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One, foreword

I’ve been using a Mac for about a year now, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how to use the Mac to increase my productivity. Recently summarized the accumulation of this year, here arranged into the form of the article put out, I hope to give you some help.

Again: this post is for those of you who enjoy fidgeting for productivity, who want to be a keystream player, who are too lazy to move their fingers much, and who suffer from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. So meaning party, indiscriminate party, keyboard man party can click on the fork.

Two, use the keyboard correctly

The keyboard is the most commonly used input information tool when we use the computer, so the first step is to start from the keyboard customization, maximize the use efficiency of the keyboard.

1. Develop regular typing fingerings

If I were asked to name one of the most rewarding things I’ve done in the past few months, I’d definitely add the fact that I’ve changed my two-finger meditation into a regular fingering technique. I actually mentioned typing speed in a previous post. In my opinion, there are the following advantages of proper fingering:

  • 1. I’ll type nearly twice as fast as I used to. My maximum typing speed in two-finger meditation was about 30 new English words per minute, which was pretty average (although it was faster if I was chatting). It took me two weeks to correct my fingering, and now MY typing speed has reached 50 strange English words per minute. The improvement here is remarkable.
  • 2. Typing speed will not only get faster, but also there will be room for continuous improvement. Before using two-finger Meditation, I also practiced some speed improvement exercises, but fingering was actually the bottleneck for me to improve typing speed at that time. With regular fingering, in fact fingering is not the bottleneck of improving typing speed, the longer you use it, the faster you will feel typing speed, the average person’s time can reach 80 strange English words/minute.
  • 3. Fingering is also a way to show whether you are willing to make changes to improve yourself. Fingering is a slightly uncomfortable process, which is actually a process of escaping from your comfort zone.
  • 4. The final benefit is that you can easily learn some of the MAC customizations I made later, which would have been a little harder if you didn’t use regular fingerwork.

Said so much how to practice the normal typing fingering? Poke here:typingclubNote that this is not an advertisement, this is a foreign website for typing.

2. Reduce the keyboard area

With standard fingering, there’s another benefit I didn’t mention: the hand position doesn’t have to change as much. But there are students will say: you lie! Who says it doesn’t change often? Don’t you need to press delete, up, down, left, ~, etc? Of course I do, but I don’t have to move my hand to do it, and that’s what I’m going to talk about in this video.

Here’s my current keyboard configuration, and I’ll explain it one by one:

  • 1. First of all, the red boxes are circled with keys that I will never use at present (FN should be used once or twice a month. Delete keys, used when entering the system and typing a wrong password), and the ones circled in yellow are used to replace those discarded keys. You’ll see that no matter what you do, the typist stays in the same position — the standard fingering position. Such a plan is very attractive to me, a person with extremely strong obsessive-compulsive disorder and perfectionism.

  • 2. Now LET me introduce specific alternatives:

    • 1. Fn key is rarely used, specific uses: For example, some IDES can be set in the system to display the touch screen at the top of the keyboard as F1-F12.
    • 2. We can see that there is a pair of command and option keys on the left and right sides of the keyboard. This actually seems redundant to me, as there are no home and End keys (which are very useful for code words) on the entire keyboard, so you can just replace them. When replaced, these two keys can also be used as function key pendants like alphanumeric keys.
    • 3. The Control key was abolished because it was extremely difficult to press control without changing hand position. So undo it and replace it with the Caps Lock key. The Caps Lock key can be replaced with the Shift key, making the Control key accessible.
    • 4. Now that we have the Control key at our fingertips, we can change the rest of the obsolete keys: UseControl + key in the yellow boxInstead ofThe discard key in the red box.
      • 1. The control + HJKL keys are used to replace the up, down, left, and right keys. If you have used Vim, you will know why I designed this, because in vim’s normal mode, this is how the cursor moves. Vim is a software that existed in ancient times when there was no up, down, or left keys in the keyboard. For a programmer, VIM should be very needed to master. Shift + HJKL, HJKL, HJKL, HJKL I’ll talk about that later in the section on shortcuts.
      • 2. Control + IO ‘can be used to replace the three key – = | this a few keys, the same control + shift + IO’ can also be used to replace a few keys on the shift pattern. The reason for the design here is actually quite simple: one is that I often can’t press these three keys correctly when blind typing. The other is that the positions of the three yellow boxes are similar to those of the three red boxes, facilitating muscle memory on a reduced distance basis.
      • 3. The remainingDelete, esc, ~These three bonds, I’m going to use them separatelycontrol + enter [ homeKeys to replace them.
        • 1. The reason for the replacement of detele is that the finger moves too much when it presses, and control + Enter can be replaced to achieve a similar feel to the original percussion.
        • 2. The replacement of one ESC was also due to the large motion range. Another reason is that in VIM you can use control + [to exit various modes.
        • 3. As for the substitution of ~, it is only because the percussion amplitude is too large.

