P: Allow for keyboard shortcut customization

[Guest]

Customizable keyboard shortcuts in Lightroom would be great. I just find it so confusing that crop and brush tools and things like that have such odd keyboard shortcuts in Lightroom. I understand that changing that all now would be awful for many existing users, but being able to override them like I can in Photoshop would be helpful. Doesn't anyone else out there find they use to wrong keyboard shortcuts in the wrong program?

[John R Ellis]

Risto, I understand your frustration. However, I don't think Adobe needs to document the standard Windows keyboard-accelerator shortcuts -- that is a standard feature of the Windows operating system, and no mainstream program I'm aware of documents them.

There are 4 Photo > Edit In commands that don't have underlines: Open As Smart Object, Open As Layers, Merge To Panorama, Merge To HDR. This is because by default, the shortcut letter is the first letter of the command, and there are two commands starting with "O" and two with "M". But as Rob Cole explained above, you can still select those commands by typing "O" or "M" one or two times and then hitting Enter. That is standard Windows behavior.

Adobe could improve the keyboard accelerators for the Edit In menu by explicitly assigning letters to these four commands. E.g. it could assign "S" to Open As Smart Object. This would cause the "S" to be underlined, and it would save you one or two extra keystrokes. I've submitted that request as a separate topic:

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photosh...

[John R Ellis]

Risto wrote: "I guess this also leaves me without a solution for shortcuts for commands that are opening photos in external programs other than photoshop..."

You can use the standard Windows accelerator keystrokes to invoke those commands. For example, if you have an external editor preset named "Gimp", you could invoke it by typing ALT-P E G (since G is the first letter of the submenu command "Gimp").

[Risto Les]

Dear all

Many thanks to you all who have helped in finding a solution this problem and that's really the only/main thing that matters to me.

However ( 🙂 ), even though I'm not saying that Adobe needs to document windows behaviour I think Adobe needs to make sure that their customers are happy and won't change from Lightroom e.g. to DXo (where to my understanding short cuts work better). I don't think they should expect Microsoft to document that in Lightroom the short cut to "Open as Photoshop layers is "ALT+PEOO" and for some reason the corresponging accelerator key is not underlined even though it is underlined in command "Open in Photoshop".

When I look back to this and many other related discussions that I found in web I can observe the following
- numerous requests about LR short cuts
- many answers like:
* "in Mac you can assign short cuts to any menu items but not in Windows"
* "there is one third party SW that can do the trick, but it costs about the same amount of money as LR itself"
* "there is one open source sw that can be used but there is no good support to it"
* "there is a script that you can use/create to assing a keyboard short cut to "open as a smart object"

Why all those work around solutions when the real answer to the problem is that YES there are short cuts to those commands and YES they can easily be assigned e.g. to Wacom tablets (but they only need to be documented somewhere).

Don't get we wrong, I'm really honestly happy that I got your support and I found the solution (I just need to use trial & error method to find the correct key strokes to my external editors, I think there are matching first letters among them...). This will make my workflow with LR, Photoshop etc SW MUCH smoother when using those short cuts with my Wacom tablet. Probably it's the fact that I have been responsible for customer support in one fairly big interational company and I think that suppliers need to feel their responsbility for keeping threir customers happy.

Once again: thank you! (I might still have a look in DXo as I was told that they have some algorithms that work better for micro contrast than "clarity" in LR/ACR)

:-)

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

One useful feature in Photoshop that is not available in Lightroom that would be helpful is the ability to modify and / or define keyboard shortcuts.

[Casey Martin]

Aperture has a great implementation of customizing keyboard shortcuts. As a new Lightroom user I would love to see Lightroom have a feature as easy to use as that!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Dead link!

[way_phat]

Why is this not "Under Consideration"?

Would this even be difficult to implement?

[ssprengel]

Seeing as the original request was over 4 years ago, it would have been implemented long ago if Adobe hadn't apparently decided against it would be my guess, although I'm just speculating.

