# Keyboard Tamer on Mac  - does it still work?



## Eagleburger (May 8, 2018)

I'm really sorry if this has been discussed recently!  Is there a way of getting Keyboard Tamer to work on Mac?  When I open it now I get an 'unable to locate mapping file' error.

I've tried to contact the author a couple of times but haven't heard back.

I know Victoria is a bit of an expert in this area, so thought I'd post here and see if she / you are able to advise me!  I have a feeling there may be a workaround using the TranslatedStrings_Lr-en_US.txt file...

Thanks very much 

Julian


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## Samoreen (May 9, 2018)

Hi Julian,

Please read this : Attn : Keyboard Tamer users / TranslatedStrings.txt issues  or this thread if you have never used Keyboard Tamer on your system or if the folder named Resources/en doesn't exist. In this message the following sentence

_This will not work on the Mac since LR no longer reads the localization files on this platform (did you say "regression testing" ?). _

is obsolete. The problem has been fixed since then, I think.

Things are rather similar for the Mac. You just have to find where the translatedstrings.txt file is located. Should be something like /Applications/Adobe Lightroom xxxxx/4.app/Contents/Resources/  . If you already have a translatedstrings.txt file, you just have to copy its contents to TranslatedStrings_Lr-en_US.txt . The trick is to make Keyboard tamer work with translatedstrings.txt and then copy the modifications to TranslatedStrings_Lr-en_US.txt. Before making further changes, copy the contents of TranslatedStrings_Lr-en_US.txt to translatedstrings.txt before launching KT.

_> I've tried to contact the author a couple of times but haven't heard back. _

Apparently, the product is no longer supported and the author can no longer be reached. But the trick described in the thread mentioned above works. I'm still using Keyboard Tamer with Lightroom 7.3.

Good luck.


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## PhilBurton (May 10, 2018)

Samoreen said:


> Hi Julian,
> 
> 
> Apparently, the product is no longer supported and the author can no longer be reached. But the trick described in the thread mentioned above works. I'm still using Keyboard Tamer with Lightroom 7.3.
> ...


The author can be reached via Timothy Armes, but there is nothing on his sparse website about LR plug-ins.  He has apparently moved on.

Phil


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## Samoreen (May 10, 2018)

The Keyboard Tamer plugin is still proposed here : Keyboard Tamer - Make Adobe Lightroom work for you by specifying your own keyboard shortcuts , not on Timothy's site. However, the development seems to have been stopped since May 2015 and Timothy no longer answers emails about the product. Which is a little disappointing when you have contributed to this donationware.


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## PhilBurton (May 10, 2018)

Samoreen said:


> The Keyboard Tamer plugin is still proposed here : Keyboard Tamer - Make Adobe Lightroom work for you by specifying your own keyboard shortcuts , not on Timothy's site. However, the development seems to have been stopped since May 2015 and Timothy no longer answers emails about the product. Which is a little disappointing when you have contributed to this donationware.


I agree with you that this behavior is disappointing, indeed unprofessional.  

He should have posted a note on the web page for all his discontinued plug-ins to state that they are no longer supported.


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## Eagleburger (May 11, 2018)

Samoreen

Thanks for your guidance.  On my Mac I have tried adding files called TranslatedStrings.txt and TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt in the \resources\en.lproj sub-folder but still get the 'unable to locate mapping file' error message.  I have followed the instructions correctly?  Any other ideas please?

Thanks very much 

Julian


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## Samoreen (May 11, 2018)

Julian,

Sorry but I have just noted that in Classic 7.3, KT has now difficulties reading TranslatedStrings.txt. This is probably because the menu structure in LR has changed. The shortcuts that I had already configured are still recognized in TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt but the configuration with the KT dialog has now become unreliable. My workaround is now probably obsolete.

Re-configuring the keyboard will now be more difficult and will be done by editing TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt directly. To do this, you'll have to identify the command to which you want to bind a given keystroke. This can be done by reading the TranslatedStrings_Lr_xx_XX.txt file for another language than english (because TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt originally doesn't exist). This first step can be very time consuming unless there's a language other than english that you can understand. Also, these files are big and it's hard to find the target command in them.

Then the line related to the target command must be copied to TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt (which has to be created the first time).

Finally, you have to edit the part of the line defining the keystroke. It's the "Key=xxxxxx" part.

It's a rather awkward procedure, I admit.

Even VSCO Keys is no longer working with version 7.3. 

Maybe you could have a look at LRKeys: Custom keyboard shortcuts for Lightroom Classic CC and Windows - LRKeys but LRKeys is rather expensive and it is not advertised as working with LR 7.3.


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## Eagleburger (May 12, 2018)

Samoreen

Thanks. This may explain why I still get the 'unable to locate mapping file' error message.  I think I would also struggle to adapt the French or Spanish version  to English.

