With Shortcut Keeper, you can easily save all the shortcuts you use daily in your apps.

For the past few months, I have been working on a new desktop app called Shortcut Keeper:

It is now available on both macOS and Windows platforms, and already has many users that find it useful for their daily tasks.

What is it?

Shortcut Keeper is a desktop app that lets you save keyboard shortcuts you use every day or want to learn and use more frequently.

You can get it:

• From the Mac App Store, for macOS.
• From the Microsoft Store, for Windows.

Why should anyone use this?

It can be difficult to remember all shortcuts you use in every app, especially if you depend on your keyboard a lot in your daily tasks.

Shortcut Keeper keeps your favorite shortcuts or the ones you want to learn in a lightweight interface. You can:

• Add the shortcuts you encounter in your apps daily.
• If you need to remember a shortcut, open Shortcut Keeper and check it out.
• Keep until you have memorized them.
• Use Cmd-Option-K (or Ctrl-Alt-K) to bring it to the front at any time.

What’s the story behind it?

I recently made the switch to macOS as my system of choice, after almost 25 years of being a Windows user. Here is my new setup, showing both my new 2021 M1 iMac and my previous Windows laptop:

Naturally, working with a new operating system took some effort to get used to. Even more so, since as a developer, I use the keyboard and its shortcuts a lot in my daily tasks. So, I found myself frequently doing this:

• Needing to find the keyboard shortcut for taking a screenshot on macOS.
• Google it.
• Use the shortcut (Command-Shift-5) once.
• Forget about it.
• After a few days, go through the same process, googling around for the same shortcut.

I needed a way to save this kind of shortcuts, at least until I could memorize them!

Initially, I tried using a separate text file to keep them, and then the Notes app, but it didn’t work. It was too cumbersome to type each shortcut, and there was no easy way to reach the file at any time.

This was the motivation I needed to start building a desktop app to solve my issue!

After a few weeks of hacking at it, Shortcut Keeper was born and is now available on both platforms:

I went with using Flutter as my framework of choice, being already proficient with it by my experience with the MapChart mobile app. Make sure to check future posts for more technical details about the development process.

What can you do with Shortcut Keeper?

You can use it to save in one place all keyboard shortcuts you want to learn or remember for your apps:

Below is a quick overview of its main features and how to use them.

The guides’ steps work the same on macOS and Windows; only the design is different, to match each platform.

How to save a shortcut:

Press the + button (Add) at the top right. In the dialog that appears:

• Use Record... or Select... to set your shortcut’s keyboard combination (e.g. Cmd-T or Ctrl-T).
• Fill in the description for what it does (e.g. ‘Opens a new tab’).
• Select the App for the shortcut (Google Chrome) and optionally add some tags (e.g. browsing, tabs).
• Select Save Shortcut.

Your shortcut will be added to your shortcuts. You can then filter the list by app or tag, or search for it.

How to edit or delete a shortcut:

Click on a shortcut to select it and use the Edit (pencil icon) or Delete (trash icon) button to edit or delete it.

Deleted shortcuts stay in the Bin for 30 days, in case you change your mind and need to restore them.

How to quickly check your shortcuts:

You can set a global shortcut to quickly bring the app to the front and check your shortcuts, even while using another app.

The default is Cmd-Option-K or Ctrl+Alt+K, but you can change it to your own combination.

An example use case:

• You are editing on Photoshop and need to be reminded of the hotkey for creating a new layer.
• Instead of searching around, you hit Command-Option-K.
• This brings Shortcut Keeper to the front and also filters your shortcuts to show only the ones for Photoshop.
• You find your previously saved shortcut, use it, and continue with your work.

Is there a dark theme available?

Yes! There is a sleek dark theme for the app on both platforms:

Can you export the saved shortcuts?

Yes, indeed! There is the option to export your shortcuts in JSON or CSV format, and import them at a later time, or on a different machine.

You can find it in the settings:

Is anyone else using Shortcut Keeper?

There are almost 100 users at the time of writing, using Shortcut Keeper daily and saving their favorite shortcuts!

While it may seem like a small number, I feel that it is validating to find that other people find it useful in such a short time.

The macOS version was launched mid-September 2021 and the Windows one in early November 2021. I haven’t done much in terms of promoting it, apart from sharing it to Product Hunt, Twitter, and some subreddits.

My hope is that its audience will grow over time as I am constantly adding more features and improving the app. Indeed, I have already received a lot of suggestions from its users, and implemented some of them:

If you happen to give it a try, please let me know your feedback!

Where can I learn more?

Here are some links to check out:

• The app’s website.
• Get the app from the Mac App Store or the Microsoft Store.
• Follow on Twitter.

Finally, I will be following this with more posts talking about some aspects of the development process for the app, so stay tuned!