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rmthompson902
rmthompson902
Known Participant
June 3, 2018
Question

Editing keyboard shortcuts?

  • June 3, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 2164 views

Hello,

I am getting started with After Effects and whenever I attempt to edit a shortcut, AE gives me an error saying that the particular key you are trying to edit cannot be reassigned. This is EXTREMELY frustrating as I use other Adobe products, as well as another Motion Graphic program, and would like to make the keyboard shortcuts as similar for similar functions as possible. Is there a way to override this error and change the shortcuts? I mean, some of these things that I am trying to reassign I will never use for what I will be doing.

I also have located the file in which AE stores the file of the keyboard shortcuts, but when I go edit, there are no friendly names inside the file. Each command is labeled as "PLUGIN_CMD_####", "IDM_*" or "IDM_A_*" (where #### is a string of numbers and * is a section of text). Is there a reference to these command identifiers to what they really symbolize? Then I can try to edit this and hopefully force AE to load these shortcuts.

Thank you!

Ryan Thompson.

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 3, 2018

All common keyboard shortcuts are visible in the menu system. You can reassign some, but not all of them. Most are pretty common and you probably would be doing yourself a disservice to reassign them because tutorials and books will be using the standard shortcuts.

There may be occasions where you want to create a different shortcut for a specific task or assign keys to a task that does not have a specific shortcut assigned. The keyboard editor is very new but it should be pretty easy to understand and use.

rmthompson902
rmthompson902Author
Known Participant
June 3, 2018

Thank you for your reply. However, I am not new to the keyboard shortcut editor. If there is not a workaround for this, I may decide to revert back to my old software and stop using AE. I am just one of those people that expects complete control when you pay this much for software.

Ryan.

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 3, 2018

Some shortcuts can't be changed. Feel free to use other software or make feature requests. If you are trying to edit movies in AE instead of creating composites and visual effects or design motion graphics there may be another software would be a better choice. Nothing at the price point is as capable of the things AE is designed to do. It's not an editor. It's not perfect, but it is more capable of doing the kind of work I do and doing it efficiently and making a profit than anything out there that is anywhere close to the price point.

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