Tom McKeesick

20250102 OSX dark mode shortcut

Update 20250924: As of the release of macOS Tahoe, you can also use the new “Shortcuts” app to achieve this! These shortcuts can’t be assigned to keyboard shortcuts yet, but you can run them via Spotlight.


Automator

Using the power of OSX Automator!

Automator offers many handy actions in OSX. After creating an “automation” in Automator, you can save it as a “Quick Action” and assign a keyboard shortcut to it in System Preferences.

Documentation: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/automator/welcome/mac


1. Launch Automator

launch

2. Create “Quick Action”

create

3. Search for “appearance”

search

4. Drag “Change System Appearance” to the workflow

configure

If you like, you can click “Run” in the top-right corner to test the action.

5. Save the Quick Action

save

6. Assign a Keyboard Shortcut

Open System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > General and assign a keyboard shortcut to the Quick Action.

shortcut

Done! Enjoy your new shortcut 🤓🙈


Shortcuts

1. Launch Shortcuts

launch

2. Add a new shortcut

add

3. Create the shortcut logic

logic

4. Name the shortcut

After creating the logic, close the window to save your shortcut. You’ll then be able to rename it.

rename

4. Use via Spotlight

Despite the name, it doesn’t seem like it’s currently possible to assign a keyboard shortcut to a shortcut created in the Shortcuts app.

Instead, you can run it via Spotlight (Cmd + Space) by typing the name of the shortcut. This can be made easier by “adding quick keys” to the Spotlight search, in this example I’ve chosen the letter "t"

spotlight