Chrome keyboard shortcuts should not be so complicated!

November 6, 2011 10:35 AM

Can you help me set up a specific keyboard shortcut in Google Chrome?

I love that newer browsers have an "autocomplete URL" function, where a keyboard shortcut in the URL bar turns "metafilter" into "www.metafilter.com." I recently switched back to using Google Chrome, and my major gripe is that I have to hit ctrl+enter instead of command+enter.

For one, I'm used to command+enter from Firefox, and it hurts my brain to learn new shortcuts. Also, on my MacBook keyboard there are command keys on either side of the keyboard but only one ctrl key.

I found the Shortcut Manager extension but I don't know how to write custom Javascript for this.

I'm using Chrome 15.0.874.106 and OS X 10.5.8 on a late-2008 13" white MacBook.

posted by radioamy to computers & internet (7 answers total)

on chrome, i just type m or me and it autofills in metafilter, i don't use a shortcut.
posted by empath at 11:20 AM on November 6, 2011

To clarify: I don't mean for MeFi in particular, that was just a suggestion. I want to type anything in the URL bar, hit command+enter, and have it fill in the www. and the .com and go to the site.
posted by radioamy at 12:00 PM on November 6, 2011

I've been looking for a way to rebind a couple of keys in Chrome for a while now (I really, really want / to be "find in page", a la Firefox, Vim, less, mutt, etc.), and I was hopeful about that extension, but I think you'd at least need to know where to hook into the Chrome API to do what you want...

I'm digging into this keybinding right now and will post again if I come with anything useful.
posted by brennen at 12:59 PM on November 6, 2011

I don't think javascript will be able to access the address bar you're typing into; that sounds like a security disaster. ("You're typing in bankofamerica.com, are you?"). Maybe through the Chrome API, but Shortcut Manager Extension seems to have trouble with Command+Enter when I looked at it anyway.

OS X will let you customize shortcuts for any app, but you have to name a menu item specifically and I don't see any Chrome menu item that does what Control+Enter does.

You probably want something that does key remapping instead of keyboard shortcuts. Remapping Command+Enter to Control+Enter in Chrome would be ideal. For example, maybe KeyRemap4MacBook might work for you?
posted by fleacircus at 1:11 PM on November 6, 2011

Welp, after an hour or so of messing around, I am prepared to surrender. I now know how to put together a basic Chrome extension (seems relatively painless at first glance), but I don't think the API provides easy hooks into the kind of actions I'd like to re-bind. (And after reading a series of bug reports and forum exchanges with various developers, I get the strong sense that they're not inclined to make customizing basic UI elements any easier.)

I'd love to be wrong about this. But perhaps fleacircus's suggestion will solve your problem.
posted by brennen at 2:21 PM on November 6, 2011

I played around with KeyRemap4MacBook but it doesn't quite do what I need.
posted by radioamy at 5:28 PM on November 6, 2011

I tried two more keymappers from download.com - uControl won't work on Intel Macs, and DoubleCommand doesn't do what I want either. Please hope me, hive!
posted by radioamy at 5:46 PM on November 6, 2011