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#1 2003-04-08 10:37 am
- jeri7h
- Member
- From: Somewhere.
- Registered: 2001-10-24
- Posts: 605
What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
They don't DO anything.
In X11, depending on your window manager you can get menus and stuff... but OS X well...
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#2 2003-04-08 1:07 pm
- otter
- Member
- From: over there
- Registered: 2000-12-23
- Posts: 681
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Dig around on VersionTracker for an app called FLaunch. It lets you configure up to 4 apps to launch simultaneously per F key.
Further proof that cats are smarter than dogs:
You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.
In related news, Microsoft Windows users are now covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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#3 2003-04-08 5:37 pm
- dunebarcode
- Member
- From: Philadelphia
- Registered: 2003-03-31
- Posts: 51
- Website
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Another really nice on is "One Key" from everyday software. Registration is $5. Its worth the money. This app installs into your SystemPreferances and is extreamly easy to configure.
Brand spankn' new MacBook loaded with Parallels Windows XP installed (for my 3D apps)
AMD 64, with XP 64 installed. 2 Gigs ram, 1.5 TB in storage... but its still just a PC.
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#4 2003-04-08 6:23 pm
- Tetrachloride
- ❖ ❖ ❖
- Registered: 2001-01-29
- Posts: 7150
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
I use Keyboard Maestro, and I would consider to use the new iKey (formerly Youpi). Primarily, I use them to hide apps and launch them.
Also, the new MenuMaster allows keys to used inside applications.
Heck, I'd like to have a boatload of function keys.
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#5 2003-04-08 6:34 pm
- kirkgray
- Member
- Registered: 2000-10-10
- Posts: 563
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Once upon a time, long ago, in a far away land....
Macs didn't have function keys. They had a mouse, and pull down menus, and command-keys to make things work. So they really didn't need function keys. So their keyboards didn't have them.
Then evil supporters of That Other OS? realized this and started writing school / govenernment / business specifications for bids and such with "keyboard with 12 function keys" or similar wording. This left the Mac out of the running even when it could handle the rest of the job.
But the marketeers at Apple figured this out and started making keyboards with (mostly worthless) function keys. These, we were told back then, were for "compatibility" with other systems.
Then third-party devlopers and even Apple made little utilities so you could actually do something with those functions keys.
And that's where we are today.
Now, if someone could convince the marketeers that a two-button mouse with a scroll wheel was necessary for "compatibility" ... but that's another story.
Peace all
ERROR 256: Nut loose on the keyboard.
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#6 2003-04-08 10:10 pm
- dunebarcode
- Member
- From: Philadelphia
- Registered: 2003-03-31
- Posts: 51
- Website
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
I like the one button mice... no... no I don't.
Brand spankn' new MacBook loaded with Parallels Windows XP installed (for my 3D apps)
AMD 64, with XP 64 installed. 2 Gigs ram, 1.5 TB in storage... but its still just a PC.
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#7 2003-04-09 2:23 am
- TheConfuzed1
- Faking Sanity
- Registered: 2000-04-19
- Posts: 20194
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Another one is HotApp.
The storm starts when the drops start dropping. When the drops stop dropping, the storm starts stopping.
Last Fm
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#8 2003-04-09 3:41 am
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Couldn't imagine gaming without function keys. Actually, I can, and it sucks 
. If my Powerbook didn't have function keys, I wouldn't have an easy way of changing the brightness, volume, and toggling mirroring.
hello
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#9 2003-04-09 4:43 am
- brainiac_7
- % rm -r brainiac_6
- Moderator
- From: CT Shoreline
- Registered: 2000-10-09
- Posts: 7253
- Website
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Thanks for the history lesson kirkgray. It figures; PC is as PC does, the slimeweasels.
I use Keyboard Maestro.
If you're really upset about inactive F keys, I guess you could turn on Full Keyboard Access in the Keyboard tab in System Preferences.
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#10 2003-04-09 6:17 am
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
F1 thru F4 can be used for Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste.
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#11 2003-04-09 7:38 am
- test
- Member
- From: Collingwood, Ont., CANADA
- Registered: 2002-12-13
- Posts: 5339
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Xkeys will let you give the ol' F-keys a workout.
http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/11127
Patience is a virtue of the weak for it makes them stand still long enough for the strong to crush them with ease.
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#12 2003-04-10 6:28 pm
- BuD-TheDude
- Member
- From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Registered: 2001-04-01
- Posts: 330
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Or Key Xing!! It is a rarely mentioned app(well, pref pane) that is wonderful. I am sure it is just customer loyalty, as I wouldn't be surprised if the competition also had the same features. It is definitely worth checking out though.
