How to disable typing special characters when pressing option key in Mac OS X? [closed]

Answer 1

I was having the exact same problem, in the exact same IDE.

The solution to this is to download Ukulele from here:

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=ukelele

In the application you can create a new keylayout using File -> New from current source. Pressing Option will show you in the place for Option-b a red colored key - meaning it's a dead key. Double clicking it will allow you to change it from a dead key to an output key. When prompted for the output you can put in the same thing (by pressing Option-b).

Thus it will output the same character but will not be considered a dead key, so Intellij can bind it as a shortcut.

To enable your new layout you must save it into your ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts (it helps if you give it a new name with Keyboard -> Set Keyboard Name), and then enable it from System Preferences -> Language & Text.

Answer 2

I have found a decent workaround. I use the software Karabiner to change my right enter key to control when held down.

So what iv done is remapped the option key to option+cmd+control, as I'm not aware of any commands that use all three modifiers. Now I can map the right shortcuts without any characters. But you could also map to additional keys if required

Add this to your private.xml: (in between root)

<item>
<name>Change option Key to cmd + control + option</name>
<identifier>private.optiontoelse</identifier>
<autogen>__KeyToKey__ 
    KeyCode::OPTION_L, 
    KeyCode::OPTION_L, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L | ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L</autogen>
<autogen>__KeyToKey__ 
    KeyCode::OPTION_R, 
    KeyCode::OPTION_R, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_R | ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R</autogen>
</item>

Then reload the xml and enable the option at the top of the 'Change Key' tab

https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/

Answer 3

Using the Apple JRE, the Option key combinations will work as shortcuts instead of inserting special characters.

Download link: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572?locale=en_US

It's an old outdated JRE (based on Java 6) but as of October 2015 it's still what seems to work best w/ my JetBrains RubyMine installation. (Anything else, the keys go back to inserting special characters.)

Answer 4

I have a solution! Place a file at: ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict as:

/* ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict */
 {
    /* Additional Emacs bindings */
    "~f" = "moveWordForward:";
    "~b" = "moveWordBackward:";
    "~<" = "moveToBeginningOfDocument:";
    "~>" = "moveToEndOfDocument:";
    "~v" = "pageUp:";
    "~d" = "deleteWordForward:";
    "~^h" = "deleteWordBackward:";
    "~\010" = "deleteWordBackward:";  /* Option-backspace */
    "~\177" = "deleteWordBackward:";  /* Option-delete */

    /* Escape should really be complete: */
    "\033" = "complete:";  /* Escape */        
}

It will hide the original textual input. But you can still get that by using Ctrl-Q before the combination. So Ctrl-Q Alt-f gives me ƒ for example. In fact, I'm writing this answer with the option keybindings enabled. You can also add other keys you like! Official reference: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/EventOverview/TextDefaultsBindings/TextDefaultsBindings.html

Here is a good list of things you can bind to: https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/selectors.html

Oh, by the way, if you bind a key to an undefined action, your application will have a memory leak and your system will run out of memory in a few seconds. Tested on el capitan, in the hard way.