Remove Alt-S keybinding

Question

In IntelliJ IDEA for Windows there are lots of keybindings that take you to the menu bar. For example Alt-S takes you to the VCS menu. I would like to remove this binding. The problem is I can't seem to find it to remove it.

The context (orthogonal to the question) is that there are certain standard key combinations that other Cursive users use, and I would like to use the same keystrokes as everyone else. Alt-S seems to be covering one of these key combinations. Other non-Windows users do not seem to have this problem.

As it happens the particular keystrokes I am looking to set up are for the commands: Raise, Splice, Split and Sexpr aware kill.

Edit I found the correct documentation you need to make Alt+S splice rather than go to the VCS menu, so please see my answer.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

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This is not Intellij's behavior, it's coming from Windows. Windows allows you to hit alt, and then select items from the menu bar based on the first letter.

I was poking around and it looks like you'll need to use some kind of key remapping software that modifies the registry to get the behavior that you want. I've seen Sharpkeys, AutoHotkeys, and KeyTweak all mentioned as possible candidates.

Make AutoHotKey ignore Alt as menu key

I've been using AutoHotkey already, so I added this line to my script and it fixed this annoying behavior in almost all applications:

~LAlt Up:: return

edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

Community

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answered Dec 23 '15 at 03:21

Jazzepi

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It is a Windows convention that has to be coded, certainly in all the desktop programming I've studied. I think the IntelliJ people should have given us a way to turn this off from within IntelliJ. – Chris Murphy Dec 23 '15 at 16:55
I don't disagree :) You're always welcome to open an enhancement request. They're actually pretty responsive. You do have to login to create an issue though. https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issues/IDEA – Jazzepi Dec 23 '15 at 21:05
Okay have done that: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-149772. How do you make the AutoHotkey script run every time start up machine, or do you only need to run it once and your OS has changed forever? – Chris Murphy Dec 24 '15 at 01:32
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I haven't personally used auto hotkey but it looks like it has to run persistently in the background. If you're using windows you can generally drop whatever a shortcut to whatever program you want to start at startup into your Startup folder in the start menu. – Jazzepi Dec 24 '15 at 04:30
I installed an got directory `C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey`. This directory is supposed to be a `startup folder`. I put a file with the extension `.ahk` containing the line `~LAlt Up:: return` into it. I restarted my machine, started IntelliJ and found the functionality to be same as before - Alt-S takes me to the menu. – Chris Murphy Jan 01 '16 at 10:46

Chris Murphy · Answer 2 · 2016-02-07T06:55:20.727

I just worked this out when setting up Cursive on a Linux machine. I should have been reading these instructions. But HAVE TO PRESS APPLY. Does it say it clearly enough?? - When you press [Apply] a copy is made of the keybindings map and this copy is put into effect. As shipped, these bindings are not in effect at all. So you have to make a copy and apply it. This is even if you do not need to remove/override an existing keybinding.

Remove Alt-S keybinding

2 Answers2