Common Keyboard Shortcuts

Adds single-key shortcuts for commonly-used tags (roads, buildings, huts, landuse).

Examples of workflows after the shortcuts have been added.

• Draw non-rectangular buildings, press 'q' to square the corners, press 'd' to set 'building=yes'.
• Draw two points defining the diameter of a round hut, press Shift-'o' to create the circle, press 'h' to set 'building=hut'.
• Draw a road, press 't' to set 'highway=residential'.
• Draw a polygon around a small settlement, press 'k' to set 'landuse=residential'

All of the most common road types* are available in this preset, though major roads are usually already drawn. Unclassified, residential, track, service and path are probably the most useful to hotkey, especially for HOT mapping.

(* e.g. highway types listed here: ​http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highway_Tag_Africa)

Setup

Note: All three of the following steps need to be performed for single-key shortcuts to work.

1. Adding the presets to the JOSM Menu

• In JOSM Preferences, open the Map Settings-Tagging Presets dialog. (Currently third icon from the top in the left column, then the third tab.)
• Find 'Common Keyboard Shortcuts' in the Available Presets list on the left. Click '>' to add it to the 'Active presets' list.
• Press OK, then when prompted, restart JOSM. ‘Common Keyboard Shortcuts’ should now appear under ‘Presets’.

2. Adding the presets to the JOSM Toolbar

• In JOSM-Preferences, open the Toolbar-Preferences dialog. (Currently fifth icon from the top in the left column).
• In the Available pane, open the Presets folder, select a preset, and click the ‘<‘ button to add it to the toolbar. Suggested presets to add are: Residential, Service, Unclassified, Track, Tertiary, Path, Building, Hut and Residential Area.
• The presets should now be visible in the toolbar.

3. Assigning shortcut keys to the presets

• In JOSM-Preferences, open the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog. (Currently seventh icon from the top in the left column).
• Sort the Actions alphabetically, by clicking on the 'Actions' column title.
• Assign an unused key to each desired preset using the next steps. Suggested keys are: Residential=’T’, Service=‘Y’, Track=‘U’, Building='D', Hut='H', Residential Area or Tertiary='K'.
• Find the preset in the Actions list. For example, 'Toolbar: Residential' refers to the 'Residential' preset.
• Deselect both the "Use Default" and "disable" checkboxes. Set the shortcut key in the dropdown menu. Press OK. Restart JOSM when prompted.
• You should now be able to use the shortcut keys to tag objects that have been selected.

The preset file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<presets xmlns="http://josm.openstreetmap.de/tagging-preset-1.0"
  author="Chase Stephens"
  version="1.6_2020-09-23"
  shortdescription="Common Keyboard Shortcuts"
  description="Allows easy tagging using keyboard shortcuts for very common tags.">
  <item name="Motorway" type="way,closedway">
    <key key="highway" value="motorway" />
  </item>
  <item name="Primary" type="way,closedway">
    <key key="highway" value="primary" />
  </item>
  <item name="Trunk" type="way,closedway">
    <key key="highway" value="trunk" />
  </item>
  <item name="Secondary" type="way,closedway">
    <key key="highway" value="secondary" />
  </item>
  <item name="Tertiary" type="way,closedway">
    <key key="highway" value="tertiary" />
  </item>
  <item name="Residential" type="way,closedway">
    <key key="highway" value="residential" />
  </item>
  <item name="Service" type="way,closedway">
    <key key="highway" value="service" />
  </item>
  <item name="Unclassified" type="way,closedway">
    <key key="highway" value="unclassified" />
  </item>
  <item name="Track" type="way,closedway">
    <key key="highway" value="track" />
  </item>
  <item name="Path" type="way,closedway">
    <key key="highway" value="path" />
  </item>
  <item name="Building" type="closedway">
    <key key="building" value="yes" />
  </item>
  <item name="Hut" type="closedway">
    <key key="building" value="hut" />
  </item>
  <item name="Residential Area" type="closedway">
    <key key="landuse" value="residential" />
  </item>
</presets>

Presets_CommonKeyboardShortcuts-preset.xml, Presets_CommonKeyboardShortcuts.zip