function keys

C

Cow Loon

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F10 = change brightness Fn + F10 = "a brightness icon displays on the screen with an international don't symbol".

My experience with my new powerbook doesn't match what I've read on this forum. I finally dug out the manual I got with the powerbook and it just says to hold down Fn while pressing function keys, yet it doesn't work for me. Any advice? I've tried it with and without "Use F1-F12 for special actions" checked. It just switches which combination gets me the brightness change, or the brightness icon + international circle crossed symbol. I've also tried restorying keyboard shortcuts and checking or unchecking full keyboard access.

I'm told I can't boot into OS9, incidentally, in case someone will suggest doing something in OS9.
 
HERE'S the information that will answer your question. Short answer, to use this keyboard backlight control, take your powerbook into a darker area. Doesn't work when there's too much light. That's why you see the prohibitory sign.
 
I was actually trying to get at how to produce the F1-F12 keystrokes. I thought I had tried this before, but apparently not. With "Use F1-F12 for custo actions" unchecked, to get F10 I have to hold down FN+Option+F10... I would really prefer to only have to press F10 to get F10.

If I check "Use F1-F12 for custom actions", then nothing I've tried so far gets me F10 (including Fn+F10 of course).
 
I misunderstood what you were asking :(
Is f10 the ONLY f-key that doesn't function as you expect? Check at an Apple store with a new powerbook, checking if f10 can be re-assigned.
Maybe some software like iKey, or QuicKeys will allow you to reassign that f10
 
No, it's not just F10. It's all the function keys. That just happens to be the key stroke that I need to generate.

Incidentally, I tried installing fnSwitch last night and it didn't allow me to get the function key keystrokes, and oddly if I press Fn+Opt+F10 say, it brings up System Preferences and checks the "Use F1-F12 for custom actions") button...
 
Perhaps it will help (and others may respond) if you can be more specific about what you want to achieve with any f key (why the f10 key?), and not just 'it doesn't work'.
Example: I want to press f10 and have <something - What?> happen.
f10, by default, operates Exposé Application Windows. On your system, it should toggle the keyboard backlighting in some way.
Come back, and be specific about how you want to use the f keys.
 
I want numerous applications some of which I use now, and others which I don't know of yet, that I will probably use in the future on X11, macos X, remote desktop, VNC and citrix, to be able to recieve the keystrokes F1-F12 when I press them, identically to how they would recieve them on various other computers. And where each of the applications has their own binding for the keystroke, e.g. F3 searches on some window application I'm running through remote desktop, because F3 searches in that application in windows, F9 compiles in emacs on some remote machine that I'm displaying on my X server, because that is what the keystroke is on that remote machine. etc.
 
Post something similar to this info at Hardware & Peripherals, or Networking and Compatibility. The f keys, to help with your questions, are setup for your PowerBook hardware functions. I'm sure there are ways to get what you need, and I now finally understand what you're asking. My reaction is (I could be wrong here), you probably will struggle with keyboard mapping questions due to the nature of the f keys on this PowerBook.
 
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