How to remap eject key on MacBook keyboard to "delete"?

Question

I own a first generation MacBook Air and this has bothered me since the beginnings.

When I bought this thing, I was sure I'm not going to carry a DVD drive. I don't use it. WiFi has worked pretty well for me so far and in fact, lack of optical drive was the least problem I had with it (the worst was the heat and CPU frequency reduction).

But there's a useless eject key right in a place suited for a great delete key (the real delete, in PC terminology, of course). It'll help a lot when you're developing in Xcode. I feel it's handled at a lower level than standard keyboard shortcuts. Is there any way to remap it to delete?

The *real delete* is called *forward delete* on a Mac. But that doesn't help you of course. ;-) — Arjan, Jul 15 '09 at 15:29

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 15 '09 at 08:56

7

Not related to remapping, but Ctrl D will do a forward delete in most OS X text fields.

answered Jul 15 '09 at 08:56

cobbal

1,637
15
13

1

Ack, I wouldn't want to get into the habit of typing ctrl D or I'd type it at the command line... – Ether Dec 13 '09 at 08:19
1

does forward delete on command line too. It doesn't send EOF unless you're at the end of the line. – cobbal Dec 17 '09 at 08:01
this is saviour, `fn`+`delete` is always stressful for hands – Ashwani Agarwal May 23 '16 at 10:38

Daan · Answer 2 · 2009-07-15T09:32:46.123

4

I have no experience with the application myself, but perhaps DoubleCommand can help you?

Update

According to their website, KeyRemap4MacBook should be able to map the Eject button to a forward delete.

This MacRumors forum also has a thread on the same subject.

edited Jul 15 '09 at 09:32

answered Jul 15 '09 at 08:52

Daan

600
1
5
9

It doesn't support eject key. – mmx Jul 15 '09 at 09:11
You may be able to edit the source so it does: I use a custom version of DoubleCommand that maps Caps Lock to Escape, for instance. – Matthew Schinckel Jul 15 '09 at 10:43
1

KeyRemap4MacBook (together with NoEjectDelay) works but the problem is, you can't hold eject to delete a long string. It just removes a single character each time. – mmx Aug 05 '09 at 22:56

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 15 '09 at 15:33

2

I also dislike using fn for any key, so I basically stopped using Forward Delete altogether. When I need the Forward Delete I often hold down Shift and use the cursor keys to make a selection, and then press Delete. Actually, I do this for every text I want to delete -- those cursor keys go into all directions. :-)

answered Jul 15 '09 at 15:33

Arjan

30,974
14
75
112

Wow, apparently I down-voted this, but I have no recollection of doing so. And now it's too late to undo it. Sorry :( – Lawrence Velázquez Nov 29 '09 at 22:27
You don't have to shift select. Just do rightkey and delete. For multiple chars, its faster to fly to the location using win/opt arrow and then followed by win/opt delete. Shift key is annoying. – Pacerier Aug 22 '17 at 22:56

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 24 '15 at 18:50

2

Karabiner (which replaced KeyRemap4MacBook) does provide a means to remap the Eject key. Just tested it with El Capitan GM, and it works fine.

answered Sep 24 '15 at 18:50

Movie Slate

21
1

And like karabiner says: the eject key has a delay. Use [NoEjectDelay](https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/noejectdelay.html) to get rid of the delay. – Cristan Aug 05 '16 at 09:19
I don't find the eject key in the simple modification list – Martin Braun Jan 11 '18 at 13:49

How to remap eject key on MacBook keyboard to "delete"?

4 Answers4

Update