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#13 2003-04-10 7:39 pm
#14 2003-04-12 2:25 am
- Light Speed
- Doubter of Einstein
- Registered: 2002-08-17
- Posts: 3694
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
The F keys are great in PhotoShop for assigning actions to.
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#15 2003-04-13 9:47 pm
- tripletmot
- Member
- From: Cleveland Heights
- Registered: 2002-12-14
- Posts: 425
- Website
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Another little story:
After NeXT went belly up, Mr. Jobs was approached by a young programmer who asked if Steve could sign his keyboard. Mr Jobs agreed under one condition: he first had to make some 'adjustments', which included removing F1-F12.
Ok, I'm done now.
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#16 2003-04-14 7:33 am
- brainiac_7
- % rm -r brainiac_6
- Moderator
- From: CT Shoreline
- Registered: 2000-10-09
- Posts: 7253
- Website
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Yes, god bless Adobe for giving us Actions with assignable F keys, however, I miss their old Commands palette from Photoshop 3. They were essentially Actions, but the difference was that they could be run via a Ctrl. click contextual menu.
I had a great workflow available, all from the right mouse button. With the introduction of context sensitive contextual menus, the Commands palette went away. 
Im thinking of switching to Unsanity's XKeys for marking hot keys in applications menus. I like using Keyboard Maestro for this function at the moment, but KM doesn't list the actual hot key right in the menu's pulldown, forcing me to memorize each application's new hot keys. XKeys purportedly does list your new key assignment in the pulldown.
Again, thanks for all the Apple history lessons.
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#17 2003-04-17 10:15 am
- cocoamix
- Member
- Registered: 2001-03-01
- Posts: 7471
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
If you use Keyboard Maestro and play games, MAKE SURE you disable it for the games you play.
Every time I was playing Unreal Tournament X and I hit F1 to see the scores, it opened Chimera and the game slowed to a crawl while it launched.
Jingoism - Extreme and emotional nationalism, or chauvinism, often characterized by an aggressive foreign policy, accompanied by an eagerness to wage war.
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#18 2003-04-18 4:23 am
- brainiac_7
- % rm -r brainiac_6
- Moderator
- From: CT Shoreline
- Registered: 2000-10-09
- Posts: 7253
- Website
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Thanks, Gamblor. I'll use that as my new excuse for getting fragged so bad.
Seriously, how do you like KM?
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#19 2003-04-18 3:41 pm
- jonahfish7
- Member
- From: Lakeland, FL, USA
- Registered: 2000-08-08
- Posts: 529
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
You can assign the fkeys macros with quickkeys from cesoft.
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#20 2003-04-18 7:46 pm
- cocoamix
- Member
- Registered: 2001-03-01
- Posts: 7471
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
Thanks, Gamblor. I'll use that as my new excuse for getting fragged so bad.
Seriously, how do you like KM?
I've been using it since the very first release. I'm just a KM Lite user, but I was a pully paid user of its OS9 counterpart, Program Switcher.
In OS X, I have so many ways to switch apps, it's ridiculous:
I can use KM, which I have set to Command+tilde to switch apps with the floating pallette.
I can use Apple's default Command+tab.
I can click icons in the dock.
I can use X-Assist or ASM and swicth the old-fashioned OS ( app menu way)
Or, my fave, no matter where my cursor is, I right click and choose any running app from the contextual menu. (Fruit Menu).
I mostly use KM though, since I have it set to hide other apps when switching.
I sometimes wish OS X had that hide all the desktop button that Windoze has in the system tray, but I'm one of those people that has NOTHING on my desktop anyway. Not even HD icons.
My virtual desktop is immaculate. My real one is a mess. 
Jingoism - Extreme and emotional nationalism, or chauvinism, often characterized by an aggressive foreign policy, accompanied by an eagerness to wage war.
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#21 2003-04-18 9:05 pm
- Old Time Hockey
- The Iron League
- From: Kingdom of Loathing
- Registered: 2003-02-02
- Posts: 303
Re: What good are the F1 - F12 keys?!
I'm one of those people that has NOTHING on my desktop anyway. Not even HD icons.
My virtual desktop is immaculate. My real one is a mess.
My partition icons are so good (the Shinto Shrine and the Martian from Bugs Bunny days), that I keep them around to show off, mainly to myself.
"In the heat of battle, my father wove a tapestry of obscenity that, as far as we know, is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan."
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