Support

Get in touch

Email aaronaludo@gmail.com. Tell us your macOS version, whether your Mac is Apple silicon or Intel, and what you expected to happen. The app’s Log tab holds the answer more often than not — copy the last few lines into the email.

Installing

Open the downloaded MacDotes-0.2.1.dmg and drag MacDotes onto the Applications folder beside it. Then open it from Applications, not from the disk image. MacDotes is free — there is no account and no licence key, and it starts working the first time it opens.

“Apple could not verify MacDotes”

Expected, for now: this build is not notarised by Apple yet, so the first time you open it macOS shows that warning with no Open button. Click Done, then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about MacDotes and click Open Anyway, then confirm. macOS remembers the choice — it only asks once per copy.

Updating

Quit MacDotes from its menu bar icon, download the new version from this site and drag it onto Applications again, replacing the old copy. Your settings stay. MacDotes never checks for updates by itself, because it has no network code at all.

My keyboard didn’t switch back

Give it a few seconds — MacDotes checks in periodically as a fallback for a launch or quit notification macOS didn’t deliver, which happens most often with Steam’s relauncher processes. If it’s still not back after that, open the MacDotes menu: it shows what’s applied right now and what it will restore to.

If MacDotes was force-quit or the Mac lost power mid-session, the switch can outlive the app — it’s set on the system, not on the process. Launching MacDotes again undoes it: it writes down what it owes you before it changes anything. Logging out or restarting also clears it.

The game is running but nothing happens

MacDotes swaps your modifier keys when Dota 2 is in front, not just running — a match sitting in the background while you work in another app is left alone on purpose. Alt-tab to Dota and the swap applies; alt-tab away and it is restored immediately, every time, in either direction. If it still seems stuck once Dota is genuinely frontmost, check Settings → General for a warning banner (the configured mapping may have become invalid) and Settings → Detection for whether the game is recognized at all — see the next question.

My game is not detected

Open Settings → Detection. MacDotes ships knowing about Dota 2, and the rules are yours to edit: match on an application’s name, its bundle identifier, or its executable path. The quickest route is to bring the game to the front, then open that tab and press Learn from Frontmost App, which fills the rules in for you.

Where is the log?

~/Library/Logs/MacDotes/MacDotes.log — the download from this site runs outside the App Sandbox (that is what lets F1–F12 reach the game), so the log sits directly under ~/Library.

The Log tab shows the most recent entries live. Every entry carries the reason it happened — which rule matched, or why a change was refused.

Does MacDotes need any permissions?

No. It asks for no Accessibility or Input Monitoring grant, because it does not watch what you type — it swaps Command and Option through the same low-level HID interface Apple’s own hidutil command uses, never reading or recording a single key you press. If something claiming to be MacDotes asks you for either permission, it is not MacDotes.

Uninstalling

Quit MacDotes first, so it restores your modifier keys on the way out, then delete the app from /Applications. Its settings live in ~/Library/Preferences/com.aaronaludo.MacDotes.plist and its log in ~/Library/Logs/MacDotes/ — small, optional to remove, and ignored if left behind. Deleting the app does not delete them; remove them yourself if you want a clean slate.