{"id":15106,"date":"2012-10-15T12:25:08","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T17:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=15106"},"modified":"2014-05-22T13:28:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T18:28:01","slug":"simple-keyboard-function-key-trick-easily-overlooked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/15106-simple-keyboard-function-key-trick-easily-overlooked\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Keyboard ‘Function Key Trick’ Easily Overlooked"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

For years, I’ve continued to use my Apple Extended Keyboard II with a Griffin iMate (no longer available… actually both are long gone today) as my primary office keyboard. It’s sad that they don’t make that keyboard anymore, although the Matias Tactile Pro<\/a> is pretty darn close. The applications I use all day make use of those function keys and as the Apple Keyboard II predates all those ‘new’ Mac control functions today’s keyboards are labeled with, they are simply boring old Function Keys with no secondary functions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Location of the “fn” key on newer Mac keyboards. (Click for larger image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then I go home- and often work from home- and use my laptop and other Apple keyboards made for Mac. New ‘Apple Functions’ labeled on Apple keyboards for many years now make my ‘primary’ secondary for those keys so on these newer Apple specific keyboards, I have to hold the ‘fn’ key down to get my ‘boring old’ function key function. This key is also in different places on different Apple keyboards. I sometimes fat finger or forget.. but none the less – I need the Function Key aspect of the Function Keys and I got used to it.<\/p>\n

But why was I tolerating this extra hurdle at all? I only occasionally change the volume or brightness, let alone use the media functions the ‘new’ function icons designate. I guess it wasn’t that big of a headache and I honestly never bothered to investigate.<\/p>\n

Well – the solution is simple and it does save me time and add efficiency, and Apple has long been kind enough to provide it – had I bothered to look. With a simple check box click, function keys become boring old function keys – and now for the ‘new functions’ – that’s when you hold the ‘fn’ key down.<\/p>\n

Just go into System Preferences, Select Keyboard, and check the first box ‘use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys’ and voil\u00e0!<\/p>\n

\"\"
if you use apps that use the original function key function, Apple Menu\/System Preferences – Keyboard. You’ll like things better when you check this box.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s super simple and something I only did recently because of a chance forum post from someone who’s question had the answer I didn’t even know I was waiting for. Sometimes, the best little tricks and time savers are the things like this that are built into the OS or an app and are just waiting to be discovered and utilized. Some stuff is so simple and obvious, it’s almost too intuitive to assume it would actually be.<\/p>\n

Hope this tip improves your keyboarding user experience!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years, I’ve continued to use my Apple Extended Keyboard II with a Griffin iMate (no longer available… actually both are long gone today) as my primary office keyboard. It’s sad that they don’t make that keyboard anymore, although the Matias Tactile Pro is pretty darn close. The applications I use all day make use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"class_list":["post-15106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nSimple Keyboard 'Function Trick' Easily Overlooked<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Improve your keyboarding experience by setting up Function Keys within OS X\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/15106-simple-keyboard-function-key-trick-easily-overlooked\/\" \/>\n<meta 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