HeySage

In this episode The Sage shows you how to create a keyboard shortcut for any menu item in any application (difficulty level: easy).

You can watch this episode here.

There is a very useful feature within OS X that allows users to setup keyboard shortcuts for any menu item, both system wide and within specific applications. This episode uses Microsoft Word as an example, although the following steps could be applied to any application or globally. Let’s get started.

In almost every application within OS X the keyboard shortcut ⌘⇧S will open a Save As… dialog box. As much as The Sage loathes word, he finds that he is forced to use it, especially for its document tracking capability. Of course, Word is one of the only applications that does not have a keyboard shortcut for Save As…. So this is how to create one.

1. Open System Preferences (Apple/System Preferences…)
2. Click on Keyboard & Mouse
3. Select the Keyboard Shortcuts Tab
4. Click the + button to create a new shortcut
5. In the Keyboard Shortcut dialog box select the application from the drop down menu. If the application is in a subfolder (i.e. applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Microsoft Word.app) you will have to navigate to the application through other.

6. Type in the Menu Title exactly as it appears in the application menu. For this example you must type

   S-a-v-e-space-A-s-⌥; (Save As…)

7. Highlight the Keyboard Shortcut box and press your desired keyboard shortcut. For consistency The Sage recommends ⌘⇧S

8. Click Add
9. Presto Chango! You are done. All you need to do is relaunch Word (or whatever application you are creating the shortcut in).

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Technorati Tags: Keyboard Shortcuts in OS X, Shortcuts, Menu Items