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Bug? Keyboard shortcuts for Preview.app won't work.

I have been using this keyboard shorcut setting since Tiger and it has never caused a problem but just worked impeccably.


However, things are not like that since I had my iMac(Mid-2010 model) upgraded to Lion.


Other work find but only "Preview.app" won't listen to the keyboard shortcuts setting.


It's no miskate. There's no confilcting shortcuts and I examined it by all means to figure it out to be a bug.


I did a clean install and the first thing I did right after installation of Lion was trying shortcuts but it wouldn't work so the system mess can't be to blame.


Any help? Does Apple recognize this issue?

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User uploaded file

Posted on Jul 23, 2011 11:51 AM

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19 replies

Jul 25, 2011 8:41 AM in response to Netimoon

I am having exactly the same problem - I have never created a shortcut before, but preview just wont play along when I follow the instructions given to add a shortcut.


I am trying to add one to replicate the functionality of "Save As" by assigning cmd - Shift - S to Export…


Really annoying that this does not work as simply as it should. :-(

Jul 27, 2011 5:30 PM in response to Netimoon

I needed to replicate the functionality of "Save As" in Preview as well, and assigning "cmd-shift-s" to "Export…" didn't work, when applied to the "Preview.app" only.


I found a temporary solution:

Apply the keyboard shortcut to "All Applications" instead of just the "Preview.app".


I don't know why the keyboard shortcuts won't work, when applied to the "Preview.app" only, but at least Preview listens to the shortcuts applied to all applications.


(This may of course interfere with other apps using the same shortcut.)

Aug 5, 2011 2:08 AM in response to Netimoon

Also seeing this issue in TextEdit. It appears to be related to application sandboxing, as both Preview and TextEdit use this feature (and few other Apple apps use it -- for example, Safari, iChat, Finder). (To see if an app is using sandboxing, you can use Activity Monitor: right-click (or Control-click) on the table column header and choose "Sandbox" from the contextual menu).


User uploaded file


Application-specific keyboard shortcuts are saved in the application's own .plist preference file, while keyboard shortcuts for "All Applications" are saved in the .GlobalPreferences.plist file.

Sep 27, 2011 7:58 AM in response to MarkDouma®

This issue is really annoying. Makes the custom keyboard shortcuts panel in system preferences even harder to use efficiently (I've been wanting Apple to improve that for years, add application icons and sort alphabetically to make shortcuts for particular apps easier to find, improve conflict detection, list goes on).


Can everyone who has this issue (having to use set custom keyboard shortcuts for 'all applications' to set them for sandboxed apps like Preview) submit a bug report/feedback request. I know Apple never respond so it's prety unsatisfying, but the more people who complain, the more change of it being fixed.


http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Dec 13, 2011 8:37 AM in response to Netimoon

I spent 55 minutes on the phone with Apple Technical Support on this problem and they could neither solve it nor comprehend it. This is complete bs. This is a bug. Period. I am sick of Apple Support not either being capable of recognizing the bugs, acknowledging them, or knowing workarounds. I want that hour of my life back Apple. This solution worked flawlessly.

Mar 2, 2012 10:51 AM in response to Netimoon

Same problem over here, on several machines - this is obviously a Lion bug.


The odd thing is that (after discovering this thread) I opened com.apple.Preview.plist, and the shortcuts I defined in the Keyboard Preferences pane are there - but Preview does not display/use them in the menus.


Very annoying. Hope this gets fixed with Mountain Lion, or even earlier.


(I wouldn't go so far and call Lion “Apple's Vista”, though - that's just brutal. 😉 )

User uploaded file

Nov 11, 2012 9:20 PM in response to MarkDouma®

Thanks Mark, this had mystified me and at least knowing that it is related to sandboxing introduces SOME logic into it. Though it's still dumb that it's not fixed.


Bug report submitted.


On the other hand...I'm still using 10.7.4, because I didn't like the required update to Safari (with RSS gone). But does anyone know if this shortcuts issue still exists in 10.7.5?

Bug? Keyboard shortcuts for Preview.app won't work.

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