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How to swap Ctrl, Cmd, CapsLock and Option buttons on macOS?

How to swap Ctrl, Cmd, CapsLock and Option buttons on macOS? Users who switched to Mac from Windows computers often ask themselves the question: “How to remap some buttons on the keyboard?”. Most of all, they are interested in the ability to swap ⌘Cmd and Ctrl. Many users, even after months of working on a Mac, cannot get used to shortcuts with the ⌘Cmd button.

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For quick copy, paste, cut or selection on Windows, you used the well-known combinations Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, Ctrl + X and Ctrl + A, while on the Mac, out of habit, the little finger of the left hand reaches into the corner of the keyboard. As a result, you have to look down at the buttons and hold down ⌘Cmd with your thumb.

Apparently, macOS developers are familiar with similar problems and user complaints. The system has a standard mechanism for remapping some keys.

How to change the assignment of the Ctrl, ⌘Cmd, CapsLock and ⌥Option (Alt) keys on macOS

In order to change the desired buttons, perform the following steps:

  1. Open macOS System Preferences;
  2. Go to the Keyboard section;
  3. Click “Keyboard Shortcuts…”.
  4. In the window that appears, select the menu “Modification keys …”.
  5. Reassign the desired buttons.

In older versions of macOS, the path is slightly different – “System Preferences” → “Keyboard” → “Keyboard Tab” → “Modify Keys …”:

As you can see, in this dialog menu you can change assignments for five buttons: CapsLock, Ctrl, ⌘Cmd, ⌥Option (Alt) and Fn (Function). For our case, to change the assignment of Ctrl and Command, set Ctrl to ⌘Cmd and vice versa. Please note that you can not change the positions of the buttons, but simply duplicate one of them. For example, specify the value ⌘Cmd for the Ctrl button, and do not reassign the ⌘Cmd button itself. In addition, in this menu, you can disable any of these keys. To do this, select the item “No action”.