How to turn Caps Lock into a Hyper Key on a Mac

A Hyper Key is one key that acts as Control, Option, Shift and Command held down together, which gives you a whole keyboard of shortcuts that almost no app already uses. macOS can remap Caps Lock in System Settings, but only to a single key such as Control or Escape, not to all four at once. To turn Caps Lock into a Hyper Key you need an app; switch on the Hyper Key in Trill and Caps Lock becomes ✦, while a tap on its own sends Escape.

Below: what macOS can do by itself, how to set up the Hyper Key, what Caps Lock should do when you tap it, and which shortcuts are worth putting on it.

Why a Hyper Key, and why Caps Lock

Every Mac app grabs shortcuts. Command with a letter is taken almost everywhere, Command-Shift and Command-Option are busy in most apps, and the combinations left over are awkward to press. If you want a key that opens Mail or snaps a window from any app, you keep running into one that already owns it.

Holding Control, Option, Shift and Command together solves that, because almost no app uses all four at once. The problem is that nobody can press four modifiers and a letter comfortably. A Hyper Key folds the four into one key, so ✦M is one finger on the Hyper Key and one on M.

Caps Lock is the obvious key to give the job. It sits on the home row under your left little finger, it is large, and many people use it rarely, if at all.

What macOS can do on its own

macOS has a setting for remapping Caps Lock, and it is worth knowing even if you go further.

1. Open System Settings and choose Keyboard in the sidebar.
2. Click Keyboard Shortcuts.
3. Choose Modifier Keys in the list on the left.
4. If you use more than one keyboard, pick the one to change from the menu at the top.
5. Open the menu for the Caps Lock key and choose what it should do instead, for example Control or Escape, or No Action to switch it off.
6. Click Done.

This is useful in its own right. Caps Lock as Control puts a much used modifier on the home row, where your little finger already rests, and Caps Lock as Escape suits anyone who presses Escape all day. What it cannot do is send several modifiers at once. Each key maps to one other key, so there is no Hyper option in the list.

If you go on to use an app for the Hyper Key, leave this setting at Caps Lock, so two different things are not trying to change the same key.

Set up the Hyper Key in Trill

Trill is a menu bar app for trackpad gestures, keyboard shortcuts and window snapping. Its Hyper Key works like this: Caps Lock becomes ✦, and when you hold it and press any key, that key arrives with Control, Option, Shift and Command at once. Every app sees ✦M as Control-Option-Shift-Command-M, so you can also record it in other apps that let you set a shortcut.

To get started:

1. Install Trill and open it; its icon sits in the menu bar. The first 24 hours are free, with every feature and no card.
2. Choose Open Trill from the menu, go to Shortcuts, and turn on the Hyper Key switch at the top. It is off until you do. Caps Lock is the key it starts with; if you would rather keep Caps Lock as it is, pick one of the other keys described below from the Key menu.
3. The Hyper Key needs Accessibility, which Trill also uses to press keys for you; macOS asks once. If macOS asks for Input Monitoring for the Hyper Key, allow that too.
4. Hold ✦ for a moment. Trill’s cheat sheet appears, listing every gesture and shortcut that works in the app in front. Let go and it is gone.

The cheat sheet is the quickest check that the key is working, and it stays useful later, when you have more shortcuts than you can remember.

Decide what a tap on its own does

Holding the key makes it ✦. Tapping it and letting go, with no other key, can do one of three things, chosen in the Hyper Key card’s “Tap it on its own” menu:

• Sends Escape. This is the default. Escape closes dialogs and menus and cancels drags in many apps, and it is a long reach in the top corner of the keyboard. Putting it on Caps Lock makes it a short one. If you use Vim or another editor that leans on Escape, this alone may be worth the change.
• Does nothing. The right choice if you keep brushing the key by accident and want a tap to have no effect at all.
• Toggles Caps Lock. Keeps capitals on a tap for anyone who still types in them now and then, while holding the key gives you ✦.

Whichever you pick, holding the key still gives you ✦, so the choice only decides what a tap on its own does.

Other keys that can be the Hyper Key

Caps Lock is the usual choice, but not the only one. In Trill, the Hyper Key can instead be:

• Right Command, for people who never press the Command key on the right.
• Right Option, which is spare on many keyboards, though some typists use it for accented letters and symbols.
• §, which Trill lists for UK and German keyboards. If your keyboard has a § key, Trill points it out.

These are worth a look if Caps Lock already has a job you want to keep, for example if you use it to switch between typing languages.

What to put on Hyper shortcuts

A Hyper Key is only as useful as the shortcuts on it. In Trill, any shortcut can run any of more than a hundred actions, everywhere or only in the apps you choose. Some that tend to stick:

Open your everyday apps. ✦ with the first letter of each app you switch to most: one for Mail, one for your browser, one for your notes. One press brings the app forward from anywhere.

Move windows. Trill’s Windows Gesture Set comes with 21 Hyper Key shortcuts ready-made: ✦ with an arrow for halves, ✦Return to fill the screen, ✦C to centre, ✦Delete to put a window back to its old size, ✦D, ✦F and ✦G for thirds, ✦E and ✦T for two thirds, ✦U, ✦I, ✦J and ✦K for quarters, ✦- and ✦= for smaller and larger, ✦Z to undo, and ✦N and ✦B for the next and previous display. If you switch that set on, pick other letters for your apps.

Type text. An email address, a postal address or a sign-off you write many times a day.

Run an Apple Shortcut, an AppleScript or a shell command, for jobs no menu covers.

Mac features, such as Lock Screen, Dark Mode, Spotlight or a screenshot.

Shortcuts do not have to use the Hyper Key at all. Any shortcut can run any action, everywhere or only in chosen apps. Give ⇧⌘D a job in Safari, and it does that job only in Safari; everywhere else ⇧⌘D does what it always did.

If another app already holds a shortcut you pick, Trill says so and names the running app that may hold it, so you can choose a different key before the two collide. With a Hyper Key this is rare, which is the point of having one.

BetterTouchTool also offers a Hyper Key, through its “Act as Hyper Key” action, alongside a great deal more: support for many more devices and more than 600 actions. If what you want is a Hyper Key, window shortcuts and a handful of gestures set up quickly, Trill keeps to those.

Questions

Can macOS make a Hyper Key without an app?

No. System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, Modifier Keys lets you change Caps Lock to one other key, such as Control or Escape. It cannot make one key press four modifiers.

Will I lose Caps Lock?

Only if you want to. Set a tap on its own to toggle Caps Lock, and you keep it while holding the key still gives you ✦. Or make Right Command, Right Option or § the Hyper Key and leave Caps Lock alone.

Do I need a trackpad to use the Hyper Key?

No. Without a trackpad, Trill’s shortcuts, Hyper Key and window snapping still work; only the gestures need one.

What happens when the trial ends?

Gestures, shortcuts, the Hyper Key and drag to snap stop until you enter a licence key, and everything you set up is kept. Trill is $29 once, works on up to 3 Macs per key, and you have 30 days to ask for a refund.