HyperIJKL

Yet another one productivity-oriented keyboard keys remapper for macOS.
It is largely based on Vonng's CapsLock Enhancement, but with a twist: WASD-style navigation instead of Vim-style.
For those who are more accustomed to arrow keys or FPS controls ᗜωᗜ

This set up is tailored specifically to my workflow and has no aim to cover all possible use cases, though it is easily customizable to your preferences if you like the general idea.

Overview

Turn Capslock into a new modifier – Hyper *. Do stuff without moving your hands away from the keyboard's home row:

• Navigate and edit text quickly

• Delete words and lines with a single key press

• Navigate macOS: desktops, apps and tabs

• Start and switch active apps

• Control the mouse pointer, buttons and wheels with a keyboard

• ... and other workflow enhancements

Contents

Expand

• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Description
  • General
    • Legend
  • Text Navigation
  • OS Navigation
  • Mouse Navigation
  • Left Hand Window Navigation
  • Applications
  • Display Selection
  • Input Source (Language) Selection
• General Key Scheme
  • Zones
  • Legend
• Key Mappings by Layer
  • Normal
  • Select
  • Word
  • Word Select
  • OS Navigation
  • Mouse Pointer
  • Mouse Wheel
• Making HyperIJKL Work on Login Screen
• Modifying HyperIJKL
• Advanced Installation
  • Setting Up DefaultKeyBindings.dict
  • Setting Up Additional IDEA Shortcuts
    • Modifying Key Mapping Configuration Directly (Faster Way)
    • Alternative: Adding Shortcuts through Settings Panel (More Obvious Way)
• About

Prerequisites

• macOS

• brew

Installation

1. Install Karabiner-Elements:

   brew install --cask karabiner-elements

2. Download the configuration and allow Karabiner to load it;

3. Enable HyperIJKL in Karabiner-Elements:

   Karabiner-Elements → Complex Modifications → Add rule → Enable all

4. Enjoy!

Several non-essential HyperIJKL features (marked in Description section) require additional installation steps. See Advanced Installation for instructions.

Description

General

Hold Capslock to activate Hyper * mode.
Press Capslock once to send esc.
Capslock + esc to toggle Capslock mode.

Legend

*	⌥	⇧	⌘	␣
Hyper	option	shift	command	space

Text Navigation

button / layer	*	* ⌘	* ⌥	* ⌥ ⌘
i	up	select line up	paragraph up*	select paragraph up*
j	left	select character left	word left	select word left
k	down	select line down	paragraph down*	select paragraph down*
l	right	select character right	word right	select word right
u	home	home with selection	line start	select line, cursor home
o	end	end with selection	line end	select line, cursor end
y	page up	select previous page	document start*	select up to document start*
h	page down	select next page	document end*	select up to document end*
n	delete left (backspace)	delete line left	delete word left	-
m	delete current line	select current line	move line down	-
,	delete current word*	select current word*	move line up	-
.	delete right (delete)	delete line right	delete word right	-
[	(	undo	-	-
]	)	redo	-	-
esc	capslock	-	-	-

* additional set up required. See Advanced Installation.

OS Navigation

Navigate macOS: desktops, windows, tabs, Mission Control and Launchpad.

button / layer	* ⇧
i	Mission Control
j	Launchpad
k	previous tab
l	next tab
u	previous desktop
o	next desktop
y	fullscreen
h	hide current window

Mouse Navigation

Use keyboard keys to control the mouse pointer, buttons and wheels.

button / layer	* ⇧	* ⌥ ⇧
i	pointer up	wheel up
j	pointer left	wheel left
k	pointer down	wheel down
l	pointer right	wheel right
u	left mouse button	left mouse button
o	right mouse button	right mouse button
h	middle mouse button	middle mouse button

Left Hand Window Navigation

These shortcuts duplicate some shortcuts from OS Navigation. Their aim is to grant the ability to navigate windows and desktops while using a mouse with your right hand at the same time.

button / layer	*	* ⌘
w	next tab	previous tab
s	next desktop	previous desktop
x	forward	-
z	back	-

Applications

These shortcuts launch applications or switch to a desktop with the said application if it is already running.
* § starts multiple apps that are configured in hyperijkl.yml.
§ is placed on top of a tab on ISO (EU) keyboards, replace it with ` to get similar results on ANSI (US) keyboards (see Modifying HyperIJKL).

button / layer	*	* ⌘	* ⌥
e	Outlook	Notes	Thunderbird
r	IDEA	VSCode	DBeaver
t	iTerm	Activity Monitor	Settings
d	Postman	Docker	Lens
f	Finder	Forklift	Preview
g	KeepassXC	Spotify	IINA
c	Telegram	Rocket.Chat	Signal
v	Zoom	Microsoft Teams	Skype
b	Chrome	Firefox	Safari
§	start work env	-	-

Display Selection

Press * 1 to center the mouse pointer on Display 1. Works with digits from 1 to 4.

button / layer	*
1	display 1
2	display 2
3	display 3
4	display 4

Input Source (Language) Selection

button / layer	*	* ⌘
;	EN	-
p	input source (language) 2	-
/	input source (language) 3	-
␣	previous input source (language)	next input source (language) in menu

Press * ; to select EN input source.
* p to select the second input source.
* / to select the third input source.
* ␣ to select the previous input source (like the default ⌥ ␣ in macOS).
* ⌘ ␣ to select the next source in the input menu (iterates through the full list of input sources like the default ⌥ ⌘ ␣).

