How to remap a single key?

Question

I have a broken key on my Mac's keyboard and I need to remap it to some other key, by double press. Temporarily.

It's not a special but an alphabet letter one. I want to remap it this way:

"f" (broken) --> "double a"

How can one do it? Preferably without any third-party tool.

update1

This hasn't worked - double a won't get replaced with f whenever I type "aa" anywhere on my laptop. I want it to replace double a with f on the fly.

If any third party tool is accepted, I would suggest Karabinar-Elements or HammerSpoon. — Tun, Oct 09 '20 at 15:27
Does this answer your question? Remap CapsLock to Delete on Sierra — Allan, Oct 10 '20 at 02:22
There are many existing questions/answers on remapping keys; many refer to 3rd party tools, but also show how to do this with the built in tool hidutil. The linked dupe is just one. Give that a go and update how that works out for you. — Allan, Oct 10 '20 at 02:25
"This hasn't worked - double a won't get replaced with f whenever I type "aa"" Which app did you try it in ? works for me in say Safari search bar — anki, Oct 10 '20 at 06:16
@anki why do you need the name of an app? there're millions of them — kosmosu05, Oct 10 '20 at 06:41
If you are using Word or another non-Apple app, you may need to set the text replacement in their own preferences, as some do not use Apple stuff for this (or for spell check, for example). — Tom Gewecke, Nov 10 '20 at 15:19

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 10 '20 at 15:17

0

If the broken key is one of the characters, not function, or modifier keys:

Set up a text replacement for say ZZ -> A (broken key).

System preferences > Keyboard > Text.

Word and other non-Apple apps can have their own text-replacement preferences that would have have to be set.

A long-winded way is to set up a "Service" or a Script Editor's "Script" to keystroke the key you need.

edited Nov 10 '20 at 15:17

Tom Gewecke

answered Oct 09 '20 at 17:54

anki

System preferences > Keyboard > Text. --> and? – kosmosu05 Oct 10 '20 at 03:25
@kosmosu05 Add a text replacement .. See edited answer – anki Oct 10 '20 at 06:14
2

This will only work in Cocoa based apps. For instance, it will work in Pages, but not in Word. – Allan Oct 11 '20 at 15:51
@Allan But Word has its own settings for this, no problem to do it there. – Tom Gewecke Nov 10 '20 at 15:21

1 Answers1