Hi! This is the story of a hidden feature in OSX and a tale of frustration and anger.
I needed to override the keyboard shortcut for “Minimize All” in OSX so I could use the keyboard shortcut to comment in Google docs.
First, a few things about me:
- Use Google docs a lot.
- Have a mac
- Live by keyboard shortcuts.
- Have a lot of opinions
- Like to share them.
- Stubborn as hell.
So when I’m reviewing a colleague’s document in Google Docs, and I want to comment, I looked for the keyboard shortcut (⌥⌘M)
![](https://jacobsingh.name/content/images/downloaded_images/Disabling-or-changing-mac-keyboard-shortcuts-in-the-menu-like-minimize-all/0-3jcEVu3FXVkAHcdO.png)
Unfortunately (and you would never know this): OSX already has reserved this combo for “Minimize all”.
![](https://jacobsingh.name/content/images/downloaded_images/Disabling-or-changing-mac-keyboard-shortcuts-in-the-menu-like-minimize-all/0-LR604pA3cJlBADuu.png)
BUT IT IS NOT SHOWN IN THE MENU
Stop for a moment and consider that Google creates both Chrome and Google Docs…
![](https://jacobsingh.name/content/images/downloaded_images/Disabling-or-changing-mac-keyboard-shortcuts-in-the-menu-like-minimize-all/0-qgUBmtSZd6899rDk.jpg)
![](https://jacobsingh.name/content/images/downloaded_images/Disabling-or-changing-mac-keyboard-shortcuts-in-the-menu-like-minimize-all/0-4inj-QYNwan_YSJQ.jpg)
The way to fix this is probably the worst bit of usability in OSX. It looks like one of those… “we better make this possible, but let’s just put a stupid hack in for really insistent keyboard cultists.”
To fix:
Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> App Shortcuts.
![](https://jacobsingh.name/content/images/downloaded_images/Disabling-or-changing-mac-keyboard-shortcuts-in-the-menu-like-minimize-all/0-4ldECQuWdYrjBy6S.png)
Now, enter in EXACTLY the name of the menu item you want to override (Minimize All — but how the hell would you know this), and put in some random keymashing that you will never hit by accident (or something useful if you want to still have a combo for that)
![](https://jacobsingh.name/content/images/downloaded_images/Disabling-or-changing-mac-keyboard-shortcuts-in-the-menu-like-minimize-all/0-nWRLRnxIXOItlDbI.png)
Tada! Now it works.
Originally published at http://www.jacobsingh.name on December 5, 2013.