<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keystrokes</span>
Fabrice P. Lauss𝕪's Web

Keystrokes

keystrokes are my personal shortcuts. I tend to optimize everything, so I have a lot, including bizarre ones (e.g., Alt Gr+Shift+U). I use keymapper as the linux application to control most of my keyboard shorcuts. Below I list the controllers in use, by controller keys, naming the keys as they are engraved on my French (AZERTY) keyboard—which is not always how they read in keymapper.conf: there, {A}, {W}, {Semicolon}, etc., are scan codes (US positions, unaffected by the layout), so {A} is my Q, {W} is my Z and {Semicolon} is my M, while quoted characters such as 'a' are read through the layout and mean the key that really types a.

Ctrl + Alt

Ctrl + Alt

  1. B → bibTeX sci.bib
  2. C → {{cite|}}
  3. D → dates2wiki, the selected date becomes {{thisday|5|September|2024}} (a KDE shortcut, not keymapper)
  4. G → <syntaxhighlight lang=""></syntaxhighlight>
  5. I → EVE, the clipboard image goes to the local wiki as lw-stamp.jpg, squeezed under 800 kB (a KDE shortcut, not keymapper)
  6. K → this very page, in Chrome (the local wiki)
  7. L → LocalSettings.php of the local wiki
  8. M → ñ (that key is ñ on the Spanish layout; typed through the Compose key, since the French layout has no ñ)
  9. N → <nowiki></nowiki>
  10. O → <blockquote></blockquote>
  11. P → <pre></pre>
  12. Q → {{quote|}}
  13. R → == References ==<references />
  14. T → <tt></tt>
  15. Z → wz <wz tip="">(?!)</wz>

Ctrl + Alt + ShiftRight

  1. B → bibTeX ISO4
  2. C → {{onlinecite|}}
  3. I → EVE again, but always with her dialog: preview, quality, tooltip (a KDE shortcut, so either Shift)
  4. K → keymapper.conf
  5. Q → {{onlinequote|}}
  6. Y → gotoYouTube, jumps to the window (and tab) that is playing, typically YouTube
  7. Z → <wz tagtotip=></wz><span id=""></span>

Ctrl + Alt + Alt Gr

  1. {C} → {{citet|}}

Ctrl + Shift

  1. Space → &nbsp;

Alt Gr

The Alt Gr shortcuts are sometimes good by default, but rarely so, e.g., one never needs ¬, ŧ, ø, ¤, ð, đ, ŋ, ̉ (the modifier for ả, ẻ, ỏ which are cute, but one also doesn't need those), ł (besides, mapped on two keys: l and z), ¢, „, “, ”,' (another modifier but as French I have the letters é, è, à, ù, etc.), •, ·, . ̣̣̣(the modifier for ạ, ẹ, etc.), and only very rarely needs æ (Læticia), ħ (not even the Physics one which is the tilted ℏ), etc.

This also applies to the Alg Gr + Shift keys: ¬⅛£$⅜⅝⅞™±°¿Æ<¢—Ŧ¥↑ıØÞΩẞЪŊĦ ̛&Łºǎ㦣>©‚‘’˝÷, etc.

Instead, my shorcuts are:

