How to create a menu shortcut which involves the delete key

keyboardmenu barsystem-prefs

In Addressbook I want to create a keyboard shortcut for the Menu entry Delete Group using the key combination option-command-delete.

So I went to System Preferences –> Keyboard –> Keyboard Shortcuts and added an app-specific shortcut entry for "Delete Group". But when I tried to assign the key combination option-command-delete, my input wouldn't get accepted. (Combinations with letter like option-command-D work, though.)

How can I enter a shortcut combination involving the delete key?

Best Answer

You can edit the property list that stores the shortcuts directly. For example open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist with TextMate or TextWrangler, and add:

<key>NSUserKeyEquivalents</key>
<dict>
    <key>Delete Card</key>
    <string>~@&#x0008;</string>
</dict>

The shortcut strings are documented in http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/Site/Cocoa%20Text%20System.html.

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