Remapping CAPSLOCK and CONTROL - Linux and Open Source Screencasts

#2 Remapping CAPSLOCK and CONTROL

One of the best changes I've ever made to my computing work flow is swapping my CAPS and CTRL keys. It is much easier on your pinky to hit the CAPS key instead of the standard mapping for CTRL and the CTRL key is used exponentially more than CAPS. In fact, you will likely find that you completely forget about the CAPS key all together.

This is a very easy change to make and have a good effect on your computing for years to come. We'll go though how to do it In MacOSX, Ubuntu Linux, and any Unix/Linux system with Xmodmap.

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# ~/.xmodmap
!
! Swap Caps_Lock and Control_L
!
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
remove Control = Control_L
keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L

# ~/.bash_profile
xmodmap ~/.xmodmap

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Add Comment

1. Josh Siok on Sep 25, 2009

Nice Screencast John... I'll have to try it out on my MacBook and see if I like it.

2. John Yerhot on Oct 17, 2009

Thanks Josh, after you're used to it, it really helps!

3. David Karr on Nov 17, 2009

As we're focused here on switching capslock and ctrl, it's also easy to do on Windows, using the SysInternals Ctrl2Cap tool: <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897578.aspx> In addition, this change can be made in Ubuntu without going into configuration files. It's available in "System"->"Preferences"->"Keyboard"->"Layouts"->"Layout Options"->"Ctrl key position". Select "Make CapsLock an additional Ctrl". Curiously, this option isn't available in the similar "CapsLock key behavior" section, where it would seem more likely to be.

4. John Yerhot on Dec 02, 2009

Thanks for the addition David.

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#2 Remapping CAPSLOCK and CONTROL

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