How Do You Reassign Keys on a Mac Keyboard?

Your Mac’s System Preferences app contains various ways to add shortcuts and other features to your keyboard.

What Kinds of Shortcuts Can I Create?

The Shortcuts tab includes several categories of commands you can set. Here’s a quick rundown of each of their contents.

Launchpad & Dock: Call up the Mac Dock and Launchpad app. Mission Control: Perform tasks like opening macOS’ Notification Center, toggle Do Not Disturb, and show the Desktop. Screenshots: Set shortcuts to take, save, copy, and paste all or part of your screen. Services: Quickly send emails, post on Twitter, do internet searches, and more. Spotlight: Open Spotlight Search to search both the web and your computer. Accessibility: Turn on the Zoom feature, activate VoiceOver, and adjust display settings to make documents and applications easier to see. Function Keys: Add applications to this window to show the F1, F2, etc., keys on a MacBook’s Touch Bar instead of having to press the Fn key to reveal them.

Can I Reassign Keyboard Keys?

While you can use keyboard keys like letters and numbers in your shortcuts, you can’t completely reassign them (for example, type in a different language). Instead, you can go to the Input Sources tab in Keyboard Preferences and use the plus button to add a different layout.