'Safe' hotkeys or keywords?

[outlander]

So I love Alfred so much I end up making a lot custom workflows which means I have to create keywords and hotkeys to trigger them. One thing I like doing is having workflows triggered from anywhere via hotkey, e.g. ⇧+⌘+k to copy last downloaded file, etc. Thing is, that I am worried that I will eventually make a mess of my hotkeys, since is it possible that this hotkey is used by the app I am in while activating it. So my question is - are there certain type of hotkeys which are 'safe' no matter in which app I am?

 

And on a similar note, would it then be better to mostly use keywords instead of hotkeys? Then I would avoid this issue altogether.

[vitor]

2 hours ago, outlander said:

I am worried that I will eventually make a mess of my hotkeys, since is it possible that this hotkey is used by the app I am in while activating it.

 

What would you define as “mess”? A global Hotkey takes precedence, so you’re not going to activate both Alfred and the app, just Alfred. And Alfred lets you define if the Hotkey triggers depending on the focused app. For example, I have a Hotkey I want to work in every app where I can type—so most apps—but not in design apps since the default shortcut there is more useful and I’m not doing much typing. So I set the Hotkey in Alfred to only trigger when two or three specific apps are not in focus. Another one: I set Play Address’s Hotkey to ⌘P to play the frontmost browser tab. Yes, ⌘P is “Print” by default, but I never want to print webpages so I let it override it (and if I ever want to print a webpage for some reason, I’ll just do File → Print…). Another: I built a workflow that queries browser history, so I set it to the browser’s own shortcut to supersede it. In other words, I’m using in Alfred the same Hotkey the app does on purpose.

 

2 hours ago, outlander said:

And on a similar note, would it then be better to mostly use keywords instead of hotkeys? Then I would avoid this issue altogether.

 

Yes, you’d avoid it like that, and I recommend always setting Keywords even if you have Hotkeys, especially if it’s something you’re going to share with other people. But is it better? That’s subjective, do what works for you. If you’re happy with Hotkeys and can remember them all in your own personal workflows, go for it.

[Stephen_C]

This is such a useful and clear description of, and tips for, using Hotkeys it might usefully be added to Tips for working with hotkeys—which currently includes a rather terser but similar summary at the end of the page.

 

Stephen

[outlander]

9 hours ago, vitor said:

 

What would you define as “mess”? A global Hotkey takes precedence, so you’re not going to activate both Alfred and the app, just Alfred. And Alfred lets you define if the Hotkey triggers depending on the focused app. For example, I have a Hotkey I want to work in every app where I can type—so most apps—but not in design apps since the default shortcut there is more useful and I’m not doing much typing. So I set the Hotkey in Alfred to only trigger when two or three specific apps are not in focus. Another one: I set Play Address’s Hotkey to ⌘P to play the frontmost browser tab. Yes, ⌘P is “Print” by default, but I never want to print webpages so I let it override it (and if I ever want to print a webpage for some reason, I’ll just do File → Print…). Another: I built a workflow that queries browser history, so I set it to the browser’s own shortcut to supersede it. In other words, I’m using in Alfred the same Hotkey the app does on purpose.

 

 

Yes, you’d avoid it like that, and I recommend always setting Keywords even if you have Hotkeys, especially if it’s something you’re going to share with other people. But is it better? That’s subjective, do what works for you. If you’re happy with Hotkeys and can remember them all in your own personal workflows, go for it.

I did not realize that setting Alfred shortcut overrides a focused app's shortcut by default! Then my worry makes no sense anymore.

I also did not realize I can set apps on which hotkey would not work, that's awesome! Thanks for explaining so well.

 

On a similar note, is there any advantage in using Alfred vs. Karabiner for remapping/automating shortcuts? E.g. is one faster than the other? I feel like Alfred can probably do many things the same, so if it's just as good as Karabiner then it's probably simpler to keep everything within single tool.

 

Edited November 1 by outlander

[FireFingers21]

3 hours ago, outlander said:

is there any advantage in using Alfred vs. Karabiner for remapping/automating shortcuts?

 

Karabiner-Elements lets you map literally any key combination, whereas Alfred is limited to non-reserved hotkeys. Karabiner also typically involves configuring JSON files, whereas Alfred has a friendlier GUI. I find Karabiner better suited for key remapping, it's more reliable and supports more exotic key combinations. But for triggering Alfred specific workflows, the Hotkey Trigger has generally been perfectly sufficient for me.

 

It all comes down to user preference and use case. Some people only want one app and prefer the simpler Alfred GUI. I don't want to limit myself and sacrifice the flexibility, so I use both. In either case they're different tools with the ability to complement each other very nicely, so experiment and see what works best for you.