Missing Control key on the right

By Mani, 6 December, 2016

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Now that I have acquired a refurbished MacBook Pro( 2015, 8GB memory and 128GB SSD), I am curious to know how you guys manage with the missing Control key on the right. I am facing some teething issues with VO commands like VO-A, VO-F, VO-G etc. your suggestions are appreciated.

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By Jake on Saturday, December 24, 2016 - 18:16

I usually just press them both with my pinky, but I have big hands :). A couple things you can do:
1. Use your left pinky to press ctrl and your right thumb to press right option.
2. Swap your fingering depending on the commands, for example your index and middle on option and control, then hit A with your ring finger.
3. If your Macbook has OS 10.11 or later, you can use caps lock instead of ctrl and option. It's usually set to allow this by default, however you may have to enable it if it is disabled.
4. Finally, and for me the least desirable, would be to connect an external keyboard either via Bluetooth or USB. Any keyboard will work.

By Serena on Saturday, December 24, 2016 - 18:16

hi, the other way, outside using an external keyboard, which i actually prefer to do, is to check out what commands are already set up with the trackpad commander. and if a particular command you need / want isn't already asigned, you can asign it to a gesture. it's kinda handy. and with all the modifyer keys you can add to trackpad gestures, the ability for adding stuff to it is huge. personally, i make a combo of using the trackpad, with some keyboard commands, along with using an external keyboard with a numberpad on it. as voiceOver, actually has a numpad commander as well. which a lot of people who have never messed with keyboards that have such things, won't know of. and how much simpler it is to even navigate things. a press of a single key to move point to point and so on. it's so fun. if it weren't for the fact that my mac is an old one, IE early 2011, and has problems relating to speed, i'd use it a lot more i think.

By Tree on Saturday, December 24, 2016 - 18:16

I recommend remapping your keyboard to get a right hand control key. I use carabiner elements, which you can find at this link.
https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner-Elements
I would suggest remapping your slash key to control, and then remapping caps lock to slash, so you can still type slashes and question marks. This set up really works great for me. It’s very easy to hold down both the right option and slash keys together, so you will have v o keys on both sides. It might take a little bit to get use to the slash key being where caps lock normally is, but you will learn to deal with that easily enough.

P S carabiner use to be able to remap multiple keys to a single key; back then I just made my right option key both option and control, so I could hold it down for both v o keys. Apple broke a lot of key remapping apps with their latest update, so I don’t think this is an option right now; however I like the slash remap option better anyway now.

This remap is always the first thing I do when I get my hands on a new mac, and I can’t stand to use mac OS without it.

By Mani on Saturday, December 24, 2016 - 18:16

Thank you all for all your suggestions. I don't have big hands and right now I am using the awkward way of moving my right hand across for those lef sided commands. Dallas, I liked your idea of the trackpad commander but here is the problem- I find myself inadvertently touching the trackpad when reaching for the keyboard and firing off some unwanted action. I know it is a matter of practice before I learn to avoid the trackpad on my way to the keyboard. Any thought on that? Also, I am tempted to use an external full-sized keyboard but it would defeat my purpose of portability.