Serpentiel/betterglobekey: Reworked Globe key for faster input source switching

betterglobekey

Make macOS Globe key great again!

Ask a Question • Report a Bug • Request a Feature

About the Project

macOS features a brilliant idea for the way to switch your keyboard's input source—the Globe key. While the idea is brilliant in design, in practice, however, the key is coded in a very intrusive and impractical way, which might prevent some users—especially those who tend to switch their input source often—from enjoying their overall user experience.

This utility completely reworks the way the Globe key functions:

• Press switches to the next input source in the current collection: your own ordered list of input sources.
• Double press switches to the next collection, such as from your everyday layouts to the ones you use less often.
• Shift goes back: to the previous input source, or with a double press, to the previous collection.
• An on-screen HUD shows the new input source and its collection.
• Any keyboard can switch with keys of its own as well, such as Caps Lock or Right Command, which also covers keyboards

The configuration is a YAML file, reloaded as soon as it changes; an optional companion app edits it for you. I sincerely hope that one day Apple is going to make it this way out-of-box.

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Quick Start

1. Install betterglobekey:

brew install betterglobekey

1. Write the configuration to ~/.betterglobekey.yaml, with your own input sources (betterglobekey list shows

version: 2
   trigger:
     globe: true
   collections:
     - name: primary
       sources:
         - com.apple.keylayout.US
         - com.apple.keylayout.Russian
     - name: secondary
       sources:
         - com.apple.keylayout.US
         - com.apple.inputmethod.Kotoeri.RomajiTyping.Japanese

1. Start the service, or restart it if it is already running:

brew services restart betterglobekey

1. Grant Accessibility permission when prompted, and set "Press 🌐 key to" to "Do Nothing" under _System

Done. For other trigger keys, every option, and the optional companion app, see Getting Started.

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Contributing

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create, so any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

If you would like to contribute, please make sure to take a look at this guideline beforehand.

Please see our security policy to report any possible vulnerabilities or serious issues.

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.md for more information.

N.B. This project explicitly does not require its contributors to sign a _Contributor License Agreement_ nor does

it possess one.

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