I have been running KME v9 for several years without problems, simply to modify keystrokes in Photoshop. However after upgrading from PS2019 to 2022 this no longer works. I have also upgraded from OS 10.4 to 12.3.1.
I have gone back into KME but for the life of me I can't bring up a box to enable me to remap the keystrokes. What am I doing wrong?
I would guess the most likely reason is that you have your KM Photoshop Macros in a Group that is set to be available for the Photoshop Application. Adobe change the name of the actual Application each time there is a major upgrade so, if your Group is enabled to work with Photoshop 2019 you will also need to enable it to work with Photoshop 2022. A Group can be enabled to work with more than one App so the Macros will be active in both 2020 and 2022 (this can be useful if you sync your Macros between different Macs that have different versions of Photoshop). If you only use the Macros on one Mac you can remove the use for Photoshop 2019 and just leave the Group enabled for Photoshop 2022.
I'm not sure quite what you mean by this. But hopefully adding Photoshop 2022 to the Group will get your old Macros working again.
Thanks for the input but I have already selected 2022. What I can't see is an option to specify a particular key to map an an action/keystroke to.
Where do I go from the dialogue box you posted above to enable (in my case) the 'q' key to select the Healing Brush Tool?
You don't need Keyboard Maestro for this
But if you do want to remap keystrokes with Keyboard Maestro, it's very simple:
One advantage of using Keyboard Maestro to set the Photoshop hot keys is that if you have your Macros set to sync you don't need to keep altering Photoshop's native keyboard shortcuts. Just set once and the shortcuts will be the same on each machine. Funnily enough this was my first use of Keyboard Maestro as I had to work on several computers and wanted the shortcuts to stay the same.
I tend to use the menu item rather than remapping the actual key:
Thanks noisnell - that's exactly what I want to do (the KM route) the only thing is I can't get to that dialogue box! Would you mind doing screen shots of the steps that got you there? Many thanks!
Good point. Surprised they haven't added shortcut sync to CC.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think there's a menu item for selecting a tool.
What dialog box? Do you mean the Type a Keystroke action?
Yes, you're absolutely right. And for those single letter Tool shortcuts I change them in Photoshop itself rather than using Keyboard Maestro.
I don't change too many of the defaults (as ones like B for Brush and L of Lasso are ingrained in long muscle memory). I think the only times I have changed tool shortcuts are when Illustrator and Photoshop have the same shortcut for pretty much the same tool (Illustrator chose Q for the Lasso which is quite clever but I found I kept hitting L ...).
Assuming you mean the Action that is in the Macro, it is an Action called "Type a Keystroke".
So, the image I posted was of the Group that contains all your Photoshop Macros.
Each time you want to make a key mapping Macro you will need to make a new Macro in that Group by clicking on the little "+" button in the bottom left of the list of Macros in that Group:
Then, set that Macro’s “Trigger” to be a hot key and type the hot key you want.
Add a single Action to the Macro by clicking the "+" button in the lower left corner of the new Macro:
The name of the Action you want is “Type a Keystroke”
You can also just search for it in the search field at the top of all the Actions:
Double click it in the Actions list and it will be added into your new Macro:
You will need to make a similar Macro for each key you want to remap. But you can use this first Macro as a kind of template. Select it in the Macros Column and press ⌘D which will make a duplicate of it which you can then edit for your next key remapping.
I think at one point they did but then removed it again. I'm sure I remember that.
Off-topic but Photoshop was the reason I bought my very first Mac. I read through the whole manual in a few days, on the train going into work...
Ooooh, that's cute!!
I've just remembered why I don't use Keyboard Maestro to remap these single letter shortcuts... !
If you use Keyboard Maestro to remap the Q key to J it will remap it everywhere in the App. So if you are editing a text field and want to type "quick" Photoshop will type "juick" which is not so great...
The only way to get around this is to add more conditions into the Macro to try and detect if you are in a text field or not which IMO leads to endless complications and errors. That is the reason I personally do these single letter changes in Photoshop itself as in @noisneil's first solution:
Many thanks all. I eventually decided it would be best to remap in PS. However after I delete the 'J' in the dialogue box and type 'q', that field disappears (without 'q' appearing), the whole line goes "dark" and the highlighted 'Accept' button switches to 'Redo'. My apologies for now deviating from KM.
I suspect that you don’t need to “delete” the J. Just type the Q.
Here’s a "How To" link that shows it step by step:
https://www.howtogeek.com/731567/how-to-change-keyboard-shortcuts-in-photoshop/amp/
Sorry to be a pain but it doesn't work that way! When I type 'q' (with or without deleting the 'J' that box disappears and "Accept" greys out.
Works for me. Might have to ask on the Adobe forum.
I’m wondering if you already do have some sort of key mapping going on which is interfering with what you type in Photoshop. In Keyboard Maestro try disabling your Photoshop Macro Group and try again. But that’s a very wild guess.
Like @noisneil is saying and the link to the How-To I posted both work if everything is working on your Mac.
Taking a punt -- do you already have "Q" assigned? IIRC it's the default for toggling mask mode.
You often have to play "shortcut circles" doing this sort of thing, changing clashing key combos before you can set the one you want.
It warns you if you're trying to replace an existing binding, so it probably isn't that.
I deleted KM and was then able to make the keystroke changes in PS.