Requires manual set up of additional input sources to work. You will have to edit hyperijkl.yml by replacing predefined input language codes to desired ones. Those input languages should also be configured in macOS. Reinstall the script (see Modifying HyperIJKL) after those steps and check if LANG2 and LANG3 shortcuts work.

General Key Scheme

Zones

Legend

Key Mappings by Layer

* additional set up required. See Advanced Installation.

Normal

Select

Word

Word Select

OS Navigation

Mouse Pointer

Mouse Wheel

Making HyperIJKL Work on Login Screen

You can make HyperIJKL work on Login Screen.

1. Go to:

   Karabiner-Elements → Misc

2. Press Copy the current configuration to the system default configuration. You will be prompted for admin password.

Modifying HyperIJKL

You can edit HyperIJKL's shortcuts with the following steps:

1. Open HyperIJKL/mac/hyperijkl.yml;

2. Edit shortcuts (see Karabiner docs for reference);

3. Run in mac directory:

   make all

4. Go to:

   Karabiner-Elements → Complex Modifications

5. Delete all the old HyperIJKL's modifications;

6. Press:

   Add rule → Enable all

   on newly edited modifications.

Advanced Installation

Advanced Installation of HyperIJKL allows you to use several additional shortcuts, but requires more complex configuration that involves modifying key bindings in macOS and in IntelliJ IDEA.

1. Install Karabiner-Elements:

   brew install --cask karabiner-elements

2. Clone HyperIJKL:

   git clone https://github.com/RomanYuldashev/HyperIJKL.git

3. Run installation script in HyperIJKL's mac directory:

   make all

   This step automatically sets up DefaultKeyBindings.dict in macOS. See Setting Up DefaultKeyBindings.dict for details.

4. Enable HyperIJKL in Karabiner-Elements:

   Karabiner-Elements → Complex Modifications → Add rule → Enable all

5. Set up additional IDEA shortcuts (see Setting Up Additional IDEA Shortcuts).

Setting Up DefaultKeyBindings.dict

HyperIJKL requires modification of DefaultKeyBindings.dict for advanced shortcuts to work. If you have no custom key bindings in your macOS — you are good! Otherwise, you will have to manually merge HyperIJKL's key bindings into existing ones. In this case HyperIJKL's advanced installation script will notify you about key bindings conflict.

Setting Up Additional IDEA Shortcuts

HyperIJKL utilizes a couple of text navigation actions that are supported by macOS but are rarely recognized by apps. To enable these actions in IntelliJ IDEA you will have to add shortcuts for them either through in-app Settings or by directly modifying configuration files.

Modifying Key Mapping Configuration Directly (Faster Way)

1. Perform previous steps of HyperIJKL's Advanced Installation;

2. Go to IDEA configuration directory (directory name may vary between app versions):

   cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/JetBrains/[IntelliJIdea]

3. If directory [IdeaConfigBasePath]/keymaps doesn't exist, copy it from HyperIJKL's mac/idea directory and paste here;

   Else go to keymaps, open macOS.xml with a text editor and paste all the <action> blocks from HyperIJKL's mac/idea/keymaps/macOS.xml into it;

4. Go to [IdeaConfigBasePath]/options/mac and open keymap.xml. Make sure that active_keymap name is aligned with an .xml from keymaps directory:

   <active_keymap name="macOS" />

5. Restart IDEA;

6. Check if these shortcuts work in IDEA:

   * ⌥ i → move to beginning of paragraph

   * ⌥ ⌘ i → select previous paragraph

   * ⌥ k → move to end of paragraph

   * ⌥ ⌘ k → select next paragraph

Alternative: Adding Shortcuts through Settings Panel (More Obvious Way)

1. Perform previous steps of HyperIJKL's Advanced Installation;

2. Open IntelliJ IDEA;

3. Go to:

   Settings → Keymap → Find

4. Add these shortcuts:

   Move Caret Backward a Paragraph → * ⌥ i

   Move Caret Backward a Paragraph with Selection → * ⌥ ⌘ i

   Move Caret Forward a Paragraph → * ⌥ k

   Move Caret Forward a Paragraph with Selection → * ⌥ ⌘ k

About

Author: Roman Yuldashev (RomanYuldashev@proton.me)

License: Apache 2.0 License

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