Mapping between Alt and Cmd not working when different order of keys pressed

Bugs or Unexpected Behavior
1

Note:
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Describe the bug
A clear and concise description of what the bug is. Any bug reports that contain insults against me or my software will be deleted without warning (unfortunately this has become necessary to mention here).

I am using an external keyboard and I have my command key which is mapping to the alt key so that when I press Cmd + Left Arrow, my mac can invoke Alt + Left Arrow which allows me to jump at the beginning of the word. So, if I press the keys in the order Cmd and then Left Arrow, it works fine but if I press Left Arrow and Cmd, it doesnt work. I checked this behavior with default Mac behavior and in that, the order doesnt matter. I am not sure if there is a easy way to configure this but based on the first visual, it seems like a bug to me rather than a custom feature.

Affected input device (e.g. MacBook Trackpad, Magic Mouse/Trackpad, Touch Bar, etc.):

Keyboard

Screenshots
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image
image1920×1206 80.1 KB

As shown, I dont see any way to define the order or keep a trigger omnidirectional apart from the advanced condition (which makes sense as a work around, but I expect this as a default behavior as the Mac does this as default)

Device information:

  • Type of Mac: Macbook pro M1 2021
  • macOS version: 15.6.1
  • BetterTouchTool version: (please post the exact version - not just "the latest one") 5.718

Additional information (e.g. crash logs, related issues, etc.):

2

this is standard behavior for all keyboard shortcuts, the modifier always needs to come before the other key (otherwise there would be no way to know a keyboard shortcut is being typed). This can not be changed unfortunately.

3

But then how does Mac keyboard do it? I think the logic should focus on the combination and not the order, which is what this bug is about. I understand that order could also be important to certain things but for standard shortcuts with modifiers, the combination should matter and not the order.

4

it does not (if it does work for arrow keys that might be a very specific exception)

E.g. you can not first press a and then cmd to select all text or c and then cmd. This is because that would lead to the keys being typed first. (and is generally also true for arrow keys, but I don’t know your exact use case)

5

Actually, you are right and I think now I think of the initial case, the order for cmd + arrow keys doesnt work and this could be very specific to my keyboard.

So, I am using an external keyboard which is layered. Does that create an issue? Basically, I have a layer key which I press with ‘J’ key to perform left arrow. So when I do layer key + cmd + ‘j’, it doesnt work and when I do ‘cmd’ + layer key + ‘j’, the shortcut does work. Any advice on this?