Xfce Forum

Infected Neuron

Member

Registered: 2015-07-15

Posts: 16

Making keyboard shortcuts that function as arrow keys

I want to make some keyboard shortcuts that will function as arrow keys so that my hands will never have to leave the home row to move the cursor around. In the Application Shortcuts menu I see options to make keyboard shortcuts that will launch applications using commands, but I can't find any options to create a shortcut that will do something as simple as moving the cursor left or right while I am typing. Do I have to create a command that will move the cursor around to create the shortcuts or is there another alternative?

ozjd

Member

From: Hawkesbury NSW Australia

Registered: 2012-02-05

Posts: 560

Website

Re: Making keyboard shortcuts that function as arrow keys

Look at Settings - Window Manager - Keyboard ( as different from Settings - Keyboard).

Infected Neuron

Member

Registered: 2015-07-15

Posts: 16

Re: Making keyboard shortcuts that function as arrow keys

I went to Settings - Window Manager - Keyboard. I saw the up, down, left, right commands and the options to edit those shortcuts, yet for some reason the new shortcuts that I made did not work. I made sure that there were no other conflicting keyboard shortcuts. Are the up, down, left, right commands the same as the arrow keys or are they something else?

ozjd

Member

From: Hawkesbury NSW Australia

Registered: 2012-02-05

Posts: 560

Website

Re: Making keyboard shortcuts that function as arrow keys

I would guess they were the same but like you I found changing them didn't work. Sorry not sure what's going on there.

Infected Neuron

Member

Registered: 2015-07-15

Posts: 16

Re: Making keyboard shortcuts that function as arrow keys

That's okay. It's not a huge problem, it's more of a small convenience.

Clio

Member

Registered: 2011-01-25

Posts: 102

Re: Making keyboard shortcuts that function as arrow keys

Have a look on the program "xdotool", perhaps is it that what you search about.

Infected Neuron

Member

Registered: 2015-07-15

Posts: 16

Re: Making keyboard shortcuts that function as arrow keys

I installed xdotool, yet I can't find it nor launch it...

Clio

Member

Registered: 2011-01-25

Posts: 102

Re: Making keyboard shortcuts that function as arrow keys

It's not a graphical program, you must it started from the console.
man xdotool say "NAME         xdotool - command-line X11 automation tool"

Infected Neuron

Member

Registered: 2015-07-15

Posts: 16

Re: Making keyboard shortcuts that function as arrow keys

I completely overlooked the description (I should have examined it more closely). I read the manual page for xdotool (this time more thoroughly) and although it is indeed capable of simulating the arrow keys, I could not find an option to set it up so it would send an arrow key every time I used a keyboard shortcut. The man page did say that xdotool is capable of reading scripts, however I don't know how to write scripts that would do what I want to accomplish and even if I did write a script that could do this, it wouldn't be completely guaranteed that it would work since the manual states that script mode still has some rough and unfinished edges.