FUNCTION KEYS Please fix it, it has been too long

[gkratkin]

No, I could live without F5 and F6.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[mdrejhon3]

Oh, right! It's keyboard backlight. I found out they're already defined, just search "keyboard backlight" under the F1..F19 reassignments and the F5/F6 options are already there somewhere.

 

[mdrejhon3]

The layouts for the regular MacBooks (with the thunderbolt ports) have been added to the latest version of KeyRemap4MacBook. No more need to fiddle with custom XML files anymore!

 

[Onionguts]

Excellent. I have had my MacBook Air for two weeks, not being able to use Ctrl+ Arrow keys in Excel was frustrating, problem solved, thank you.

 

[ZakM]

Stopped working with Lion...

Has anyone had the issue that this fix has stopped working in Lion? F9 and Ctrl+Left Arrow seem hard-wired to Dashboard.

Thanks,
Zak

 

[ZakM]

Has anyone had the issue that this fix has stopped working in Lion? F9 and Ctrl+Left Arrow seem hard-wired to Dashboard.

Thanks,
Zak

Sorry, please ignore - I found the solution here:
http://forum.parallels.com/showpost.php?p=453884&postcount=7

 

[mirsep]

Function Keys ON in OSX, Function Keys OFF in Parallels (on with fn key pressed)

RE: Macbook Air Mid 2011

Hello All,

Just thought I would follow up on the excellent post from mdrejhon3.

As stated above, my machine is the mid 2011 mba. The function keys are slightly different on this machine to the ones listed.

I followed mdrejhon3's instructions and enabled/disabled the settings in Parallels as outlined and downloaded the KeyRemap software from their website.

You should make sure that Parallels is off when you install KeyRemap as it needs to restart.

Once it installs and your machine restarts, you should see a square in the top bar. Click on this and open Preferences.

Go to Miscellaneous/uninstall and click open private.xml

This (for me) opened finder.

(two button) or (right) click on the file and open it with TextEdit

When it opens, delete all text in the window.

Copy the following text from between the lines and paste into your blank TextEdit window:

---------------------------------------------------

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
<list>
<item>
<name>Macbook Air: Keyboard Preferences Configured to Standard Function Keys</name>
<list>
<item>
<name>F1,F2 to TS Brightness Adjust (except in Parallels/RDP)</name>
<appendix>F1 to Brightness Down</appendix>
<appendix>F2 to Brightness Up</appendix>
<identifier>TSremap.air_f1f2</identifier>
<not>VIRTUALMACHINE, REMOTEDESKTOPCONNECTION</not>
<autogen>--KeyToConsumer-- KeyCode::F1, ConsumerKeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_DOWN</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToConsumer-- KeyCode::F2, ConsumerKeyCode::BRIGHTNESS_UP</autogen>
</item>
<item>
<name>F3,F4 to TSv3 Expose/Launchpad (except in Parallels/RDP)</name>
<appendix>F3 to Expose</appendix>
<appendix>F4 to Launchpad</appendix>
<identifier>TSv3remap.air_f3f4</identifier>
<not>VIRTUALMACHINE, REMOTEDESKTOPCONNECTION</not>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::F3, KeyCode::EXPOSE_ALL</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::F4, KeyCode::LAUNCHPAD</autogen>
</item>
<item>
<name>F5,F6 to TSv3 Expose/Launchpad (except in Parallels/RDP)</name>
<appendix>F3 to Expose</appendix>
<appendix>F4 to Launchpad</appendix>
<identifier>TSv2remap.air_f3f4</identifier>
<not>VIRTUALMACHINE, REMOTEDESKTOPCONNECTION</not>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::F3, KeyCode::EXPOSE_ALL</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::F4, KeyCode::LAUNCHPAD</autogen>
</item>
<item>
<name>F7,F8,F9 to TSv4 Music Controls (except in Parallels/RDP)</name>
<appendix>F7 to Music Prev</appendix>
<appendix>F8 to Music Play/Pause</appendix>
<appendix>F9 to Music Next</appendix>
<identifier>TSv4remap.air_f6f7f8</identifier>
<not>VIRTUALMACHINE, REMOTEDESKTOPCONNECTION</not>
<autogen>--KeyToConsumer-- KeyCode::F7, ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_PREV</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToConsumer-- KeyCode::F8, ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_PLAY</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToConsumer-- KeyCode::F9, ConsumerKeyCode::MUSIC_NEXT</autogen>
</item>
<item>
<name>F9,F10,F11 TS to Speaker Controls (except in Parallels/RDP)</name>
<appendix>F10 to Mute</appendix>
<appendix>F11 to Volume Down</appendix>
<appendix>F12 to Volume Up</appendix>
<identifier>TSremap.air_f9f10f11</identifier>
<not>VIRTUALMACHINE, REMOTEDESKTOPCONNECTION</not>
<autogen>--KeyToConsumer-- KeyCode::F10, ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_MUTE</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToConsumer-- KeyCode::F11, ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_DOWN</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToConsumer-- KeyCode::F12, ConsumerKeyCode::VOLUME_UP</autogen>
</item>
</list>
</item>
</list>
</root>
----------------------------------------------------------

After pasting....

Press cmd+s to save the document.

Go back to the "Change Key" tab and click "reloadXML"

(Hopefully) at the very top of the list there, you'll see a field called: "Macbook Air: Keyboard Preferences Configured to Standard Function Keys"

Click into this and enable the settings you've just created.

NB: this does NOT include the function keys for the keyboard backlight. This setting can be found through the menu system of the other available functions, please see the image attached.