There is no alt button in macos

[qballer]

MacOS alt button is mapped out to be the options key. While I see the awesome new UI which has this fancy new Alt option I can not actually use it. Is it possible to map the Alt button to options in case we load in Mac?

[bbil]

I ran into the same issue (back on a Mac for work), the issue is not this application, it is MacOS itself. What you need to do is tell Terminal or iTerm to use the option key in a non-mac way.

iterm -- set left option key as Esc+ (not sure why Meta doesn't work):

Terminal -- use option as meta key:

[bbil]

Doing the above means you now can't enter special characters using option/alt, like alt+j -> triangle. But, that's not something I do ever.

[believer]

If you use kitty set macos_option_as_alt yes in your kitty settings. Unfortunately, this breaks entering things like @ and ~ (Swedish keyboard layout).

[steamfan]

The problem that you can not enter special characters anymore depends on the keyboard you are using: on a german keyboard you need alt to type various often used special characters

alt + n gives you ~. This might be often used to abbreviate the home directory. alt + 5 and alt + 6 gives you [ and ] alt + 8 and alt +9 gives you {and } alt + l gives you @

[laingc]

One solution to this would be to allow multiple modifier keys (e.g. Alt + Ctrl or Alt + Shift).

[trst]

If you use kitty set macos_option_as_alt yes in your kitty settings. Unfortunately, this breaks entering things like @ and ~ (Swedish keyboard layout).

@believer To add on here, the options for Kitty's macos_option_as_alt config are left, right and both. This way if you need access to special characters, you could set only the right Option key to act as Alt for instance. More details on the Kitty docs.

[qballer]

for alacritty users, based of this https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/62#issuecomment-347552058 Last two lines are of my own making and they map "alt+[" and "alt +]"

key_bindings:
  - { key: A,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1ba"                       }
  - { key: B,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bb"                       }
  - { key: C,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bc"                       }
  - { key: D,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bd"                       }
  - { key: E,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1be"                       }
  - { key: F,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bf"                       }
  - { key: G,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bg"                       }
  - { key: H,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bh"                       }
  - { key: I,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bi"                       }
  - { key: J,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bj"                       }
  - { key: K,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bk"                       }
  - { key: L,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bl"                       }
  - { key: M,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bm"                       }
  - { key: N,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bn"                       }
  - { key: O,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bo"                       }
  - { key: P,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bp"                       }
  - { key: Q,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bq"                       }
  - { key: R,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1br"                       }
  - { key: S,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bs"                       }
  - { key: T,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bt"                       }
  - { key: U,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bu"                       }
  - { key: V,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bv"                       }
  - { key: W,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bw"                       }
  - { key: X,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bx"                       }
  - { key: Y,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1by"                       }
  - { key: Z,         mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1bz"                       }
  - { key: A,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bA"                       }
  - { key: B,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bB"                       }
  - { key: C,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bC"                       }
  - { key: D,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bD"                       }
  - { key: E,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bE"                       }
  - { key: F,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bF"                       }
  - { key: G,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bG"                       }
  - { key: H,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bH"                       }
  - { key: I,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bI"                       }
  - { key: J,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bJ"                       }
  - { key: K,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bK"                       }
  - { key: L,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bL"                       }
  - { key: M,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bM"                       }
  - { key: N,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bN"                       }
  - { key: O,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bO"                       }
  - { key: P,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bP"                       }
  - { key: Q,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bQ"                       }
  - { key: R,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bR"                       }
  - { key: S,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bS"                       }
  - { key: T,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bT"                       }
  - { key: U,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bU"                       }
  - { key: V,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bV"                       }
  - { key: W,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bW"                       }
  - { key: X,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bX"                       }
  - { key: Y,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bY"                       }
  - { key: Z,         mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1bZ"                       }
  - { key: Key1,      mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b1"                       }
  - { key: Key2,      mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b2"                       }
  - { key: Key3,      mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b3"                       }
  - { key: Key4,      mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b4"                       }
  - { key: Key5,      mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b5"                       }
  - { key: Key6,      mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b6"                       }
  - { key: Key7,      mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b7"                       }
  - { key: Key8,      mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b8"                       }
  - { key: Key9,      mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b9"                       }
  - { key: Key0,      mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b0"                       }
  - { key: Space,     mods: Control,   chars: "\x00"                        } # Ctrl + Space
  - { key: Grave,     mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b`"                       } # Alt + `
  - { key: Grave,     mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b~"                       } # Alt + ~
  - { key: Period,    mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b."                       } # Alt + .
  - { key: Key8,      mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b*"                       } # Alt + *
  - { key: Key3,      mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b#"                       } # Alt + #
  - { key: Period,    mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b>"                       } # Alt + >
  - { key: Comma,     mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b<"                       } # Alt + <
  - { key: Minus,     mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b_"                       } # Alt + _
  - { key: Key5,      mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b%"                       } # Alt + %
  - { key: Key6,      mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b^"                       } # Alt + ^
  - { key: Backslash, mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b\\"                      } # Alt + \
  - { key: Backslash, mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b|"                       } # Alt + |

