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The keyboard

How fast keys repeat, keyboard layouts for other languages, and changing or adding a keyboard shortcut.

On this page

What it is

System Settings > Keyboard sets how your keyboard behaves: how quickly a held key repeats, which layouts you type in (for example English and German, or a layout with accents), and every keyboard shortcut of WolOS.

System Settings > Keyboard: 1 marks Key repeat rate (Slow to Fast), 2 Delay until repeat (Long to Short), 3 the row Keyboard Shortcuts, Change or add shortcuts for WolOS, 4 Input Sources with U.S., Default, and Add Input Source…, 5 the Try it field.

Why WolOS does it this way

Shortcuts are only quick if they are the keys your fingers already know. So WolOS uses The key with the Windows logo, shown as ⌘ in WolOS. Super with a letter gives the app in front its command, so Super+C copies in every app. (the Windows key) as its command key, the way Command works on a Mac: Super with a letter always goes to the app in front, Ctrl keeps the meaning each app gives it, and every shortcut can be changed and set back.

How

Key repeat

SettingDefaultWhat it does
Key repeat rate (1)25 a second, between Slow and FastHow quickly a held key types the letter again.
Delay until repeat (2)0.4 seconds, between Long and ShortHow long you hold a key before it starts repeating. Make it longer if letters come out twice when you type slowly.

Type in Try it (5), "Type here to test", to feel the change before you leave the pane.

Keyboard layouts (input sources)

An input source is a keyboard layout: which letter each key types. The one you chose while installing is listed under Input Sources (4) as Default.

  1. Click Add Input Source… and choose a language and layout.
  2. To switch while you type, press Ctrl+Space: "Press ⌃Space to switch to the next input source."
  3. To remove one, click Remove on its row.

Change a keyboard shortcut

  1. Click Keyboard Shortcuts (3), "Change or add shortcuts for WolOS".
  2. The page starts with what the symbols mean: ⌘ is "Command: the Windows or Super key", ⌥ is "Option: Alt", ⌃ is "Control: Ctrl" and ⇧ is "Shift". Then every shortcut, grouped: Search, Overview, Windows, Apps, Screenshots and the rest.
  3. Click a shortcut and press the new keys. If another shortcut already has them, WolOS asks whether to swap the two.
  4. The reset arrow on a row brings back that shortcut's key; Restore Defaults at the bottom brings back all of them.
  5. To add your own, a custom shortcut opens an app or runs a command; it needs a name and what to run.
Keyboard Shortcuts: the legend of the symbols ⌘, ⌥, ⌃ and ⇧, then Search (Show Search, ⌘Space) and Overview (Overview, ⌃↑; Move left a space; Move right a space; Switch to Desktop 1, 2, 3).

Press Shift+Super+/ anywhere for a sheet of every shortcut. The complete list, with every key in words, is in the Reference.

The shortcuts worth learning first

KeysWhat they do
Super+SpaceSearch
Super+TabSwitch apps
Super+,System Settings
Super+ReturnA terminal
Super+C, Super+VCopy, paste
Shift+Super+VClipboard history
Shift+Super+3, 4, 5Screenshot of the screen, an area, or the toolbar
Ctrl+Super+QLock the screen
Ctrl+Super+N, D, INight Shift, Do Not Disturb, Stay Awake
Ctrl+Alt+Left, RightThe desktop to the left or right

A worked example

Alice writes in English and in German. She clicks Add Input Source…, chooses German, and from then on presses Ctrl+Space to switch between the two whenever she changes language. She uses Super+Return for the terminal so rarely that she gives it Shift+Super+T instead: she clicks the shortcut, presses the new keys, and it is changed.

If something goes wrong

What you seeWhat to do
The wrong letters appearThe other input source is on. Press Ctrl+Space, or check Input Sources.
Letters come out twiceMake Delay until repeat longer.
A shortcut does nothingIt may have been changed or given to another action. Restore Defaults in Keyboard Shortcuts brings back WolOS's keys.
An app's own shortcut no longer worksA WolOS shortcut has the same keys. Give the WolOS shortcut other keys, and the app gets them back.
The volume or brightness keys do nothingSome keyboards send them only with the Fn key held.
The Dock and the menu barLooks and themes