I've been using a Mac for just about a year now and I still can never remember if a shortcut requires shift, ctrl, alt/ option, command, or any combination of the above. For whatever reason, the allocation of shortcut keys just isn't intuitive to me. In spite of using the print screen command on a Mac regularly (Shift-Apple-3 or Shift-Apple-4, not to mention the spacebar toggle), I get lapses in my memory. In comparison, despite not having used a PC in eons, I can still remember it is Alt-Print Screen! What's up?
I also forget the force quit combination (Alt-Command-Esc) while ctrl-alt-delete has become a catchphrase for me in regular conversation. (Why? PC hang ah? Ctrl-Alt-Delete lah!)
In a PC, accessing anything on the menu bar uses ctrl. Ctrl is the first line of shortcut keys. If you require a second shortcut key, it would be alt. But on a Mac? Who knows? To access my Calculator, it is Alt-Command-C. To get Quicksilver, it is Ctrl-Spacebar; spotlight Apple-Spacebar. To save, copy, paste, it is Command-S, -C, or -V. Not to mention the mysterious Fn key. Now, what in the world is the Fn key for? (Actually, I don't want to know. Having an extra shortcut key ups the number of possible permutations to a terrifying number.)
Is there a reason to this madness that I am not grasping?
Monday, December 24, 2007
A Mac gripe
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2 comments:
The FN (Function) key is pretty standard on all Windows-powered laptops; it is used to control hardware functions such as volume, screen brightness, etc.
For some weird reason, MacBooks and MacBook Pros come by default with the FN key turned off. If you go to the 'Keyboard & Mouse' system pref, you will find, under the 'Keyboard' tab, an option to 'Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys'. Once this is checked, you adjust, say, screen brightness, by tapping FN-F2. This frees up the F1 to F12 keys for other usage.
This chart may be of some use to you.
Some of this behavior is driven by the application, not the operating system. I think at one time, Apple encouraged all software developers to use consistent shortcut keys, but, obviously, its control over such things is limited.
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