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KeyboardShortcuts

Modifying LyX keyboard shortcuts

This page contains some tips for modifying your keyboard bindings in LyX.

Before modifying, have a look at the KeyboardShortcuts#StandardKeybindings in LyX.KeyboardShortcuts. Maybe one of the standard files is already (close to) what you want. (See also frequently used shortcuts)

There are some blocked keyboard shortcuts that require special attention.

Besides simple LyxFunctions, you can also bind command sequences to a key. Use this to create your keyboard macros.

Remember to read the section in Customization.lyx and Appendix A -- Bindings in the Customization.lyx document (Help>Customization or excerpt below).

A practical tip

Instead of modifying any of the standard bind-files, create a new bind-file, say $HOME/.lyx/bind/myShortcuts.bind and include one of the standard files, e.g.:

# include one of the basic flavours (cua or emacs)
\bind_file	"cua"
# add your own bindings (overwriting the included ones)
\bind		"C-b" "font-bold"

Then go to the preferences dialog and choose this file to be your bind-file.

Syntax of the .bind-files

The syntax of the .bind files is straightforward:

\bind <key combination> <lyx-function> # bind a key to a function
\bind_file "bindfile-name" # include another bind file

• The included bind file is named without the ".bind" extension
• Both key combination and lyx-function (including any arguments) must be enclosed in "double quotes".
• The syntax of the <key-combination> is [<Modifier>-[<Modifier>-[<Modifier>-]...]]<Key> where the order of the modfiers doesn't seem to matter.
• To insert TeX code, you may need to use double backslashes. For example "math-insert \to" doesn't work, but "math-insert \\to" does.

Key modifiers

This is a (possibly incomplete) list of table modifiers:

Equivalent keys

Testing revealed that the keys <a> and <A> are equivalent in some combinations, i.e.:

• "C-a" is equivalent to "C-A"
• "C-S-a" is equivalent to "C-S-A"

Precedence of keyboard bindings

Note that the latest key binding takes precedence, e.g.

   \bind "C-b" "font-emph"              
   \bind "C-b" "font-bold"    

will bind "C-b" to "font-bold", since that is the last key binding command. An exception are bindings using the modifier "~S", which doesnot overide other bindings. E.g.

   \bind "C-~S-a" "self-insert a"    

means that both "C-a" and "C-S-a" will insert a 'a'. However, with these bind commands:

 \bind "C-a" "self-insert a"  
 \bind "C-S-A" "self-insert A" 
 \bind "C-~S-a" "self-insert b"

You end up with these key mappings:

but you will never get 'b', i.e. the binding "C-~S-a" is never activated.
If the first bindings is removed, i.e. with only these bindings

 \bind "C-S-A" "self-insert A"  
 \bind "C-~S-a" "self-insert b"

then you get these key mappings:

Excerpt from "Customization.lyx", section 3.3. Bindings

Below is a simple copy of section 3.3. in Customization.lyx, i.e. the section about bindings.

List of key names

This table lists some of key names that you can use in .bind-files. (See latinkeys-bind for some more odd keys)

The keypad:

Keyboard Customization