Hotkeys with Opt/Alt+char do not work on macos (they insert a symbol when the editor is active)

[iamdannywyatt]

For some odd reason, when I assign Opt/Alt+n as a hotkey, I get a tilde.

You can see that this is assigned and there are no conflicts

But I get the tilde instead

[WhiteNoise]

are you using a keyboard layout where alt-N is mapped to tilde? If so, there’s nothing we can do.

[ariehen]

option + <key> on mac OS, then mac OS X, and now macOS has always given you additional symbols. This is typing option + q to option + / going left to right then down across a US Eng keyboard.

[rigmarole]

That’s true, but at least some apps do support it as a hotkey, when used outside of a textField.

And oddly, I can map this fine in MacOS. But I’m way back on 12.7.1 Monterey. (Obsidian 1.5.1.)

EDIT: Nevermind, I used alt-shift-N, because in the screenshot I saw a capital N. I also can’t map alt-n. But I wouldn’t recommend that anyway.

But since Obsidian is mostly a giant text place, ariehen is right, and it wouldn’t be a good idea to use these keys as hotkeys, and it will make typing those alternative characters impossible. (A choice you can make of course, except I guess not in Obsidian at this moment.)

[ariehen]

Yes, indeed. Context matters; I should have made clear in a text field.

These have been in Mac OS for a long time, maybe before multiple keyboard language input and, for sure, before emoji keyboards. On Apple’s main help page for keyboard shortcuts, you’ll notice no option/alt + something only modifiers (unless I missed one; it’s a long list).

[holroy]

They’re part of the setup for a mac to allow for better input of quote characters, see keyboard viewer for details on what you can type using the Opt/Alt key.

My suggestion is therefore to not use just the Opt/Alt key, but combine it with something else. I’ve found that the combo
Cmd + Ctrl is fairly safe to use as modifiers for my personal hotkeys within Obsidian.

[rigmarole]

@WhiteNoise you might want to still consider this a bug.

It’s possible to map the key combination, but then it doesn’t work. (EDIT: Actually it does work, if you have focus outside of a text field. For example, I focused on a tab, and then the alt-f hotkey works for me.)

So probably it should be blocked from being mapped, or honored for those who choose to map it.

Right now it just silently fails.

[WhiteNoise]

These hotkeys will active the respective command when the editor is not active/focused. When the editor is active, they will insert the symbol instead.

For the time being, we are gonna keep it this way.