This software allows you to remap keys - even the ‘useless’ Caps Lock key. I’m disappointed it’s taken this long for me to find this awesomeness! I decided to jump on the change the Caps Lock key to Escape key since I’m a NeoVim bro and use the Escape key so damn much.

Setup

The official docs walk you through the setup quite nicely. Make sure to read carefully and not fail like I did. Once that’s setup then you can start customizing to your heart’s content.

Note - If you are using an external keyboard and not just your laptop keyboard (if that’s what you’re setting up on), make sure to click on the Devices option in the Configuration section. The internal keyboard appears on the top, however, my external keyboard (Keychron one) appears at the bottom of the list and begins checked off. I thought I did something wrong until I decided to check in here. Silly mistake but hopefully this saves someone time. Once this was checked on, boom I now have escape happening so close and even set holding down caps will become another Control key. This works quite nice in my workflow.

I also added another key map to hit a combination of keys - Control + b for Tmux. I just double tap Tab and then it calls the standard Tmux prefix key. It’s limited to just my terminal of choice and continues to work normal everywhere else. This one is a bit controversial, however, I got tired of typing the b key so much.

Complex Modifications

This section will allow you add more complex mods (duh) such as tapping and holding a key doing different things. You can do some wild stuff here. I decided to add a rule that someone had already created to reuse a rule without having to learn the syntax. I clicked on the + Add predefined rule button and then clicked the Import more rules from the internet (Open a web browser) button. This opens this url. In the search bar at the top, search for whatever key you are trying to modify and either import or copy the JSON. This will show in the Karabiner Elements app and you can enable whichever modifications you want. That’s all there is to it.

I hope this helps someone out and they enjoy this as much as I do. Soon I will be getting into the home row mods I continue to hear about.