Create an Escape (ESC) Key on a Keyboard Without One

Hi everyone,
I bought a keyboard Novodio Ultraslim for my mac mini, but there is no Escape key as it is a keyboard designed for Ipad. Iinstead of the Esc key on the top left of the keyboard is the home key only workinig on the iPad. The escape key being very useful to quit full screen videos, I am trying to assign to the home key an escape function with keyboard maestro but can't seem to find a macro to do tat basic function...
Thanks for your help!

Make a new macro and select “USB Device Key Trigger” as new trigger:

Then – while the key field is selected – press that Home key to see if it is recognized.

If Yes, then add a Keystroke “Escape” action to the macro:

Thanks Tom for the Tutorial!
I am stuck with the last part: “add a keystroke Escape action to the macro”. Where do I find this action?
I found “type a keystroke”, but there is no "Escape in the menu?

When you add the action, the keystroke field is selected (green). Then just type the desired key (in this case Escape). If the keystroke field is not selected then select it with the mouse and then type the key:

Since your iPad keyboard does not have an Escape key you may need to type Escape with another keyboard.

But first check out if the Home key of your iPad keyboard is recognized as trigger key. (Or if that keyboard is recognized at all.)


It may be a good idea to have a look at KM’s Help menu, especially “Tutorial”, “Quick Start” and the “Wiki” in general:

If you click the gear icon of any action, a menu will open and you’ll find a Help item that will take you directly to the specific Wiki article:

I get it, I have to use a regular keyboard to record the escape key! The Novodio Ipad kebboard “home” key is recognized by KM, so this should work, just need to find a keyboard! Many thanks!

ok it’s working!!! many many thanks for your help!!!

Just an FYI if you, or anyone else, is in a similar situation. You can use the on-screen virtual keyboard to press the escape key.

Open System Preferences > Keyboard. In the Keyboard tab, enable the “Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar” checkbox. Up in the status/menu bar, there will be a new icon that looks like a square with the command clover inside. Click it and select Open Keyboard Viewer. The on-screen keyboard will appear. You can click on the virtual keys and it will be as if you press them on a real keyboard.

When finished, simply close the virtual keyboard. If you don’t want that menu icon anymore, hold the command key and click-drag the icon out of the menu bar.

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Thanks for sharing this.
I have created a Tip topic, linked to your post:

excellent tip thank you very much

Great tip, indeed. I didn’t expect the Keyboard Viewer to show an Escape key if the connected keyboard doesn’t have any.

How do I create a macro?

@Tom @JMichaelTX. But how to create Fn key if you don't have one on your keyboard. I tried method in this thread, but it looks like Keyboard Maestro doesn't recognize Fn key on mac virtual keyboard. Hope anyone can help!

Try Karabiner Elements @Yu_Cai . It allows you to remap keys

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