Changing the default keys causes annoyances because of existing UI bugs, or the UI itself. This by far has been my number one annoyance. Basically what happens is when you change a key like, [E] to [SPACE], then the UI doesn't update to reflect that change. It key functions, but every time inside a menu, it will tell you to use the Default key.

Here is a forum post with pictures that may explain it better then me. http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1319673&mpage=1

I am hoping for an official fix, but if anyone knows a mod the fixes this in the meantime, I would be thankful.

This problem has been around since day one and Bethesda has made no indication that they plan to fix it. It's worse than the menus not changing to display the correct key. Remapping certain keys/commands breaks command functionality altogether. Either learn to play "the Bethesda way" with default mapping or find a utility that let's you remap your keyboard itself.

edit to add:
There are mods that offer a workaround. I don't use them so I'm not sure what to recommend. Hopefully, someone will come along and post a link for you.

Just saving the world one gamer at a time

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=368

Back in November, Socrates200X (one of the Bethesda employees responsible for UI development) stated that the reason for this was that they were worried that including button art for every possible key combination would introduce lag whenever the UI was brought on-screen. For some reason, they thought that incorrect button help icons were an acceptable solution. According to Socrates200X, it is not likely to get fixed by Bethesda. The whole state of the UI (as well as other things like the 1995-era shadow quality - a huge step backwards from Fallout3/New Vegas) are unfathomable design decisions that really hurt the presentation of Skyrim.

Any fix to the UI will likely have to come from the mod community. Hopefully, the SkyUI team still has some steam left in them. Maybe once SKSE with papyrus functions is released, we'll see more plugins that fix things like this.

i got a feeling (i hope at least) bethesda will look back at the skyrim UI as the same kind of experiment gone horribly wrong as oblivions leveled scaling.

I suspect their next game will be a revelation of just how poorly they understood Scaleform and how ugly their first attempt to use it turned out. I hope they also look at Skryim shadows alongside Fallout3/New Vegas shadows and wonder what they were thinking when they decided to ship the game like that.

Thanks, I will give this a try. However, what worries me about this mod is that he says the interface will stay the same, but function will be given to both keys for the action. I just want the UI to update. My fear is that this may cause more problems in my case.

Ok, your changes will show in the UI. I switch F and R around, UI shows the correct buttons. Without the mod it wouldn't. That's what this does, that's what you want?

I did some testing, and this is what I found:

I had to reset my keys to default because the functionality of some of them ceased to work.

After resetting, the mod works as it was intended.


None of the remapped keys caused change or update in the UI, but rather the keys shown in the UI retain their original function. This is an improvement, but not what I was expecting.

I guess it works, but I would rather see the changes made be reflected in the UI. In the example of the above quote, I would rather the UI said [C] instead of [F]. This will do for now.
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What I want is a different story. Probably only Bethesda will be able to do this, and it doesn't seem likely that they will ever do it. I would like to see individual control over remapping for each function with an event triggered by a key press or mouse button. For example being able to choose a key for Change POV, and choosing an entirely different key for Favorites. Then on top of that I want the UI to update for each instance of a change.
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My key settings in case anyone is interested in seeing how messed up it got.

Favorites Menu: Q
Sheath Weapon: F //Originally switched R and F
Toggle POV: P //Had to switch with R because R was Take All, and it kept toggling POV at the same time.
Action: SPACE
Jump: E
Power/Shout: C //I have a hard time reaching Z and C is habit from Oblivion
Walk/Run Continuously: Z

What happens with this mod, if I switched keys around?
It basically says that when you're remapping, you get two keys with the same functionality: my remapped one, and the original one.
Quoting from the Readme:
But what if I changed [F] to do something else in the inventory screen, like dropping the weapon?

True remapping functionality would be a great thing to have. Especially the unnecessary and unbreakable combination of actions into one key - if I change [toggle POV], I automatically change [mark as favourite] as well. What the hell were they thinking?

What it means is basically this.

F is to change view. R is to pull your weapon out. I swapped them round. But it swaps every R and F key around. In skyrim this change isn't shown in the UI. With the mod, the UI shows the correct key.

This mod doesn't allow you to map every action to a different key. Just makes the UI show the correct key press of you've changed it.

This mod doesn't change the UI at all. It just makes it so that the key bindings for other actions are not changed as well. To prove this, and the flaw in this mod, try first switching [F] with [R] like you say you have done. Then switch [R] with [P]. So now [R] will open up the magic menu, and [P] will toggle POV. After you have done that, open up your item menu and try to favorite anything. I guarantee that the UI will say press [R] to drop, and press [F] to favorite. If you press either one of those, then the item will be dropped and not be marked as a favorite. The UI will not always show the correct key because of the way the mod handles the situation.

Ok then it's not perfect.

I knew Skyrim would be buggy so I waited a few months for a bug free patched version. Yeah right. This key mapping issue is insane. Did they think people weren't going to remap the keys? Does anybody know any gamer who doesn't? Anyway, I'm in the minority in that I always remap my mouse buttons for fwd and back movement and use a comfortable a,e,r,g,space combo for def, strafe left/right, att, jump. It sounds weird but means you can use your index finger on f, h,v and b for other actions while having all the primary movement control in the mouse and the e and r buttons which your 3rd and 4th fingers are always sitting on. So, after remapping Skyrim to this setup I'm fine for about a minute until character creation. Then when I click on a selection the cursor moves up and simultaneously selects. The same fault occurs in inventory etc. Mental. Can anybody provide a fix?