MacOS – Can terminal be launched via keyboard shortcut: CTRL+ALT+T

keyboardmacosterminal

I am using Alfred and hence I don't have any use for the Cmd+Space keyboard shortcut. I want to invoke terminal using that shortcut. Just like in Ubuntu, when you press Ctrl+Alt+T

I don't want to use Alfred to start the terminal. I just want to press Cmd+Space and I want the terminal to appear just like it would in Ubuntu.

Is there a way to start terminal like that in OS X Mavericks?

Best Answer

Keyboard Maestro

You can do this with Keyboard Maestro, using a macro such as this:

Alfred

You can set up a custom hotkey to launch an app using a workflow:

Go to the workflows tab, create a new workflow and add a hotkey and a 'launch apps' with Terminal selected as the app to launch.

KeyRemap4MacBook

You can use KeyRemap4MacBook with a private.xml such as this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <vkopenurldef>
    <name>KeyCode::VK_OPEN_URL_Terminal</name>
    <url>file:///Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app</url>
  </vkopenurldef>
  <item>
    <name>Activate Terminal with ⌘Space</name>
    <identifier>ActivateTerminalWithCmdSpace</identifier>
    <autogen>
      __KeyToKey__
      KeyCode::SPACE, VK_COMMAND | ModifierFlag::NONE,
      KeyCode::VK_OPEN_URL_Terminal
    </autogen>
  </item>
</root>

Automator Service

You can create a service in Automator:

Open Terminal

…then in System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Services you can assign a keyboard command to run it.

Related Solutions

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Some keyboard layouts (like Finnish, but not Danish) have a normal backtick under ⌥⇧´, so for example ⌃⌥⇧´ opens the console in Sublime Text.

If you don't want to switch to another keyboard layout, you can use Ukelele to modify the Danish layout. See this question.

How to use Ctrl+left/Ctrl+Right (instead of Alt+left/Alt+right) to move to the previous/next word

You can use KeyRemap4MacBook with a private.xml such as this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>⌃← & ⌃→ to ⌥← & ⌥→</name>
    <identifier>remapCtrlLeftAndCtrlRightToAltLeftAndAltRight</identifier>
    <autogen>
      __KeyToKey__
      KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, VK_CONTROL | ModifierFlag::NONE,
      KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, ModifierFlag::OPTION_L
    </autogen>
    <autogen>
      __KeyToKey__
      KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, VK_CONTROL | ModifierFlag::NONE,
      KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, ModifierFlag::OPTION_L
    </autogen>
  </item>
</root>

I'm not aware of any System Preferences setting regarding this.

With regard to comment, change the contents of the <autogen> to…

__KeyToKey__
KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, VK_OPTION | ModifierFlag::NONE,
KeyCode::CURSOR_LEFT, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L

__KeyToKey__
KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, VK_OPTION | ModifierFlag::NONE,
KeyCode::CURSOR_RIGHT, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L