remapping my keyboard to work on macos

Googling how to remap a keyboard’s keys provides a ton of answers, but most of the resouces I found suggested a software solution.

While software is likely more powerful and may be appropriate if you want to completely redo your keyboard layout, all I really wanted to do was add an Option (⌥) key to my Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.

As it turns out this is doable from within System Preferences on MacOS.

1. Open System Preferences > Keyboard

2. Select “Modifier Keys…”

   

3. Select the keyboard

   

4. Change the keys as desired

   

In my case, I don’t need a Caps Lock ⇪, but use the Option ⌥ key for many shortcuts, so I replaced the Caps Lock ⇪ Key with the Option functionality.

NB: While this works for most situations, some things like opening a minimized window through the Cmd ⌘ + Tab ⇥ Application Switcher (and then Cmd ⌘ + Option ⌥ on the minimized application) doesn’t seem to work.

Resources

These steps were originally found on Beebom.com.