How to Create Custom Keyboard Shortcuts in Ubuntu

This guide will show you how to create custom keyboard shortcuts to use in Ubuntu, without having to install any additional software.

There are a number of keyboard shortcuts available to use in Ubuntu. I like to add a few custom shortcuts for opening applications that I use regularly. Here’s how I do it –

1. Click Show Applications and then select Settings
2. Select Keyboard Shortcuts from the list of Settings. From here you’ll find a list of keyboard shortcuts that are already in use, and some that are pre-configured but need to be assigned a specific shortcut.
3. The application that I use the most is Firefox, the default web browser in Ubuntu. There’s a pre-built Launcher named Launch web browser – it just needs to be assigned a keyboard combination to use. Click anywhere in that line to bring up the Set Shortcut option.
4. Because Firefox is a web browser, I used the letter w as a part of my combo (ctrl+alt+w) and will use that as my shortcut to launch Firefox.
5. Once you’ve decided on a combo to use, click the Set button. .
6. If you ever decide you don’t like that particular keyboard combination as your browser launcher, you can click the small x next to that entry to reset it.
7. You can also create completely new/custom actions by clicking the large “plus sign” ( + ) button at the bottom of the Keyboard Shortcuts list.
8. This one is a bit different in that you need to provide a Name and Command in addition to assigning it a keyboard combination.
9. As illustrated in the screenshot below, I created a launcher for the Mines game that comes with Ubuntu. Once each of the fields has been populated, click the Add button.
10. A new section will be added to your Keyboard Shortcuts named Custom Shortcuts and that’s where you’ll find each of your newly created shortcut.

11. Don’t worry about accidentally assigning the same shortcut to multiple actions. If you try to assign a key combination that is already in use, a warning pops up informing you which action is already assigned to that key combination and you aren’t allowed to assign it.