BUG: KEYBOARD SHORTCUT KEYS DO NOT ALWAYS ACTIVATE A SERVICE (A WORKFLOW)

BUG: KEYBOARD SHORTCUT KEYS DO NOT ALWAYS ACTIVATE A SERVICE (A WORKFLOW)

When you assign a keyboard shortcut to a Service (such as a Service Workflow created in Automator) using the System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts, if that shortcut key combination includes the Command key, pressing that shortcut will always successfully activate the Service. No problem there.

However, shortcut key combinations that do not include the Command key (for example, the shortcut key combo Ctrl-Shift-D) WILL NOT activate the Service in any newly opened application, until you click on the Services Menu option in that application.

As soon as you click on the application's Services Menu, this seems to bind the shortcut key combo to the Service, and thereafter, that keyboard shortcut will activate the Service in that particular app. But if you then quit and reopen the app, you'll find the Service will once again lose its binding to the shortcut key combination and will thus fail to work again.

This means that shortcut key combinations such as Ctrl-D, Ctrl-Shift-D, F15, Alt-F15, etc are not really viable shortcuts for Services, because they will not work in any newly-opened application until you click on the Services Menu in that application.

This bug thus greatly limits the shortcuts that you can employ for Services, because you can only reliably use shortcut key combos that contain the Command key. This is a fault that Apple really needs to fix. This is a very old glitch: I notice it is present in Snow Leopard 10.6.8, as well as Yosemite 10.10.1.

This bug does not apply to application shortcuts, however, or to other shortcuts in the Shortcuts Preference Pane, just to Services shortcuts (including the Mac's default Services, or any Services you make yourself using Workflows on the Automator software).

To give some examples:

The following keyboard shortcuts for Services WILL NOT work until you click on the Services Menu in the application you are using (and they will cease working again when you quit and reopen the app):

Ctrl-X

Ctrl-Shift-X

Ctrl-Alt-X

Ctrl-Alt-Shift-X

Alt-X

Alt-Shift-X

F1, F2, F3, etc

So until Apple fixes this bug, the above type of key combinations, that do not contain the Command key, are best avoided as shortcuts for Services. It is particularly unfortunate that function keys F1 to F19 do not work reliably, as these would make great single-key shortcuts to Services.

However, the following sort of keyboard shortcuts for Services, all containing the Command key, once set up will always work without fail:

Command-Alt-X

Command-Ctrl-X

Command-Shift-X

Command-Ctrl-Shift-X

Command-Alt-Ctrl-Shift-X

Command-F1, Command-F2, Command-F3, etc

So all the above can be reliably used as shortcuts to Services.

Here X denotes keyboard keys such as A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, =, \, [, etc.

Note that even for keyboard shortcuts containing the Command key, you may very occasionally need to click the Services Menu to get them to work initially in an application (notably in the System Preferences application itself). But if this is necessary, it is just required once when they are first set up, and thereafter the shortcuts containing the Command key will always work without fail.

The above was tested on Yosemite 10.10.1, but most likely applies to other versions of OS X as well, as I believe this bug is an old one. This bug is definitely present in Snow Leopard 10.6.8, because I have observed this same fault in an old Mac I have that runs Snow Leopard.

I have reported this bug to Apple, so hopefully they will see my report and act upon it. However, it might be an idea if others also report this problem of Services shortcuts not working property, to ensure that Apple get the message. You can report a bug to Apple via their bug feedback page here.