How to change @ from Q to L, otherwise MacOS quits an app, if you accidentally press CMD + Q...

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How to change @ from Q to L, otherwise MacOS quits an app, if you accidentally press CMD + Q...

Hi, this is driving me crazy. Got a nice, Mac compatible keyboard. The standard Setup together with a German ISO Keyboard setting does not work for me:

Since that way, every time you accidentally slip and press command instead of option, macOS terminates the app / mail you are working on, if you want to type an "@". Btw, it just happened again, when typing this...

So I need a way to either change the @ position to Option + L, or preferably to turn off this "command + Q = Quit" Shortcut.

Is there any way?

Did not find anything useful on my search so far.

Thanks!

Posted on Mar 7, 2024 11:44 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,514 points

Mar 8, 2024 4:52 AM in response to D3nnisSZ

D3nnisSZ wrote: I need a way to ... change the @ position to Option + L,

For that you can just go to system settings > keyboard > text input > edit > input sources and replace "German Standard" by "German". The two layouts differ I think only on the option level.

Or if you prefer German Standard, you could customize it with

https://software.sil.org/ukelele/

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Answer 2

BobHarris

Level 9

57,119 points

Mar 24, 2024 7:19 AM in response to D3nnisSZ

For my web browsers I System Settings to change the keyboard shortcut from command-Q to Command-Shift-Option-Q for each browser.

In my case I would sometimes intend to close a tab via Command-W, but press the Q instead of W.

The need for additional modifiers to quit any of the web browsers I was using, kept me from accidentally quitting.

Most of the other apps I use generally prompt me if I have unsaved work when trying to Quit the app. But if I run across an app that looses my work because of an accidental Quit, I’ll change its Quit keyboard shortcut as well.

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Answer 3

Rudegar

Level 10

181,812 points

Mar 8, 2024 2:57 AM in response to D3nnisSZ

maybe

i want to disable command+q shortcut - Apple Community

or

keyboard - How to disable command-Q for Quit? - Ask Different (stackexchange.com)

more

change cmd+q hotkey - Google-

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Answer 4

D3nnisSZ Author

Level 1

12 points

Mar 24, 2024 4:51 AM in response to D3nnisSZ

Thanks for all the solutions. Turning "German - Standard" to "German" layout did not work in my case, because that meant, all other special keys got weird positions assigned, and I did not accidentally quit my applications anymore... but was not able to work with that configuration in general which is also not an option :-D

The trick regarding overwriting the shortcut worked very well. I am happy now :-)

I can live with Q as @ quite comfortably, as long as I don't quit and lose my work every 10th time I need an @ sign.

I have to say, really a strange choice by Apple to have that shortcut there, or to not making it possible for non-English users to change it directly. Since an option that makes you easily quit your applications, and also can be triggered unwillingly, seems more of an important UI miss ;-)

Thanks.

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Answer 5

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,514 points

Mar 24, 2024 5:35 AM in response to D3nnisSZ

D3nnisSZ wrote:

I have to say, really a strange choice by Apple to have that shortcut there

If you are referring to having @ on option Q, I think that is just apple conforming to the latest "German Standard":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_keyboard_layout

In any case, great that you found a fix!

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How to change @ from Q to L, otherwise MacOS quits an app, if you accidentally press CMD + Q...

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