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Emacs on Mac OS X Leopard key bindings

Asked 2008-10-02T15:12:57.597
107

I'm a Mac user and I've decided to learn Emacs. I've read that to reduce hand strain and improve accuracy the CTRL and CAPS LOCK keys should be swapped. How do I do this in Leopard?

Also, in Terminal I have to use the ESC key to invoke meta. Is there any way to get the alt/option key to invoke meta instead?

update: While the control key is much easier to hit now, the meta key is also used often enough that its position on my MacBook and Apple Keyboard also deserves attention. In fact, I find that the control key is actually easier to hit, so I've remapped my control key to act as a meta key. Does anyone have a better/more standard solution?

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2 Answers

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Swapping CTRL and CAPS LOCK

  1. Go into System Preferences
  2. Enter the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane
  3. In the Keyboard tab, click Modifier Keys...
  4. Swap the actions for Caps Lock and Control.

alt text

Using ALT/OPTION as META

  1. In the menu bar, click Terminal
  2. Click Preferences...
  3. Under the Settings tab, go to the Keyboard tab
  4. Check the box labeled Use option as meta key

alt text

That's it! You should be well on your way to becoming an Emacs master!

answered 2008-10-02T15:14:23.507
4

Personally i have setup caps lock to behave like command on the system preferences and then on my emacs init.el file have:

(setq mac-command-modifier 'ctrl)

and this lets me use caps lock as command in most osx applications and as control in emacs. works well enough for me.

answered 2010-04-29T15:39:23.837

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