Create a Global Shortcut for a Single Letter The "w" key on my MacBook Pro broke due to water damage. Currently I am copy and pasting the letter whenever I need that, but I would prefer to be able to press a keyboard shortcut to type it.

The shortcut needs to be available no matter the app; I would prefer the shortcut to be control + option (just those two keys) but if that's not possible then I'll settle for something else.

I tried setting a shortcut through the settings app, but I couldn't figure out how to 1) bind a single letter and 2) have the shortcut available globally.

I'm running Yosemite 10.10.3
One relatively simple method is to assign a text input that is then converted into "w" when you type your sequence.

I have chosen to type "(v)" that is converted to "w", but you can choose what suits you best (and what you can remember).

Open Keyboard-Text pref in the System Preferences, as described in this Apple Support page.

Click on the + sign to add a new item.

Now first type your choice, then paste a "w" in the right column.



It will work on almost all OS X apps, but won't work on web pages like this one.