How to Create Custom Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac

Any command that lives in an app's menus can have a keyboard shortcut — you assign it yourself, no extra software. macOS has quietly offered this forever under App Shortcuts: type the menu item's exact name, press a key combo, done. It can also change shortcuts you hate. Here's the full recipe, including the ellipsis trap that breaks most first attempts.

Create the shortcut

1. Note the exact wording of the menu command in the target app — say Safari's File → Export as PDF….
2. Open System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts… and select App Shortcuts in the sidebar.
3. Click +. Choose the app from the Application menu (or All Applications — more on that below).
4. In Menu title, type the command's name exactly as the menu shows it: same capitalization, same punctuation.
5. Click into Keyboard Shortcut, press your combo — e.g. Ctrl+Cmd+E — and click Done.

Open the app's menu again: your combo is now printed next to the command, which is also the fastest way to confirm it took. If the app was running, it usually picks the change up immediately; a relaunch settles any stragglers.

The ellipsis trap (read this before debugging)

Many menu items end in "…" — and that's a single ellipsis character, not three periods. If you type ... the shortcut silently fails. Type the real thing with Option+;. Other exactness rules: match capitalization ("Export as PDF…", not "Export As PDF…") and don't include the menu path — just the item's own title. If two menus in one app contain identically named items, the shortcut fires the first one, which occasionally isn't the one you meant; there's no official way to disambiguate, so in that rare case pick a different command to bind.

One app or every app

• Per-app is the default choice and the safe one — your Ctrl+Cmd+E means one thing in Safari and stays free everywhere else.
• All Applications binds by menu title across every app. It's perfect for commands many apps share: give Merge All Windows a combo once and it works in Finder, Safari, and TextEdit alike.

Change a shortcut you hate

The same trick overrides existing shortcuts. Classic example: in Safari, Cmd+W sits one slip away from Cmd+Q. Add an App Shortcut for Safari's Quit Safari bound to Option+Cmd+Q, and the original assignment moves — quitting now requires deliberate intent. You're not creating a duplicate; the menu literally shows the new combo.

Shortcuts worth creating first

Good candidates are commands you use daily that shipped without keys. A starter set that earns its keep:

• Safari → Export as PDF… — one keystroke to archive a page.
• Finder → Merge All Windows — herd window sprawl into tabs (bind under All Applications and it works everywhere).
• Mail → Send Again — resend without the copy-paste dance.
• Notes → Pin Note — pin and unpin from the keyboard.
• Any Export, Duplicate, or Show in Finder command in the app you live in.

Stick to combos with three modifiers (Ctrl+Option+Cmd plus a letter) — that corner of the keyboard is almost always unclaimed, so your shortcut wins cleanly.

Undo any of it

Back in App Shortcuts, select your entry and click −. The menu command instantly reverts to its factory shortcut (or to none). Everything here is a preference, not a modification of the app, so there's nothing else to clean up.

When the combo won't fire

If your new shortcut does nothing, something else probably owns the keys — macOS system shortcuts win over App Shortcuts. The fix is a quick audit of Keyboard Shortcuts categories; this guide to shortcut conflicts walks through it.