Karabiner Elements12.10.0

Name: Karabiner Elements
Rating: 5 (24 reviews)

29 June 2020

MacBook keyboard remapper.

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Overview

Karabiner Elements (earlier was Karabiner, and even earlier was KeyRemap4MacBook) is powerful and stable keyboard customizer for macOS.

Features:

Simple Modifications: Map normal keys to arbitrary key functions
Complex Modifications: Map keys by complex rules. e.g., key to modifiers, modifiers+key to key, send key event if pressed alone, etc
Function Keys: Map function keys to arbitrary key functions
Devices: Apply modifications to specified keyboards only
Profiles: Support the creation of multiple profiles that the user can switch between
Modifier Flag Sync:Synchronize modifier flags across all connected keyboards
Secure Keyboard Entry Support:Work well on Secure Keyboard Entry environment such as a password prompt, terminal with Secure Keyboard Entry, etc

What's new in Karabiner Elements

Version 12.10.0:

New Features

event_changed_if and event_changed_unless has been added to conditions.

Improvements

Improved sending f1-f12 keys in complex modification (e.g., “change command+e to f2”) by ignoring media key mappings for these keys.
Improved caps lock LED handling.
Improved uninstaller adding the kernel extension staging area clean up.
Improved complex modifications json checker.
“Check for updates” has been improved

56 Reviews of Karabiner Elements

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I would recommend that unless you are a very experienced Mac user you steer clear - this software may do what it says it will do re keyboard remapping, but when it comes time you dont want it on your system anymore, good luck! The app is installed with something called an Immutable Flag. it will ask permission to bypass your security settings, install itself, locked, and almost nothing you can do as a User will allow you to get rid of it. I had log in as a Root user and then use several Terminal commands to change the locked flag just to allow me to delete it.

(2)

Coming from a Linux/Windows background, switching to a Macbook pro was really difficult for me becuase the keyboard shortcuts were really hard to get used to. In particular, when I had to switch between Remote Desktop and RemoteViewer (Spice) to access my other enviornments keyboard shortcuts were all messed up b/c of muscle memory on what keys I hit. So glad I found Karabiner Elements, having the ability to re-map keys (by application, by which keyboard I had plugged in) has been an absolute game changer. It's turned my Mac experience from mildly annoying to almost enjoyable!

(0)

I'm an electrical engineer who's been writing software for over 40 years, so it's hard to come up with anything that confuses me. On the other hand, I think a non-technical person could get overwhelmed by this utility. That being said, I can't live without this. I use Parallels VM manager with Windows and Linux on my MAC and I need the mapping control. The ability to program the rocker buttons on my Logitech trackball to slide between Mac desktops is addictive.

(1)

for non technical person it is very easy and fast to use. the software comes with online resources to download without much configuration. i installed and download the "halfqwerty" configuration within the app and got it working in less than 5 minutes!

Agreed with last poster. Impossible to install unless you do it at the command level. It's locked on install and no way to unlock it. I was going into the Contents folder of the app (right click on the app > Show Package Contents) and found everything there was locked too. I literally Got Info on every item, added myself to Permissions and then gave myself Read/Write privileges so I could at least delete those files. But I couldn't delete the app itself until I found this site: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/362662/how-to-delete-a-locked-app It seemed to work (the app icons were gone from the Applications folder) but if it was running before you uninstalled it, look at your status bar at top. I noticed that despite uninstalling it, it was open and active in the status bar. Found another page dealing with that issue: https://github.com/pqrs-org/Karabiner-Elements/issues/459 All in all, if an app makes it this hard to uninstall, I'm 100% suspicious. Install at your own risk. I hope I got everything off!

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Using IBM Model M keyboard with 2019 Macbook pro. Needed Karabiner to create a keyboard mapping for "command" key. Sacrificed F5/F6 to left/right command keys; works. I'm not using complex mappings, but for this simple, but essential mapping, no issues.

Show comments (3)

Recommended! Highly useful and versatile key mapper - I have mapped the back slash to a forward delete function on my MacBook's keyboard. Huge numbers of options for any remapping you want to do to customise your work flow. 5 stars!

Drdul

18 April 2019

Version: 12.2.0

Skip 12.2.0 if you have a 15-inch 2018 MacBook Pro. On mine, 12.2.0 disabled the keyboard backlight and at one point completely disabled the keyboard until I restarted. There are similar reports from several others on Github.

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Lumac52

12 November 2017

Version: 10.22.0

The developer has now released version 11 of Karabiner and it works on macOS High Sierra! I am looking forward to trying it out, as it used to be one of my indispensable apps.