DefaultKeyBinding.dict - old-style NeXT format vs XML plist format

Solution 1:

I don't think you'll have any issues using the older format. All the examples I've found use the old NeXT notation. Although I can't explain why the XML format didn't work, there is a workaround for this particular keyboard shortcut which would mean you can leave your existing DefaultKeyBinding.dict untouched.

There is an application called KeyRemap4MacBook which is free to download and you can see from the screenshot below, you could remap the ⌘+⌫ keyboard shortcut without converting the rest of your DefaultKeyBinding.dict file and this method is not limited to Cocoa applications.

Solution 2:

\U007f can't be used on XML property lists. You'd need to replace it with  or a literal DEL character.

You can convert an old-style plist to XML with plutil:

plutil -convert xml1 test.plist

And from XML to old-style with pl:

pl -input test.plist

My DefaultKeyBinding.dict is currently 151 lines, and I haven't run into any issues storing it as an old-style property list. The ones posted by Brett Terpstra and Jacob Rus are in the old-style format as well.