  • 3. If you are a programmer you will find that the layout of the keyboard is very much like HHKB and much more radical. How harmonious would everything be if the above scheme were best implemented here (ecstasy from an OBSessive-compulsive). Of course I did, and have been using it for more than a month, what is the final effect? The result: when I use a normal keyboard due to force majeure, I always make fun of how stupid the design of the keyboard is :), so I’ll tell you how to implement this solution.

    • 1. The first step to implementing this solution will be to use two key change programs, which I recommend starting with my introduction to making your Mac a super productive work tool

    • 2. The first software to use is karabiner-Elements, which can swap two keys directly, as shown in the picture below:

      • 1. I set **~ up, down, left, right – = ** these keys as F20. The advantage of this is that I can force myself to use the configured keys when I am not skilled in the early stage.

      • 2. Then, left_command and left_option are exchanged. The reason for the exchange is that I wanted to unify the use of shortcut keys for WIN and MAC before, for details, please refer to the introductory article I wrote before. Now the reader can look at their own needs and decide whether they need to exchange.

      • 3. Then I changed the right_command and right_option into home and end, which is quite convenient for code words.

      • 4. Finally, change the caps_lock to left_control.

    • 3. Next, we need KeyBoard Maestro. This software is very powerful. In the future we will use this software very frequently, you must go to see the introductory article I mentioned earlier, so that you can easily learn the following customized tutorial.

      • 1. Here I default so everyone knows how to use this software directly on my configuration below: you can see in the picture I mapping the various shortcuts, a problem to note here is that each way of configuration trigger buttons to choose is pressed, in this way can we achieve the final and common buttons the same effect.

Here the whole way to use the keyboard is finished, I just provide a more systematic way to customize the keyboard. As for the final effect is up to you to judge, anyway for me is a great improvement in the efficiency and comfort of the code word code.

Three, the correct use of shortcut keys

We use different shortcut keys when we use computers, which is one of the ways to improve productivity. In this chapter I will show you how to use keyboard shortcuts correctly (in ways you might not expect).

1. Design the system of shortcut keys

Let’s start by talking about how to design a shortcut key system from a global perspective. Okay

