Involving the Return key in a System Preferences keyboard shortcut

automatorkeyboardshortcut

I'm trying to get used to a macOS development environment after years of being an i3 junkie and I want to be able to use keyboard shortcuts to launch applications. I learned that you can do this by writing simple Automator services and then making keyboard shortcuts to those services (under System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Services). I followed the instructions here and I now have the Automator service I need in place and I can also tell it to use a shortcut like ⌥+⌘+T to open it.

However, I don't want to use ⌥+⌘+T to open a terminal. I would like to use ⌘+return instead. When I try to do that, System Preferences acts as though I haven't specified any shortcut at all; I think it doesn't like to set up shortcuts involving the return key. It lets you use most other keys though, as far as I can tell. (aside: I played around and it looks like the only keys you aren't allowed to use in this menu are return, delete, caps lock and fn.)

Does anyone know a way to work around that?

  • An ideal workaround would let me set it up directly in the System Preferences Menu. (that feels impossible to me so far but I have no idea why)
  • Second place would be doing it using config files somewhere on the filesystem. (akin something like an ~/.xbindkeys file under X11).
  • Least desirable to me are solutions involving installing third-party
    keyboard automation tools. (I think I can figure out how to do that on
    my own, I'd just like to avoid it.)

I'm using macOS Catalina.

Best Answer

Does anyone know a way to work around that?

  • Second place would be doing it using config files somewhere on the filesystem.

In macOS Catalina, it's the ~Library/Preferences/pbs.plist file that stores information about the services listed at: System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services

This answer is mainly focused on applying the ⌘↩ (commandreturn) keyboard shortcut to a service listed at System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services and without concern to the issues with creating an Automator Service/Quick Action and assigning it a global keyboard shortcut in reference to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy.

Having created an Automator Service/Quick Action and assigned it a temporary global keyboard shortcut of ⌘] in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services, I then did the following to change it to: ⌘↩

Note: The name of the target Automator Service/Quick Action is: New Terminal Window

Closed: System Preferences

Opened: Terminal

% defaults read pbs | grep 'New Terminal Window'
        "(null) - New Terminal Window - runWorkflowAsService" =         {
%
% /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "set :NSServicesStatus:'(null) - New Terminal Window - runWorkflowAsService':key_equivalent @↩" ~/Library/Preferences/pbs.plist
%

Then went to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services and verified the target Automator Service/Quick Action had the ⌘↩ keyboard shortcut.

I then pressed the ⌘↩ keyboard shortcut, responded to the Security & Privacy dialog box, and now have a new Terminal window.

Notes:

If after running the PlistBudy command and then checking System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services to see that ⌘↩ was assigned to the target service's keyboard shortcut and testing... If the ⌘↩ keyboard shortcut doesn't work, try the following before rebooting:

  • Try the the service from the Services menu, then try agin with the ⌘↩ keyboard shortcut.
  • If that does't work, execute the PlistBudy command again while appending ; killall cfprefsd to the command. Then repeat the step above.
  • If nether of these steps work, execute the PlistBudy command again and immediately reboot.

This was done from an Admin account.

This was done under macOS Catalina with Language & Region settings in System Preferences set to English (US) — Primary and worked for me without issue1.

  • 1 Assumes necessary and appropriate setting in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy have been set/addressed as needed.

The AppleScript code used in a Run AppleScript action of the Automator Service/Quick Action was coded to work whether or not Terminal was already running.

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