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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > special keyboard key help for switcher?

special keyboard key help for switcher?
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: London/Plymouth, England
Status: Offline
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May 29, 2003, 04:29 AM
 
I recently switched (2 glorious months), and have figured a few things out. What I don't know however, and don't know where to find the info for, is what all the special functions and symbols on the keys are. I know about the command key, but the ones next to it? And all the other funny little symbols like uder the 6?

I have a 1 GHz TiBook.

Any help would be good
     
Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Allston, MA, USA
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May 29, 2003, 07:03 AM
 
Hi, here is what they are and what they do

The command (apple) key is the main modifier key on the Mac for keyboard commands.

The option (alt) key is mostly used for additional keyboard command.

The ctrl (control) key is used to toggle the "Right-Click" on a single button mouse/trackpad.

The fn (function) key is used to toggle the function keys between being function keys and special PowerBook controls. By default, the function keys do special things on PowerBooks, and you would hold down this key to use them as f1, f2, etc. (I haven't found any real use for these on the Mac unless you have something like QuickKeys installed).

Now for the good stuff. The function/PowerBook keys on the top row, from left to right are:

Brightness Down/F1
Brightness Up/F2
Mute/F3
Sound Down/F4
Sound Up/F5
Number Lock/F6 (I'll explain this in a moment)
Detect Displays/F7 (tells the computer to rescan the displays hooked up to the computer - the new PowerBooks do this automatically under OS X when a display is attached, but you need to do it when a display is removed).
Eject Key/F12

The Num lock key gives you a full number keyboard such as the one found on a normal size desktop keyboard. When this is active a light appears in between F5 and F6. When this is active, you cannot type normally and the pale numbers and mathematical symbols on the 6,7,8,9,0,-, u,i,o,p,j,k,l,;,m,.,/ keys become active. You can also access these keys by holding down the function key instead of turning on the number lock. The modified 6 = clear. I know this works in the calculator, not sure where else.

Useful keys when holding down the fn keys are:
Return = Enter (not as important to you as the TiBook has an enter key)
Up Arrow = Page Up
Down Arrow = Page Down
Left Arrow = Home
Right Arrow = End
and the Delete key actually becomes a delete key instead of the mislabeled backspace key that it really is.

As Apple says, Welcome to Macintosh. Feel free to ask any questions that come up.

-- Jason
     
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Where Airbus babies hatch
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May 30, 2003, 01:00 PM
 
The Option key ("Alt") also modifies keyboard characters.

Take a look at the KeyCaps program in /Applications/Utilities to see how Option and Shift affect the keyboard layout for access to special characters.

-s*
     
   
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