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Hi all I would like to know if it's possible to add or change a keyboard shortcut to make brackets "[ ]". They are available by doing Alt + Shift + ( but I would like to change it or add one to just do Cmd+ ( for example at least one thing faster because in programming I will win a lot of time (in my opinion) haha. Thanks in advance ciao!

(I'm on MacOS Sierra)

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    You probably need to tell us what nationality your keyboard & layout are. On English layouts they have their own keys. support.apple.com/HT201794
    – Tetsujin
    Feb 23, 2018 at 8:34
  • Oh sorry I'm french and with the 'azerty' keyboard we need to do Alt + Shift + ( and I'd just like to do Cmd + ( or anything easier :')
    – Beno
    Feb 23, 2018 at 8:39
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    OK, probably Karabiner Elements though software recs are frowned on as answers, so I'll just leave it here ;)
    – Tetsujin
    Feb 23, 2018 at 8:48
  • Mmh ok but it's not really what I want because with KE I can just replace one key with another and I want to replace one shortcut with another but it will do if I can't find a better solution. Thank you guy !
    – Beno
    Feb 23, 2018 at 9:03
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    Since most programming happens in english anyway, it might be worth to consider adding the U.S. keyboard in the settings and using a shortcut to switch between them (discussions.apple.com/message/17760654#message17760654). However, that would be probably a bigger challenge, than just getting used to press 3 buttons simultaneously ...
    – leun4m
    Feb 23, 2018 at 10:23

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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On latest MacBook Pro it works like this:

  • ⌥ alt+5 : [

  • ⌥ alt+6 : ]

  • ⌥ alt+8 : {

  • ⌥ alt+9 : }

I would love to have them as shortcuts on the touch bar together with the pipe-symbol | (= ⌥ alt+7) and the backslash \ (= ⌥ alt+Shift+7)!

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  • Honestly, I have the last M1 Pro, I still can't understand why it doesn't appear on the keyboard. Is it something bad ? I am really curious.
    – Vincent Decaux
    Jan 4, 2022 at 20:45
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alt + 8 worked for me in MacBook Pro and I believe for programming it's convenient.

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    Thank you but it doesn't work for me :/
    – Beno
    Mar 26, 2019 at 13:42
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In my case using macbook pro 2019 13-inch azerty

option + shift + ( : [
option + shift + ) : ]
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I finally found out the easiest way to write square braket, braces and perenthesis by mac type keypad. alt+shift= {, only alt= [ and shift= (

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    Welcome to Super User! Please expand your answer to provide more details.
    – Ξένη Γήινος
    Jan 2, 2021 at 9:54
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I have been searching for this myself, and I think there's not one specific answer to this question. I think it depends on the keyboard layout (Language). I have MacBook Pro 2018 with Norwegian keyboard, and I found that the following key combinations works for me:

Option + 8 = [
Option + 9 = ]
Option + Shift + 8 = {
Option + Shift + 9 = }

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