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Occasionally we want to move a key's function to another key on the keyboard - say you want to disable Caps Lock, or move Control to Caps Lock, or assign the Fn function to Enter. More to the point, when using the Mac mini with a PC-style keyboard, you might want to swap the locations of the Command and Option keys to match that of Apple keyboards. DoubleCommand fills this need with capable aplomb.

DoubleCommand is named for its original function, mapping the Enter key on earlier PowerBooks to the Command function, thereby yielding the (then-missing) second Command key. It has since grown into an über-keyremapper, swapping eighteen different combinations of metakey and function keys hither and yon. In addition to swapping relative locations of the Command, Option, Control, Enter and Fn keys, specific options can disable Caps Lock, map backslash or shift-backspace to forward delete, or provide PC-style behavior for the Home and End keys.

Keymap settings can be applied to the active user session (via the Activate button), saved for the user account at login (User), or saved for the entire computer at boot (System). When saving a mapping for the User, a DoubleCommand.pref file is saved to your ~/Library/Preferences folder. When saving for the System, the file is saved into the /Library/StartupItems/DoubleCommand folder; you will be prompted to authenticate with an OS X administrator account for verification.

DoubleCommand runs as a kernel extension, so be sure to verify its compatibility with any Mac OS X updates. Version 1.5, for instance, was released for compatibility with 10.3 Panther.

That warning aside, our practical experience has shown DoubleCommand to be a stable, reliable solution to remapping keys. The price can't be beat, and source code is available if you're inclined to add features. The author provides a Paypal address, should you feel compelled to send a token of appreciation.

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