Use Built-in Automation Features - Take Control of Automating Your Mac (1.0) - page 21

The new shortcut should immediately appear next to the menu command in the app—even if
the app is still running—and can be used right away.
Note: You may occasionally run across an app with a nonstandard way of
implementing menus, in which case custom keyboard shortcuts don't work—they don't
show up on the menu, and pressing the shortcut has no effect. (Adobe Photoshop
Elements is one culprit I'm aware of.) In such cases, your best bet is to Use a Macro
Utility , such as Keyboard Maestro, to assign the shortcut.
Sometimes an app has two or more menu commands with the same name, located on
different menus or submenus. For example, in Mail, you can find Format > Quote Level >
Increase as well as Format > Indentation > Increase. Likewise, the mailbox names on the
Message > Move to and Message > Copy to submenus are the same. So if you specify only the
menu command name (like Increase), it may not connect to the right command.
To address this problem, instead of entering just the menu command name, enter the
full path through all the submenus, with -> (that is, a hyphen followed by a greater-than
sign)—and no spaces—between each step, like so: Format->Quote Level->Increase .
This ensures that the shortcut goes only with the menu command you specify.
Tip: Some apps also have built-in mechanisms for creating keyboard shortcuts. You
can use whichever method you prefer, but an app may give you more control over
its own commands—for example, Nisus Writer Pro lets you assign sequences of
keystrokes as shortcuts (see Use Multi-Key Shortcuts in Nisus Writer Pro ) .
If you're uncertain what keyboard shortcuts might be useful, here are some ideas to get you
started:
• If you frequently assign tags to files (see Find Files Faster with Finder Tags ),
you may want to assign a keyboard shortcut to the Finder's File > Tags…
command. Command-T, Command-Shift-T, and Command-Option-T are
already used by other menu commands, but you can reassign any of them to
Tags… if you like.
• How about an All Applications keyboard shortcut to open System Preferences
(found with a trailing ellipsis […]—on the Apple ? menu)?
• Lots of apps have Check for Updates… commands (usually on the application
menu—the one bearing the application's name), but that command almost