On Not Having Caps Lock On My Laptop

On my MacBook, I technically have a Caps Lock key, but I’ve given it a new purpose. I’ve remapped it to function as both a delete key and a “hyper key” (⌃⌥⌘), using a tool called Karabiner-Elements.

Having the delete key right on the home row is incredibly convenient, I don’t have to move my hands all the way to the top right corner of the keyboard just to delete a character. As for Caps Lock, I rarely use it since I prefer holding down the Shift key to type capital letters.

When I press the remapped Caps Lock key on its own, it acts as a delete key. But when I hold it down with other keys, it works as a hyper key, allowing me to create custom shortcuts for various tasks.

Here’s the modification I use in Karabiner-Elements to set this up:

{
    "description": "Remap Caps Lock to Hyper (ctrl + alt + cmd) if used in combination with other keys, otherwise map it to Delete.",
    "manipulators": [
        {
            "from": {
                "key_code": "caps_lock",
                "modifiers": {
                    "optional": [
                        "any"
                    ]
                }
            },
            "to": [
                {
                    "key_code": "left_command",
                    "modifiers": [
                        "left_control",
                        "left_option"
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "to_if_alone": [
                {
                    "key_code": "delete_or_backspace"
                }
            ],
            "type": "basic"
        }
    ]
}

I’ve utilized the hyper key to create several custom keyboard shortcuts. Using Apptivate, I’ve set up shortcuts to quickly open applications with a single keypress. For example, pressing ⌃⌥⌘B opens my browser, ⌃⌥⌘T launches the terminal, and ⌃⌥⌘V starts VS Code.