Turn Caps Lock into Control, Escape or nothing at all — via Apple Support

Hidden settinglow riskmacOS 14 Sonoma and later

Caps Lock sits in prime keyboard space but most people rarely use it. macOS lets you change what it (and Control, Option, Command) does without any extra apps. Many developers make it a second Control or Escape key; others just disable it.

Takes effect right away

How to do it

Open System Settings > Keyboard, click Keyboard Shortcuts, then choose Modifier Keys.
Next to Caps Lock, pick the action you want (for example Control or Escape), or No Action.
Click Restore Defaults on the same screen to undo.

Sources

Change the behavior of the modifier keys on Mac — by Apple Support

Source reviewed: 2026-11-02
Link checked: 2026-11-02
Tested hands-on: Not by Oddbyte.Me

Oddbyte.Me hasn't tried this on every macOS version, so keep the undo handy.

caps lockmodifier keysremapcontrolescapekeyboard

More in Keyboard, Mouse & Trackpad

Give any menu command its own keyboard shortcut — via Apple Support

Hidden settinglow risk

If an app has a menu command you use all the time but no shortcut for it, you can add one yourself. It works for any app, or for all apps at once (for example, a shortcut for 'Export as PDF…').

Turn off autocorrect, auto-capitals and smart quotes — via Apple Support

Hidden settinglow risk

macOS quietly 'fixes' your typing: it corrects words, capitalises sentences, turns a double space into a full stop, and swaps straight quotes for curly ones. That's nice in letters but a pain for code, passwords in notes, or technical terms. Each one can be switched off separately.

Make F1, F2… act as real function keys — via Apple Support

Hidden settinglow risk

The top row of a Mac keyboard controls brightness, volume and media by default, so apps that use F-keys (spreadsheets, IDEs, games) need Fn held down. You can flip it so F1–F12 are standard keys and Fn gives you the media controls.