Change Spotlight Keyboard Command

Lately I’ve been accidentally hitting Cmd + Space. This of course activates Spotlight, the built-in Search function of the Finder. Every time it happens I’m reminded of the Simpsons episode where Homer gets the idea to become morbidly obese so he can work from home on disability, only to find his fingers are too chubby to hit one key at a time. “To continue press any key… Any Key? Where’s The Any Key?”

There’s a simple fix for this problem. The answer is to reassign the keyboard shortcut for Spotlight. Open System Preferences (found in the Apple Menu) and click Keyboard & Mouse. Click the Keyboard Shortcuts Tab. Scroll down the List until you see “Show Spotlight search field”. The screen should look like this:

Double click the Cmd+Space across from “Show Spotlight Search field”. This should highlight the entry. Now perform whatever keyboard command you want to replace Cmd+Space. I recommend Control + Space. Hold down Control key and Press Spacebar.

There, you’re done! Spotlight can now be opened using Control + Space instead of Cmd + Space. You can use this method to change any Keyboard Shortcut.