Formatting & Display Guide

TanStack Hotkeys provides several utilities for formatting hotkey strings into human-readable display text. These utilities handle platform differences automatically, so your UI shows the right symbols and labels for each operating system.

formatForDisplay

The primary formatting function. Returns a platform-aware string using symbols on macOS and text labels on Windows/Linux.

tsx

import { formatForDisplay } from '@tanstack/preact-hotkeys'

// On macOS (symbols separated by spaces):
formatForDisplay('Mod+S')         // "⌘ S"
formatForDisplay('Mod+Shift+Z')   // "⌘ ⇧ Z"
formatForDisplay('Control+Alt+D') // "⌃ ⌥ D"

// On Windows/Linux:
formatForDisplay('Mod+S')         // "Ctrl+S"
formatForDisplay('Mod+Shift+Z')   // "Ctrl+Shift+Z"
formatForDisplay('Control+Alt+D') // "Ctrl+Alt+D"

Options

formatForDisplay('Mod+S', {
  platform: 'mac',
  useSymbols: true,
})

On macOS, modifier order matches canonical normalization (same as formatWithLabels), and symbols are joined with spaces (e.g., ⌘ ⇧ Z). On Windows and Linux, modifiers are joined with + (e.g., Ctrl+Shift+Z).

formatWithLabels

Returns human-readable text labels (e.g., "Cmd" instead of the symbol). Useful when you want readable text rather than symbols.

tsx

import { formatWithLabels } from '@tanstack/preact-hotkeys'

// On macOS:
formatWithLabels('Mod+S', { platform: 'mac' }) // "Cmd+S"
formatWithLabels('Mod+Shift+Z', { platform: 'mac' }) // "Cmd+Shift+Z"

// On Windows/Linux:
formatWithLabels('Mod+S', { platform: 'windows' }) // "Ctrl+S"
formatWithLabels('Mod+Shift+Z', { platform: 'windows' }) // "Ctrl+Shift+Z"

Modifier order matches canonical normalization from the core package.

Using Formatted Hotkeys in Preact

Keyboard Shortcut Badges

tsx

import { formatForDisplay } from '@tanstack/preact-hotkeys'

function ShortcutBadge({ hotkey }: { hotkey: string }) {
  return <kbd className="shortcut-badge">{formatForDisplay(hotkey)}</kbd>
}

// Usage
<ShortcutBadge hotkey="Mod+S" />      // Renders: ⌘ S (Mac) or Ctrl+S (Windows)
<ShortcutBadge hotkey="Mod+Shift+P" /> // Renders: ⌘ ⇧ P (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows)

tsx

import { useHotkey, formatForDisplay } from '@tanstack/preact-hotkeys'

function MenuItem({
  label,
  hotkey,
  onAction,
}: {
  label: string
  hotkey: string
  onAction: () => void
}) {
  useHotkey(hotkey, () => onAction())

  return (
    <div className="menu-item">
      <span>{label}</span>
      <span className="menu-shortcut">{formatForDisplay(hotkey)}</span>
    </div>
  )
}

// Usage
<MenuItem label="Save" hotkey="Mod+S" onAction={save} />
<MenuItem label="Undo" hotkey="Mod+Z" onAction={undo} />
<MenuItem label="Find" hotkey="Mod+F" onAction={openFind} />

Command Palette Items

tsx

import { formatForDisplay } from '@tanstack/preact-hotkeys'
import type { Hotkey } from '@tanstack/preact-hotkeys'

interface Command {
  id: string
  label: string
  hotkey?: Hotkey
  action: () => void
}

function CommandPaletteItem({ command }: { command: Command }) {
  return (
    <div className="command-item" onClick={command.action}>
      <span>{command.label}</span>
      {command.hotkey && (
        <kbd>{formatForDisplay(command.hotkey)}</kbd>
      )}
    </div>
  )
}

Platform Symbols Reference

On macOS, modifiers are displayed as symbols:

Modifier	Mac Symbol	Windows/Linux Label
Meta (Cmd)	⌘	Win / Super
Control	⌃	Ctrl
Alt/Option	⌥	Alt
Shift	⇧	Shift

Special keys also have display symbols:

Key	Display
Escape	Esc
Backspace	⌫ (Mac) / Backspace
Delete	⌦ (Mac) / Del
Enter	↵
Tab	⇥
ArrowUp	↑
ArrowDown	↓
ArrowLeft	←
ArrowRight	→
Space	Space

Parsing and Normalization

TanStack Hotkeys also provides utilities for parsing and normalizing hotkey strings:

parseHotkey

Parse a hotkey string into its component parts:

import { parseHotkey } from '@tanstack/preact-hotkeys'

const parsed = parseHotkey('Mod+Shift+S')
// {
//   key: 'S',
//   ctrl: false,   // true on Windows/Linux
//   shift: true,
//   alt: false,
//   meta: true,    // true on Mac
//   modifiers: ['Shift', 'Meta']  // or ['Control', 'Shift'] on Windows
// }

normalizeHotkey and normalizeRegisterableHotkey

Core helpers produce a canonical hotkey string for storage and registration. When the platform allows Mod (Command on Mac without Control; Control on Windows/Linux without Meta), the output uses Mod and Mod-first modifier order (Mod+Shift+E), not expanded Meta/Control.

import { normalizeHotkey, normalizeRegisterableHotkey } from '@tanstack/preact-hotkeys'

normalizeHotkey('Cmd+S', 'mac')           // 'Mod+S'
normalizeHotkey('Ctrl+Shift+s', 'windows') // 'Mod+Shift+S'
normalizeHotkey('Shift+Meta+E', 'mac')    // 'Mod+Shift+E'

// String or RawHotkey — same string adapters use internally:
normalizeRegisterableHotkey({ key: 'S', mod: true, shift: true }, 'mac') // 'Mod+Shift+S'

Framework hooks normalize registerable hotkeys automatically via normalizeRegisterableHotkey.

Validation

Use validateHotkey to check if a hotkey string is valid and get warnings about potential platform issues:

import { validateHotkey } from '@tanstack/preact-hotkeys'

const result = validateHotkey('Alt+A')
// {
//   valid: true,
//   warnings: ['Alt+letter combinations may not work on macOS due to special characters'],
//   errors: []
// }

const result2 = validateHotkey('InvalidKey+S')
// {
//   valid: false,
//   warnings: [],
//   errors: ['Unknown key: InvalidKey']
// }