  - { key: Period,   mods: Alt,       chars: "\x1b."                        }
  - { key: Key8,     mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b*"                        }
  - { key: Key3,     mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b#"                        }
  - { key: Key1,     mods: Alt,     chars: "\x1b1"                          }
  - { key: Key2,     mods: Alt,     chars: "\x1b2"                          }
  - { key: Key3,     mods: Alt,     chars: "\x1b3"                          }
  - { key: Key4,     mods: Alt,     chars: "\x1b4"                          }
  - { key: Key5,     mods: Alt,     chars: "\x1b5"                          }
  - { key: Key6,     mods: Alt,     chars: "\x1b6"                          }
  - { key: Key7,     mods: Alt,     chars: "\x1b7"                          }
  - { key: Key8,     mods: Alt,     chars: "\x1b8"                          }
  - { key: Key9,     mods: Alt,     chars: "\x1b9"                          }
  - { key: Key0,     mods: Alt,     chars: "\x1b0"                          }
  - { key: Period,   mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b>"                       } # Alt + >
  - { key: Comma,    mods: Alt|Shift, chars: "\x1b<"                       } # Alt + <
  - { key: LBracket,    mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b["                       } # Alt + [
  - { key: RBracket,    mods: Alt, chars: "\x1b]"                       } # Alt + ]

[poliorcetics]

See #1343

[felipesere]

Alacritty 0.12-rc1 (there is an rc2 out already) supports option_as_alt on macOS now.

[bric3]

@bbil Did you setup iterm for recognizing Alt + → ?

[bmikaili]

Neither the remappings by @qballer nor @felipesere work for me. Wondering if others are having the same issue?

[merikan]

@bmikaili which terminal are you using? Take a look at https://zellij.dev/documentation/faq.html#i-am-a-macos-user-how-can-i-use-the-alt-key

[smileart]

I have my left option configured as alt in kitty macos_option_as_alt left but still can't use alt+[ for stacked panes as was explained here: https://zellij.dev/news/stacked-panes-swap-layouts Any solutions or progress on this one? 🤔

[tgross35]

For anyone using wezterm, you need the following to get skipping by word:

config.keys = {
  {
    key = 'LeftArrow',
    mods = 'ALT',
    action = wezterm.action.SendKey {
      key = 'b',
      mods = 'ALT',
    },
  },
  {
    key = 'RightArrow',
    mods = 'ALT',
    action = wezterm.action.SendKey {
      key = 'f',
      mods = 'ALT',
    },
  }
}

However, I still have an issue with zellij that isn't present outside of it. Option+Left correctly goes one word to the left, but Option+Right enters some sort of mode that jumps to the next character (Option+Right then a will go to the next character a after that position), or deletes (Option+Right followed by Right deletes to the end of the line). This happens even when zellij is locked. Does anyone know why that would be?