

  2. Enable

    Open this link with Safari. It will launch Karabiner-Elements and import the configuration.

    karabiner://karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/import?url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/darkato42/Capslock/master/mac/capslock.json

    Click Enable All on pop-up dialog. It will affect immediately.

    You can now try moving cursor with ⇪ + h,j,k,l.