Remapping spacebar in Finder from windowed Quick Look to fullscreen ("slideshow")

Question

In the Mac OS X Finder, Can I replace the standard option of a windowed preview (Quick Look) with a fullscreen view (Slideshow)?

Command + Option + Y = Fullscreen

Space = Windowed

Is there a way of making space perform the fullscreen mode instead?

Answer 1

It is not possible in Mac OS X itself, since Space does not actually activate a menu item, and the title of the menu item in the File menu changes with the name of the selected object(s). You could learn to press Option-Space for fullscreen mode.

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Alternatively, you can use hotkey/utility applications such as Butler or Keyboard Maestro for this, to intercept your key press and reroute it. The following steps are for Butler.

1. Add a Smart Item » Keystrokes to Butler, and move it to the Hidden category.
2. In the Keys tab, press Cmd-Opt-Y (which is the regular Finder key combination for fullscreen/"slideshow" Quick Look.
3. In the Triggers tab, press Space as hotkey, and confirm the dialog questioning your sanity.
4. As Exceptions, select Only, and enter "Finder" in the text box.
5. Enjoy!

A significant downside to this sledge-hammer-solution: You cannot ever press space in Finder to have it mean something else. Renaming folders, searching in Spotlight: Space is not going to work.