All I really want to do is change the up and down arrow keys to increase / decrease exposure in LR - without always having to select exposure with the mouse in the first place.  I've used the keyboard shortcuts feature in OS X to do this but it isn't localised to LR - which is a bit of a pain!  Maybe there's a better way of achieving this??

It does look (unfortunately) that KT has become almost unusable, which is a real shame.  Of course, what we really need is for Adobe to give us a proper keyboard shortcut editor. No doubt many of us have submitted feature requests for this but, for some reason, Adobe resists.  I find this rather strange given that so many (all?) of their other apps have this - e.g. Photoshop and Premiere Pro.  Maybe we need to launch  'campaign' or petition to convince Adobe to fix this?

Julian


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## Eagleburger (May 12, 2018)

Perhaps some kind person out there has an English language version of the TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt file which they would be willing to share?


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## PhilBurton (May 12, 2018)

Tim Armes' plug-ins are hosted at the Photographers Toolbox.  I just sent an email to [email protected] informing them of the lack of Lightroom 7 support and asking why they continue to host his plug-ins.

Phil Burton


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## Samoreen (May 12, 2018)

Eagleburger said:


> Perhaps some kind person out there has an English language version of the TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt file which they would be willing to share?



Please have a look there :

Why no TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt file by default ? We need it. | Photoshop Family Customer Community

We have some sort of workable solution.


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## Tim Armes (May 16, 2018)

Hi all,

Thanks Phil for reminding me to update this plugin - it's been in the back of my mind for a long time.

I've just released a version that should help people out. It now works with LR Classic. A few caveats:


I no longer have a PC version to test with (just Mac) so if there are any problems then please let me know.
I have no easy way to know if any keyboard short cuts have been changed since previous versions of LR. This won't be a problem for users of languages other than English, but as you're aware I have to keep the english version of the keys file up to date manually, so I may miss things. It's a nightmare.
There are no doubt new short cuts that I haven't added yet. I can add them if needed.

Tim


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## Samoreen (May 16, 2018)

Hi Tim,

I tested the new version on my Windows 10 system and apparently, the customized shortcuts I had added to TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt are correctly taken into account.


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## Tim Armes (May 16, 2018)

Samoreen said:


> Hi Tim,
> 
> I tested the new version on my Windows 10 system and apparently, the customized shortcuts I had added to TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt are correctly taken into account.



Ah good, it's correctly finding LR Classic then


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## Eagleburger (May 16, 2018)

Thanks for the new version Tim.  I still get the 'unable to locate mapping file' error message on my Mac.  Am I doing something wrong I wonder?

Anyone got v3 to work on a Mac?

Thanks


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## Eagleburger (May 16, 2018)

Just created two .txt files in the resources\en.lproj folder and it now lives! Not sure whether it needs TranslatedStrings.txt or TranslatedStrings_Lr_en.US.txt but one of them did the trick!


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## johnrellis (May 17, 2018)

Tim Armes said:


> I have no easy way to know if any keyboard short cuts have been changed since previous versions of LR. This won't be a problem for users of languages other than English, but as you're aware I have to keep the english version of the keys file up to date manually, so I may miss things. It's a nightmare. There are no doubt new short cuts that I haven't added yet. I can add them if needed.



I wrote a script that extracts all the localizable strings (ZStrings) from the current version of Lightroom and generates TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt:

Dropbox - translatedstrings.zip 

Comparing Keyboard Tamer's "keys_en.txt" with TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt, it looks like there are a fair number of changes and shortcuts not reflected in "keys_en.txt".


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## Tim Armes (May 17, 2018)

Eagleburger said:


> Thanks for the new version Tim.  I still get the 'unable to locate mapping file' error message on my Mac.  Am I doing something wrong I wonder?
> 
> Anyone got v3 to work on a Mac?
> 
> Thanks



Hi,

Which version of LR are you using?


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## Tim Armes (May 17, 2018)

johnrellis said:


> I wrote a script that extracts all the localizable strings (ZStrings) from the current version of Lightroom and generates TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt:
> 
> Dropbox - translatedstrings.zip
> 
> Comparing Keyboard Tamer's "keys_en.txt" with TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt, it looks like there are a fair number of changes and shortcuts not reflected in "keys_en.txt".



Hi,

That's fantastic, thanks!


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## Tim Armes (May 17, 2018)

H


johnrellis said:


> I wrote a script that extracts all the localizable strings (ZStrings) from the current version of Lightroom and generates TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt:
> 
> Dropbox - translatedstrings.zip
> 
> Comparing Keyboard Tamer's "keys_en.txt" with TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt, it looks like there are a fair number of changes and shortcuts not reflected in "keys_en.txt".



Hi John,

That script was incredibly helpful. I've now updated the plugin with a new keys_en_lr7.txt file that includes all the key changes and includes keys that had previously been missed. Thank you!

