Keystrokes

Keystrokes are the way you describe key combinations to Slate. This page describes them in detail.

Usage

Keystrokes are used in the slate.bind function

slate.bind(keystroke, operation);

This will bind operation to run when they key combination described by keystroke is pressed.

Description

There are two types of keystrokes. Normal and Modal.

Normal Keystrokes

Normal keystrokes activate as you might expect: when the keystroke is pressed, the binding activates.

Normal keystrokes are Strings in the following form:

"key:modifiers"

• key is one of the Allowed Keys
• modifiers is a comma or semicolon separated list of standard modifier keys:
  • Control: ctrl
  • Option/Alt: alt
  • Command: cmd
  • Shift: shift

Examples

"1:ctrl" - represents pressing 1 and the modifier Control simultaneously

"pad1:ctrl,shift" - represents pressing the 1 key on the number pad and the modifiers Control and Shift all simultaneously

"f10:alt,cmd,ctrl" - represents pressing the f10 key and the modifiers Option/Alt, Command and Control all simultaneously

Modal Keystrokes

Modal keystrokes activate by defining a modal keystroke that will put Slate into Modal Mode. When in this mode, Slate's menu bar icon will turn blue and Slate will listen for another key press to activate the binding. Once a binding is activated, Modal Mode will end. You may also specify an option that will cause Modal Mode to not exit when the binding is pressed. Instead it will exit if you press the modal keystroke again or use the config modalEscapeKey to specify a modal escape key.

Modal Keystrokes are strings in the following form:

key:modal-keystroke[:toggle]

• key is one of the Allowed Keys. This is the key that will activate the binding after the modal keystroke is pressed
• modal-keystroke is a comma or semicolon separated list of one of the Allowed Keys and any number of standard modifier keys. Possible standard modifier keys are:
  • Control: ctrl
  • Option/Alt: alt
  • Command: cmd
  • Shift: shift

Examples

"1:f4" - represents pressing the f4 key to activate Modal Mode, then pressing 1. This will cause Modal Mode to end.

"1:f4:toggle" - represents pressing the f4 key to activate Modal Mode, then pressing 1. This will not cause Modal Mode to end, allowing you to press 1 again to activate the binding again without having to press f4.

"1:f4,ctrl" - represents pressing the f4 key and the modifier Control simultaneously to activate Modal Mode, then pressing 1. This will cause Modal Mode to end after the binding is activated.

"1:f4,ctrl:toggle" - represents pressing the f4 key and the modifier Control simultaneously to activate Modal Mode, then pressing 1. This will not cause Modal Mode to end after the binding is activated, allowing you to press 1 again to activate the binding again without having to press f4.

Allowed Keys

Note: If you bind any binding to cmd-tab or cmd-shift-tab, Slate will completely disable the default Mac OS X Application switcher!

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