So my old Mac keyboard died earlier this week, or to be more precise the TAB and CAPS LOCK keys stopped working, so it was time for a new keyboard.
I’d seen the new flat key Mac keyboards before, but after 25 years of typing I liked having raised keys. However I wasn’t impressed by the non-Apple keyboards at StreetWise (a great Apple reseller in Hawthorn) so I purchased one of the flat keyboards instead.
Not the wireless one, because bizarrely Apple did away with the numeric keypad on that, and I need a numeric keypad, 2 years at Bankers Trust in 94-95 where I spent a couple of hours a day data entering numbers into Excel means today I can enter numbers with 99% accuracy blindfolded using the numeric keypad. Hence I also rarely enter numbers using the numbers on the Qwerty side.
First let me say a couple of days in: best keyboard I’ve ever owned. The flat keys make typing easier. I’m not sure if it’s the angle, the need to press them less, what ever it is….but I’m typing more quickly and my fingers are taking less stress.
But there was a catch: the F9 and F11 keys weren’t working.
F11 is Expose and F9 clears the Windows off the screen. Combined they are two of my favorite features of a Mac, and I use both constantly.
Stranger still, unlike my Macbook Pro, the new keyboard doesn’t have a function key, so that wasn’t the trick.
Hit Google, and here’s the answer if you ever get caught: F11 is now F3, and F9 is Command+F3. There’s even a little Expose graphic drawn on F3.
Hi Duncan, if you have the same keyboard layout as me then there actually there *is* a function key on the new keyboard (oddly enough), look in the middle 'island' zone where page up and page down are (under the F13 I think). There's also a setting in preferences that allows the keys to operate as F keys instead of their printed graphic functions (in either case the Fn key switches the behavior).
Have to agree that the keyboard is great! I was worried about this remapping of the F keys (muscle memory) until I realized I could turn the special functions off until called with the Fn key (just like a laptop).
Fn key is in the lower left corner. I am deciding between wired and wireless and that is a must for me. The key F-key changes were implemented last year on the Macbooks (and I think the MBP also). I will likely go with wired for much the same reason you cited. Bluetooth would be nice but is not required. Also the auto sensing USB 1/USB 2 hub built in to the wired version completes the port expansion I am likely to use. All that for $30 less!
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!! I just bought a new computer and those are my two faves as well. I just bought the brand new 2009 mac book…thanks a million.
lol. That change up managed to stump my brother as well. He'll be glad to hear I found the solution. Thanks for that.
THANK YOU mikepk AND Duncan!! Phew!
THANK YOU mikepk AND Duncan!! Phew!
THANK YOU mikepk AND Duncan!! Phew!