Tim


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## MartinPrince (Oct 13, 2018)

Tim Armes said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Thanks Phil for reminding me to update this plugin - it's been in the back of my mind for a long time.
> 
> ...



Hi Tim, I've tried to install this on the PC version using Lightroom Classic 7.5. This is the error I get when it tries to install it. I realise that you no longer possess  a PC but fingers crossed it might be a straight forward fix looking at this error message.


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## Eagleburger (Mar 2, 2019)

Tim Armes said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Thanks Phil for reminding me to update this plugin - it's been in the back of my mind for a long time.
> 
> ...


Hi Tim

In case you still participate in this forum, I've noticed that your (excellent) Keyboard Tamer plugin no longer works again.We're getting the 'unable to locate mapping file' error message again'.  I (and I'm sure your other users) would really appreciate you having a look at this again...

Have others experienced the same issue please?

Thanks very much

Julian


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## Samoreen (Mar 2, 2019)

Eagleburger said:


> Have others experienced the same issue please?



KT is still working fine for me in LR 8.2.


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## Eagleburger (Mar 2, 2019)

Strange.  Samoreen - are you using Windows or Mac - in case that makes a difference


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## Eagleburger (Mar 2, 2019)

I've also written to Tim to see if he would be good enough to add a menu shortcut for temperature.  At the moment you can set shortcuts for all the basic sliders except temp and tint.


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## Eagleburger (May 8, 2018)

I'm really sorry if this has been discussed recently!  Is there a way of getting Keyboard Tamer to work on Mac?  When I open it now I get an 'unable to locate mapping file' error.

I've tried to contact the author a couple of times but haven't heard back.

I know Victoria is a bit of an expert in this area, so thought I'd post here and see if she / you are able to advise me!  I have a feeling there may be a workaround using the TranslatedStrings_Lr-en_US.txt file...

Thanks very much 

Julian


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## Samoreen (Mar 2, 2019)

Hi,
I'm using KT 3.10 under Windows 10 Pro 1809 but I don't think this should make any difference. I'm using an english version of Windows and all my software is in english. However my keyboard layout is french. So the shortcuts configuration file is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic CC\Resources\en\TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt and that's the file that is read and possibly modifed by KT. Did you check this location for your language (the filepath on the Mac is different, of course) ?


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## Samoreen (Mar 2, 2019)

Eagleburger said:


> I've also written to Tim to see if he would be good enough to add a menu shortcut for temperature. At the moment you can set shortcuts for all the basic sliders except temp and tint.



I don't think that Tim can do something about this. KT is here to ease the editing of the TranslatedStrings_Lr_xx_XX.txt file. All the modifications made by KT can be made manually in that file (this is what I did before using KT). But KT can only use the commands made available by Lightroom. It cannot add new commands. What is a "menu shortcut for temperature" ?  What command would you like to activate with such a keyboard shortcut ?


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## Eagleburger (Mar 2, 2019)

Here's a screenshot of the latest version (3.10) of the plugin - which is the same error message we had last year. I'm running Mac Mojave - with which I've had no end of trouble.


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## Eagleburger (Mar 2, 2019)

In more recent versions of the plug in Tim enabled changes to exposure, contrast, blacks, whites etc - by effectively creating menu commands which can be linked to shortcuts (in Mac only).  The only basic commands not covered are temperature and tint.


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## Samoreen (Mar 2, 2019)

Eagleburger said:


> Here's a screenshot of the latest version (3.10) of the plugin - which is the same error message we had last year. I'm running Mac Mojave - with which I've had no end of trouble.



By default, at least under Windows, Adobe Lightroom Classic CC\Resources\en\TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt does not exist (assuming you're using LR in english). Maybe your existing TranslatedStrings_Lr_en_US.txt file has been deleted during an LR update. You should have a look at the Resources/en  folder and check whether the file is here. If not, just create an empty text file with that name and KT should find it (you can also restore a backup if you have one).


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## Samoreen (Mar 2, 2019)

Eagleburger said:


> In more recent versions of the plug in Tim enabled changes to exposure, contrast, blacks, whites etc - by effectively creating menu commands which can be linked to shortcuts (in Mac only). The only basic commands not covered are temperature and tint.



What you are showing is a MacOS keyboard shortcut configuration tool. Not the KT configurator. AFAIK, KT is only acting on the LR keyboard configuration file. At least, this is the case under Windows. I would be surprised if KT on the Mac was able to add keyboard shortcuts at the application level.


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## rob211 (Mar 3, 2019)

I'm not a Keyboard Tamer user, but on macOS I do use the Keyboard preference pane to add custom keyboard shortcuts to Lr Classic.

A problem, however, is that you cannot override default Lr shortcuts. IOW, Open in Reference View is still going to be Shift-R. But you can add say a keyboard command to bring up a plugin; I have one that brings up the Any Tag "Tag" window.

How to Create Custom Keyboard Shortcuts in Mac OS if it helps.


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