  • 1. We first need to define the use of shift, Control, option, and Command
    • 1. The shift + alphanumeric key is used to enter uppercase letters or symbols, and the shift + up/down/left/Right /home/end key is used to select text.
    • 2.Control plus various keysCan be used in the following scenarios:
      • 1. Keyboard miniaturization
      • 2. To be compatible with Windows shortcuts, you can transfer MAC edit keys from Option to Control (e.g., copy, Paste, Select all, Undo, etc.). The scheme for this is described in the introductory article.
      • 3. Control is also responsible for various operations in specific applications. For example, I am a programmer and I use Control + when USING JetBrains bucket, VsCode, etc. Ide. As a shortcut key for the outgoing command box, vim’s editing functions are all achieved by control. In general, some function shortcuts in each specific application can be achieved by using Control. As for the conflicts caused by them, we will solve them in the implementation.
      • 4. In fact, the above scenes have used almost 80% of the buttons under control, which is close to saturation.
    • 3.Command + various keysIt can be used for global operations except for global edit shortcuts
      • 1. Open folders. We can define some common folders to open by shortcut keys. Note that there is no need to define a shortcut key for each folder; all folders can be solved with a shortcut key. This is also implemented in the introductory article.
      • 2. Define some automated scripts. Multiple scripts can also be triggered using a shortcut key. For example, I recently defined a script that automatically syncs tabs from Chrome to Safari.
      • 3. For application window Settings, as long as a shortcut key can achieve an application window accounted for the left half, accounted for the right half, accounted for the top half and so on accurately split the screen operation.
      • 4. Quick launch of applications. For this operation, I give a dedicated shortcut to each of the most commonly used applications such as wechat, QQ, Android Studio, etc. This will achieve maximum startup speed. For less commonly used applications, you can use only one shortcut key to call them, which is slower.
      • 5. The last usage scenario is actually similar to the third use scenario of Control: it is also responsible for various operations under specific applications, because various applications of course can not only use a control button to operate over.
    • 4.Option + various keysNot a lot, because the left thumb is more difficult to press, so the use of the scene is less
      • 1. MAC’s native copy, Paste, Select all, Undo and other global editing buttons all start with Option in each application. Since we already mapped these operations to the same control + key, we have to pit them and can’t change them, but the option key is rarely used in this architecture
      • 2. The global control button of music, which is actually my personal preference, you can see by yourself.

2. Realization of shortcut key system

As mentioned above, the shortcut key system is mainly realized through keyboard- Maestro to connect various apps. I’ll take a quick screenshot of a few implementations

  • 1. Here is why a shortcut key can jump to multiple files. In fact, when you press a shortcut key, if multiple scripts respond, the software will let you continue to enter the script name match.

  • 2. Open folders You can go to folders by calling Finder functions… “, and then define the name of the folder to enter in advance to achieve. The following figure

  • 3. Application window Settings can be implemented using the built-in functions of Keyboard – Maestro

  • 4. I won’t go through the rest, but I posted my keyboard Maestro configuration for you to download

Four, the correct use of software

With all the heavy stuff mentioned above, let’s introduce some useful software. Because I’m a programmer, it’s probably more helpful for programmers.

1. Make your input method stop jumping

I have a problem with the MAC: I don’t want to use the MAC’s default input method, but sometimes it pops up when I switch apps and I have to change my input method again. So I wonder if there is an app that can fix my input method. There is keyboard pliot, which allows you to set different input methods for each application, so you only need to set one input method for each application. Other people will say, “I want to enter only English in some applications, and only Chinese in some applications. In fact, if you use sogou input method can be directly set in the preferences.

2. Supplement of fast switching software

Before, we mentioned how to switch applications quickly. In fact, there is still an imperfect place: if an application has many Windows, the previous scheme cannot achieve accurate switch. So this is the time to bring Contexts software, it can search for the right app and switch, thus completing the context we mentioned earlier.

3. Use jetBrains buckets properly

Programmers should know what it is. Whether you are writing Java, android, PHP, js, python, or c++, you can use their Ide under MAC. Here are some tips I’ve learned in the last few months:

  • 1. You just need to remember a shortcut key to do everything you can on the command line: Remember the name of this thing is Find Action, you can Find it in the shortcut map, and then you just need to memorize the commands naturally.
  • 2. Vim plugin: Vim is a real marvel, except that IT took me a little bit to get used to it at first, so far I feel like my coding efficiency has gone up a notch. In addition, using VIm during normal coding helps to unify the editing mode of each end. This will make cross-platform a lot easier.
  • 3. Still about VIm: Here is a link to the viM plug-in advanced configuration, viM plug-in can be defined to call a variety of IDE operations.

4. More software

In fact, I’ve already spilled all my guts at this point. I’ve been trying to make your Mac a super efficient work tool since the beginning of the year.

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