To me, the Fn key has always seemed extraneous because I’ve relied on F1 through F12 to switch among my core apps since roughly 1990, nearly a decade before Apple introduced Fn and another decade before it was available to desktop Mac users. That switch now lives in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Function Keys find it in System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard in Monterey and earlier. keys as standard function keys” that lets users activate the function keys directly, without also pressing the Fn key. Those function keys were sometimes necessary when communicating with old online systems, but longtime Mac users have more commonly relied on them as user-definable hot keys thanks to the longstanding macOS option “Use F1, F2, etc. keys at the top of the keyboard between the default controls indicated by their icons-brightness, volume, media keys, etc.-and standard function keys. Until macOS 12 Monterey, the Fn key was essentially a hardware toggle key that switched the behavior of other keys to an alternative function, most notably toggling the F1, F2, etc. I haven’t used either, so I can’t comment on how well they work. However, the Fn key can now be treated more like a modifier key with the free Karabiner-Elements or the $10 BetterTouchTool, both of which can access the keyboard at a lower level than the public APIs. Because Apple doesn’t include the Fn key in the public Hot Key API, macro utilities like Keyboard Maestro can’t access it for the most part, as Peter Lewis explains. Nor can you use it for custom keyboard shortcuts in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts, despite a few Apple-included items there showing it. Unlike Shift, Control, Option, and Command, the Fn key can’t be used as a standard modifier key, and no interface elements change if you press Fn and choose a menu. I never found any text about the introduction of the Fn key for the standalone keyboards, I worked my way through MacTracker’s images.) ChatGPT scored a win, however, by identifying the PowerBook G3 Series on its first try-yes, I confirmed it with keyboard photos-whereas Google’s Bard guessed wildly, inventing multiple wrong answers that included the PowerBook 540c, iBook G3, and PowerBook 2400c. (As an aside, standard search engines were no help in my research into the Fn key’s first appearance. However, per the current entry in the Apple Style Guide, I’ll continue to refer to it as the Fn key throughout. This is likely for consistency with iPad keyboards, which dropped the lowercase “fn” letters entirely in favor of a globe icon. On Apple’s compact desktop keyboards, it reverts to the lower-left corner.Īpple began adding a globe icon to the Fn keycap a few years ago and, starting in macOS 14 Sonoma, began to call it the Globe key. The Fn key migrated to standalone keyboards only in 2007 with the release of the Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, where it occupies a spot between the Delete key and the Home key. Not helping is the fact that Apple sometimes calls it the Function key, but all Mac keyboards already have 12 or more numbered F-for-Function keys! The Fn key first appeared in 1998 in the PowerBook G3 Series (Wallstreet) and has become a fixture in the lower-left corner of laptop keyboards ever since. #1681: Take Control Books 20th anniversary, USB-C Apple Pencil, Kini motion detector monitors access, topical social spacesĮven if you’ve used the Mac for decades, I suspect you have never fully understood the Fn key.#1682: Apple’s “Scary Fast” announcement, X.1 updates to 2023 OS versions, Microsoft Word’s 40th anniversary, 5G wireless Internet.#1683: New M3 chips in updated MacBook Pros and iMac, record Apple Q4 profits on lower revenues, no more 27-inch iMacs.#1684: OS bug fix releases, Finder tag poll results, Messages identity verification, blocking spambots, which Apple services do you use?.#1685: Hidden secrets of the Fn key, Emergency SOS via satellite free access extended, RCS support in Messages, Rogue Amoeba icon evolution.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |