I swapped the Quick Insert and Launcher keys on the Galaxy Chromebook Plus and it’s just better

Since the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus and the Quick Insert key that is prominently placed on its keyboard, I’ve been a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to adjust to this new keyboard layout. Even more troubling is the fact that – until more Chromebooks ship with this updated layout, at least – I don’t even know that I want to adapt to it for now.

I bounce between devices pretty often, and uprooting a few core keyboard habits is a lot of work that I don’t mind doing when a change is permanent. With the Quick Insert key, I think it is the future, but for now it simply isn’t even a drop in the bucket when it comes to Chromebook keyboard layouts.

I started down the process of remapping all other keyboards I use to try and get something similar to the new positioning of the Quick Insert and Launcher keys found on the Galaxy Chromebook Plus, but that is troublesome since almost no Chromebooks come with an additional key between the CTRL and ALT keys that can be easily remapped to the Launcher key.

With this particular issue, things like multi-paste, opening the launcher, and my deeply-embedded habit of swapping open Virtual Desks are all upended by this new Launcher key position and the habits I’d need to develop at this point to make it work on non-Galaxy Chromebook Plus hardware. But there’s a simpler way around this for now, and since I’ve implemented the change, it’s been pretty fantastic.

Just swap the Launcher and Quick Insert keys

A couple weeks ago, I found myself wishing the Quick Insert key could just go back to the good old Launcher key. And you know what? It can. And it’s very simple to make the switch if you decide to.

Just go to Settings > Device > Keyboard and inputs > Customize keyboard keys and you’ll see an option for both the Quick Insert key and the Launcher key. Using the drop-downs, simply map the Quick Insert key to the Launcher function, and the Launcher key function to Quick Insert function. Easy!

And then, for added muscle memory, you can go to the Keyboard Shortcuts app (CTRL + Launcher + S), search for Quick Insert, and add the Launcher + F shortcut that Google has made the default shortcut on all other Chromebooks. Just click on the little pencil icon next to the shortcut and punch in your new Launcher + F shortcut to get it in place. Now the Galaxy Chromebook Plus generally behaves like all other Chromebooks.

Life in the fast lane

For me, this has made my use of the Galaxy Chromebook Plus so much simpler. I don’t find myself fumbling around and my workflow has gone back to fast and uninterrupted. Again, I know I can fix my ingrained shortcuts if I work at it, but it’s simply not ideal for me at this point and won’t be great for anyone else who uses more than one Chromebook on a regular basis until we have many more devices with this particular layout.

In the future as that happens, the time will come to actually update my internal wiring to simply use the new layouts. But that’s going to take some time. Right now, for instance, we’re only tracking one device with the new layout on board. More will follow, but it will be a little bit for sure. So for now, I’m swapping these keys and not looking back.