Tips for assigning keyboard shortcut & snippet triggers

InqScribe lets you create custom shortcut & snippet and assign them to a keystroke (or "trigger") of your choosing. Although you're free to assign a shortcut or snippet to any combination of keys, you might run into issues using pre-existing triggers.

In this article, we'll go through the "in use" triggers you should avoid as well as which triggers are generally available for assignment.

What triggers are already in use?

There are generally 2 types of triggers you'll want to keep in mind:

1. Pre-existing InqScribe shortcuts.

To avoid overlap, refer to the table of default InqScribe shortcuts below:

2. Systemwide shortcuts.

For example, CommandShift3 is already assigned as a systemwide shortcut on most Mac computers to take a screenshot. To avoid any problems, refer to the following list of trigger limitations from our shortcut documentation:

Windows Trigger Limitations
  • Existing system-wide hotkeys (e.g. print screen ) may not be used.
  • Avoid key combinations that are already mapped to menu items, like Ctrl; or CtrlO. Such combinations will trigger both the menu item and the shortcut, which probably isn't what you want.
Mac OS Trigger Limitations
  • Existing system-wide hotkeys (e.g. Exposé ) may not be used.
  • Be careful using F1-F4. On some Macs, these keys are automatically mapped to Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste.
  • Avoid key combinations that are already mapped to menu items, like command; or commandO. Such combinations will trigger both the menu item and the shortcut or snippet, which probably isn't what you want.
  • Avoid key combinations that are used to enter accented characters (for example, optionu, optione, optiona ). These combinations are handled by the OS in a special way, and while InqScribe can detect them, InqScribe cannot prevent them from also being typed into your transcript.

What keyboard triggers are not in use?

To avoid inadvertently triggering a shortcut or snippet command, we recommend using a modifier such as Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac). As you notice from the above InqScribe Shortcuts that are in use chart, many triggers are already assigned. Note that you can also combine the Ctrl or Command modifier with another modifier, such as the Shift key to open up more triggers.