The Caps Lock key occupies one of the most valuable pieces of real estate on the Mac keyboard, sitting directly next to the home row where your left pinky naturally rests. However, in modern computing, typing entirely in capital letters is rarely necessary. Instead, this prime keyboard real estate is usually pressed by accident, causing you to unintentionally SHOUT AT YOUR COWORKERS.
Because the key is so large and awkwardly placed, power users often prefer to repurpose it. Programmers frequently remap it to the Escape key (which is a far reach on modern MacBooks), while others map it to the Control key for easier keyboard shortcuts. You can easily disable the standard Caps Lock functionality and remap it to a more useful modifier.
How to Remap the Caps Lock Key on a Mac
You can change the behavior of modifier keys directly in the macOS Keyboard settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your Mac’s screen.
- Select System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS versions).
- Scroll down the left-hand navigation sidebar and click on Keyboard.
- In the main window on the right, click the button labelled Keyboard Shortcuts… (or Modifier Keys… on older versions).
- In the left-hand pane of the pop-up window, select Modifier Keys.
- Look for the drop-down menu next to the Caps Lock (⇪) key.
- Click the drop-down menu. You can select No Action to completely deaden the key, or choose to remap it to Control, Option, Command, or Escape.
- Click Done (or OK).
The change is instantaneous. The green light on the physical Caps Lock key will no longer illuminate, and pressing it will now trigger whatever new action you assigned to it. If you chose “No Action,” the key is now completely inert and safe to bump by accident.