How to Trigger a Mac Shortcut With a Keyboard Combo

Step by step

1. 10 sec

   Open the shortcut in the editor

   Launch the Shortcuts app and find the shortcut among the tiles. Double-click it to open the editor window. The keyboard assignment lives inside this window, not in the main library view and not anywhere in System Settings.

   Note: If the shortcut does not exist yet, go and build it first. A key combination attached to nothing is still nothing.
2. 5 sec

   Open the Details pane

   Click the info button at the top right of the editor window. A pane opens on the right carrying the shortcut name, its icon, and every option that controls where the shortcut is allowed to appear on this Mac.

   Note: This pane is easy to miss because it shares that corner with the Actions library toggle. The two buttons look much alike.
3. 10 sec

   Enable Use as Quick Action first

   Tick Use as Quick Action in the Details pane, then tick the Services Menu box that appears beneath it. This registers the shortcut with the system services layer. Until it is registered there, a key combination has nothing to trigger.

   Note: That is the step people skip, and the failure is silent. The combination records cleanly, then nothing happens when you press it.
4. 10 sec

   Set the key combination

   Click the Add Keyboard Shortcut field in the Details pane, then physically press the combination you want. The field records the keys as you hold them. Click elsewhere to commit it. To clear it later, click the field and press Delete.

   Note: You cannot type the combination as text. It has to be pressed, which is the only sensible way to capture modifier keys.
5. 40 sec

   Manage the assignment in System Settings

   Open System Settings > Keyboard, click Keyboard Shortcuts, and select Services in the left column. Your shortcut appears in that list with its combination. You can change it, clear it, or untick it entirely from here without opening the Shortcuts app.

   Note: Anything you built in Automator as a service lands in this same list. It is the one place the whole services layer is visible.
6. 20 sec

   Check the combination is not already taken

   Before you settle on a combination, press it in a normal app and watch what happens. Application menu shortcuts win over services, so a combination an app already claims will never reach your shortcut. Scan the other categories in the Keyboard Shortcuts list as well.

   Note: Control, Option, and Command together with a letter is rarely claimed by anything. Awkward to press, which is exactly why it stays free.