  • Alt GR+
  • ² (was ¬) →
  • & (was ¹) →
  • é (stays ~)
  • " (stays #)
  • ' (stays {)
  • ( (stays [)
  • - (stays |)
  • è (stays `)
  • _ (stays \)
  • ç (stays ^)
  • à (stays @)
  • ) (stays ])
  • = (stays })
  • a (was æ) → α
  • z (stays «)
  • e (stays €)
  • r (was ¶) → ρ
  • t (was ŧ) → τ
  • y (was ←) →
  • u (was ↓) → ν
  • i (stays →)
  • o (was ø) →
  • p (was þ) → π
  • ^ (was ü) →
  • $ (was ¤) →
  • q (was @) →
  • s (was ß) → σ
  • d (was ð) → δ
  • f (was đ) → φ
  • g (was ŋ) → γ
  • h (was ħ) → η
  • j (was ả) → ψ
  • k (stays ĸ)
  • l (was ł) → λ
  • m (stays µ)
  • ù (was â) →
  • * (was à) →
  • < (was |) →
  • w (was ł) → ω
  • x (stays »)
  • c (was ¢) → χ
  • v (was „) →
  • b (was “) → β
  • n (was ”) → ñ
  • , (was á) →
  • ; (was •) →
  • : (was ·) →
  • ! (was ̣a) →
  • Alt GR+Shift+
  • ² (was ¬) →
  • & (was ¡) →
  • é (was ⅛) →
  • " (was £) →
  • ' (was $) →
  • ( (was ⅜) →
  • - (was ⅝) →
  • è (was ⅞) →
  • _ (was ™) →
  • ç (stays ±)
  • à (was °) →
  • ) (was ¿) →
  • = (was ą) →
  • a (was Æ) →
  • z (was <) →
  • e (was ¢) → ϵ
  • r (was ®) → —
  • t (was Ŧ) → θ
  • y (was ¥) →
  • u (was ↑) → zubizarretacasalengua
  • i (was ı) →
  • o (was Ø) → Θ
  • p (was Þ) → Π
  • ^ (was å) →
  • $ (was ā) →
  • q (was Ω) →
  • s (was ẞ) → Σ
  • d (was Ð) → Δ
  • f (was ª) → Φ
  • g (was Ŋ) → Γ
  • h (was Ħ) → Ξ
  • j (was ̛) → Ψ
  • k (was &) →
  • l (was Ł) → Λ
  • m (was º) →
  • ù (was ž) →
  • * (was ĕ) →
  • < (was ¦) →
  • w (was Ł) → Ω
  • x (stays >)
  • c (was ©) →
  • v (was ‚) →
  • b (was ‘) → \boldsymbol{}
  • n (was ’) → ν
  • , (was ű) →
  • ; (stays ×)
  • : (stays ÷)
  • ! (was ̣ȧ) → ( ಥ ʖ̯ ಥ)

Fn keys

The bare function row is left to the applications, which is where those keys are worth most. My own applications sit on Alt Gr and other modifiers instead.

Key alone (the application's own) Ctrl + Alt + Meta + Alt Gr + also
F1 Help; in Emacs help-command Switch to Desktop 1 Application Launcher Emacs
F2 Rename, in Dolphin Switch to Desktop 2 KRunner Inkscape
F3 Find Next; in Emacs start recording a macro Switch to Desktop 3 Window Operations Menu Mathematica
F4 in Emacs end and replay the macro; terminal panel in Dolphin Switch to Desktop 4 Close Window System Settings
F5 Reload, in every browser and in Dolphin Move Mouse to Focus System Monitor
F6 Move Mouse to Center Kazam
F7 Spectacle—a global grab, so no application sees it Present Windows (window class) Spectacle also on Meta+Shift+S and Print
F8 Chrome
F9 Places panel, in Dolphin Present Windows (current desktop) html2md Firefox
F10 Present Windows (all desktops) Konsole Konsole also on Meta+Return
F11 fullscreen; in Emacs toggle-frame-fullscreen Claude desktop
F12 developer tools, in Chrome and Firefox Show Desktop this very page, in Chrome also on Ctrl+Alt+K; Alt+Shift+F12 suspends compositing

The Fn layer proper—the brightness, volume and similar symbols printed on that same row, reached by holding the Fn key—is a different thing altogether: it is firmware and kernel business, emits XF86 keysyms, and is not configured here at all.

The Alt Gr column is the one thing on this page that cannot be a KDE shortcut: Qt has no Alt Gr modifier at all—QKeySequence("AltGr+F1") parses to an empty sequence—so keymapper, which sees the key as plain AltRight down at the evdev level, is the only thing able to bind it. Other things in the table are ordinary global shortcuts from kglobalshortcutsrc. Being global grabs, those are swallowed before the focused window ever sees them and no application can win one back; there is no per-application exception to configure, which is the whole reason for leaving the bare row alone. The Emacs bindings above were read out of Emacs itself rather than remembered; F5 to F9 and F12 are genuinely unbound there, which is what made F8 and F9 the cheap ones to take. F8 and F12 go through google-chrome-wrapper rather than Chrome itself, so they keep the fix for the omnibox race. Flameshot, which used to hold F11, now has no shortcut at all. Left free on this row, should I want them: all the plain Shift and Alt Gr + Shift combinations, Ctrl+F5 to F6, Ctrl+F8, Ctrl+F11, Alt+F5 through Alt+F12, and Meta+F1 to F4, F7, F8, F10 to F12.