I have a mechanical keyboard with VIA so mapped the caps lock to on tap is caps lock on hold is the Hyper key (shift + ctrl + opt + cmd). I also have a second layer with other remaps for other keys.

Here’s the Karabiner config for those who wanna do this (or something like it) with the stock keyboard. It will show up under the “complex modifications” tab and you’ll have to flip it on.

EDIT: I just realized I have left_control mapped since I have caps locks mapped at the OS level (I like to make things needlessly complicated) but you can just change left_control to caps_lock.

# .config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/custom-capslock.json

{
  "title": "Change caps_lock to Esc and Control",
  "rules": [
    {
      "description": "Post Esc if Caps is tapped, Control if held.",
      "manipulators": [
        {
          "type": "basic",
          "from": {
            "key_code": "left_control",
            "modifiers": {
              "optional": [
                "any"
              ]
            }
          },
          "to": [
            {
              "key_code": "left_control",
              "lazy": true
            }
          ],
          "to_if_alone": [
            {
              "key_code": "escape"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

“Super” key (control+command+shift+option). Mostly used for keyboard shortcuts without clashing with existing ones

I remap to control, but then I have a key sequence that triggers CAPSWORD which is a term used by QMK and ZMK for a mode that allows you to type ALL_CAPS_IDENTIFIERS without holding down the shift key. It automatically switches out of CAPS mode when you hit any non-letters or underscore character (or after a short timeout). Super useful.

For Vim users, of course you can do gUiw after typing a token to upcase it, but there is also a handy tpope plugin called capslock that lets you temporarily enable it in insert mode with either the native-feeling <c-g>c or simply <c-l> if you haven’t already mapped that.

I realised why I hadn’t notice it before, out of 5 Apple keyboards I have here only the most recent one has a globe icon! The rest of them just have ‘fn’. I have mine set for bringing up the emoji picker so use it quite a lot

You don’t shout at people do you Steve

What are your most used/favourite ones?

We should probably do a poll on which keyboard layout people use - do you want to post it? (Just be sure to add all the major options as well as ‘other - please say in thread’.)

Here’s an article @Dusty wrote and originally posted on DT for inspiration or for anyone interested

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I wish macOS had better options built in to the OS. I still wouldn’t mind CL so long as it is only activated on long press (I really hate pressing it by accident!)

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We should revive our old keyboard thread by adding a poll to the first post… do you both want to come up with the options/post it?

That’d actually be quite useful - I believe that’s what you need to paste in plain text, correct? I usually set up a KB shortcut for it. Do you use it for anything else?

Nice!

i use a keyboard with qmk, everything is remaped

Lots. ½, ¾, ‰, ①–⑩, ⓐ–ⓩ, ç/ę, ¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹⁰, °, ff, fi etc.

That one is a stretch goal of mine, I only have to put the money aside in a way that my wife doesn’t miss it, and then eventually find the glove “on the street”…

Until then my frankenlander has to suffice…

Yup, tons of remapping – on both the macOS side via Karabiner and Hammerspoon as well as the firmware side via ZMK…

For modifiers on the left side:

• caps lock => esc when pressed alone, ctrl when held as a modifier
  • great for vim and tmux/terminal
• tab => tab when pressed alone, hyper/super key i.e. shift + ctrl + opt + cmd as a modifier
  • or some other subset combination of modifier keys
• shift => delete when pressed alone, shift as a modifier
  • delete/backspace is used often, but its key is basically in keyboard Siberia