[Carlos_Oliveras]

With every new release of Lightroom, I feel pretty confident that customisable keyboard shortcuts are on its way.
With every new release of Lightroom, I'm disappointed... :(

It's not just a matter of making for a more pleasant experience, as with any customisation: with LR, there are 2 extra factors that make keyboard redefinable shortcuts a must IMHO:

1) If setting LR to "english" on non english keyboards, some shortcuts are simply impossible to use. I've tried to simulate the key-presses with auto-hotkey and other apps, to no avail.

2) Keyboard shortcuts are not consistent between acr/ps and LR. I would like to be given the ability to choose (consistency among applications vs. LR specific shortcuts)

I wish this will be considered some day, although I must admit that over the years I've grown so used to this limitation, that sometimes I'm not sure it's worth it anymore. Still... I'll keep hoping for it.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Can't believe this hasn't been implemented yet. Everyone's brain works differently, everyone has different shortcut keys that they are already used to. Having to relearn a whole new set, that puts emphasis on the actions and shortcuts YOU think are important does nothing whatsoever to help me.

Please make this happen.

[AxelB Photography]

There are so many functions I use hundreds of time for each set of pictures that require me to click 2-3 times. Assigning these often-used tasks to a keyboard shortcut could potentially speed up productiveness a lot.

Please get those configurable shortcuts into the engineering plan for the next Lightroom CC version.

Thanks ...

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

This will most likely be one of the, if not the biggest obstacle for people trying to switch from Aperture to Lightroom.
Not only can't you change the shortcuts to what you've used to, but some of the keys are just mad when using a non-US keyboard.

Toggling between original and modified image in Aperture (M key by default, or anything you choose).
In Lightroom, SHIFT + ALT + 7.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Try to \ key to toggle before/after preview.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Ah, hang on, non-US keyboard.... try this: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/article...

[Casey Martin]

The other thing that drives me insane is the " \ " or whatever command works on your keyboard is only available in the development module... which is stupid... shortcut keys have different uses in different modules that is so annoying!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Yes, \ is SHIFT + ALT + 7 on a Finnish / Swedish keyboard.

I tried that, but it didn't work for the English version.
"$$$/AgDevelop/Menu/View/BeforeAfter/Before/Key=m"

It works just fine for Spanish, for example, but adding that file to the en.lproj doesn't do anything.

Also, this is a nasty hack and will be overwritten by updates.
(And if Adobe does some kind of integrity checks, it might even prevent from updating...)

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

I'll run some more tests... it was working when I last checked it a few weeks ago. So to check we're on the same page, you're running on the English version on a Finnish/Swedish keyboard?

[JohnRolfeEllis]

Many, many people have modified the TranslatedStrings.txt, either directly or via the Keyboard Tamer plugin, over the past five years. It's been quite robust for them. On Mac, it does get overwritten by updates, so best to save a copy away. (I too would prefer that LR supported keyboard customization better.)

[JohnRolfeEllis]

Note that on Mac, you can use the standard OS X facilities to change the shortcut for View > Before/After > Before Only. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts. OS X requires you to enter a shortcut with a modifier, but you could choose Ctrl+Q or something else you could more easily type with one hand than Shift+Alt+7.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Victoria, yes. English version on a FI/SW keyboard.

John, yes, I've been doing that for other apps. But unless it's a one key solution, it's kind of useless, especially when brushing and quickly switching between the before and after. If you accidentally keep your modifier key pressed, it might do something else when you start brushing.

[JohnRolfeEllis]

I just verified that assigning "a" in LR CC 2015 works:

"$$$/AgDevelop/Menu/View/BeforeAfter/Before/Key=a"

It looks like "m" is hardwired to the Gradient Filter. (Adobe has been sloppy in parts of LR, sometimes not getting keyboard shortcuts from TranslatedStrings.txt.)

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

You're a star, thanks for checking that John.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Thanks John.
I'll have to just wait then.

Although, not having high hopes as we are already on version 6 with a feature missing that any other software would consider a must have since version 1.

[JohnRolfeEllis]

Yeah, at a minimum it will be LR 7, since Adobe rarely introduces new features in minor releases.

Why not assign a single letter like "a"? I'm sure there are lots of other letters available too.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Coming from Aperture and having used "m" for years...