Vidrio for Mac v1.20: custom keyboard shortcuts!

17 Jul 2020

Vidrio’s keyboard shortcuts have been completely rewritten, and are much friendlier! 🎉

Previously, Vidrio’s keyboard shortcuts were hard-coded. You can now customize the keyboard shortcuts in the new Preferences window. If you’re using another application with keyboard shortcuts, you can set Vidrio’s keyboard shortcuts so that they do not clash with that application. And you can optimize the keyboard shortcuts for your own keyboard layout.

Previously, Vidrio’s keyboard shortcuts required you to add Vidrio to the Accessibility list in Security & Privacy. This was an annoying and error-prone experience. Now, Vidrio’s keyboard shortcuts work out-of-the-box.

Previously, Vidrio’s hard-coded keyboard shortcuts used the Function key. This did not work very well. The default keyboard shortcuts now use Control+Option. If you prefer the original shortcuts, you can configure them in the Preferences window.

Vidrio’s keyboard shortcuts now appear in the menubar list. If you forget the shortcuts, you can consult the menubar. No need to read the documentation on the website!

More translations to reach more Vidrio users!

Vidrio’s onboarding window was previously only in English, but we have thousands of users all over the globe. Now, thanks to kind contributions, we have more translations:

• Luka Bratos contributed a Slovenian translation! Hvala! 🍻
• Aris Ripandi contributed a Indonesian translation! Terima kasih! 🚀
• Doğan Aydın contributed a Turkish translation! Teşekkürler! ☕️
• SmittyDidIT contributed a Dutch translation! Bedankt! 💪
• Arthur Denner contributed a Brazilian Portuguese translation! Obrigado! 🤩
• Torkel Spindler contributed a Swedish update! Tack! 😎
• Agustín Núñez contributed a Spanish update! Gracias! 😻

Vidrio now requires macOS 10.15+

Due to Vidrio’s new user interface, Vidrio now requires macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or above. If you’re on an older version, you can still download Vidrio 1.19, or update to macOS 10.15.

Notes for nerds

• To remove the requirement to add Vidrio to the Accessibility list in Security & Privacy, we changed the API used for keyboard shortcuts. Previously, we were using NSEvent.addGlobalMonitorForEvents(matching: NSEvent.EventTypeMask.keyDown, ...), which is the “new” API for monitoring keyboard events. Now, we’re using RegisterEventHotKey, from the old Carbon API. This API does not allow arbitrary keylogging, but still provides enough information to allow registering keyboard shortcuts.
• You would do well to implement your keyboard shortcuts in terms of characters, not keys. Previously, we were watching for specific “key codes”, which identify keys on the keyboard. You can see a list of them here. However, if the user has a different keyboard layout, your instruction to press the “p” key doesn’t work!