User interfaces are very much a matter of taste, so with the caveat that this is all really subjective…

In any graphical program, I find that I am most fast and fluid when I have my left hand on the keyboard (e.g. on ASDF) and my right on a mouse. It’s best if all the key combinations I need are easily pressed with my left hand. If i have to move my left hand away, or take my right off the mouse, everything slows down.

So, with JOSM. The first thing I do is open the Preferences, under Keyboard Shortcuts and re-map Delete from the Delete key to ‘D’. Now, for shortcuts for all the other common tags (highway=service, building=yes…), it’s not simple, but it’s possible. JOSM lets you map keys to presets, but those presets still open a dialog (extra steps). To program my own shortcuts, I dug into the scripting plugin (Javascript API). It’s very nice, well-supported (thank you “Gubear”!) and I’ve only begun to explore what it can do.

Here is my script (install_custom_menus.js)

To use it, first enable the Scripting plugin in JOSM’s plugin preferences. (You’ll need the very latest JOSM, 6891 or later, and up-to-date plugins). Now, from the Scripting menu, open the “console”, load the js file, and run it. If it works, you will then see 4 new items on your “Edit” menu.

You can now use Preferences: Keyboard Shortcuts to map keys onto them. I use:

• T : Clear Tiger
• Shift+T: Turning Circle / Track
• Shift+S: Service
• Shift+B: Building

With only basic familiarity with Javascript, you can easily modify the script to add your own commands, and then maps keys to them. You will need to run the script once, each time you restart JOSM, to add the menu items, but the shortcuts are persistent so you only need to set them once.

A word about responsibility. These are just shortcuts for things that JOSM already does, but although you can now do them faster, you still need to focus on quality and standard OSM practice. For example, for cleaning Tiger (in the USA): before I press ‘T’ to clear the Tiger “reviewed” tag, I visually confirm that the geometry of the road is correct, that the name is good, that cul-de-sacs have been set appropriately (Shift+T), and its good in every way. Only then should one clear that tag.

Happy editing!