Skip to Content

FunctionFlip reclaims your function keys

When researching this week's Ask TUAW I ran across a nifty little utility for reclaiming the function keys on a Mac portable or recent Apple external keyboard. Basically, FunctionFlip allows you to set the individual function keys to be regular F-keys instead of those special control keys (brightness, volume, iTunes, etc.).

While the Keyboard Preference Pane will let you flip all of the keys one way or the other, FunctionFlip lets you individually choose which ones you want. That way you can preserve whichever of the control functions you like, but regain access to certain of the F-keys without having to hold down the fn key. It can be a handy way to have your cake and eat it too.

FunctionFlip is a free download (donations requested) from Kevin Gessner.

When researching this week's Ask TUAW I ran across a nifty little utility for reclaiming the function keys on a Mac portable or recent...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

20 Comments

Filter by:
Eric S

Anyone know of a utility to "flip" the arrow keys, so I can access page up & page down w/o having to use the fn modifier?

February 15 2009 at 11:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Will

I wanted to use it because when I VNC into a PC, I wanted the use of
my F9-11 keys, but for some reason, within the VNC window, it now
associates the function keys as completely different keys.

February 11 2009 at 11:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
henZa

Almost what I am after... but not quite! What would be ideal is a way to make the 'FN' key sticky... Like the 'caps lock' one. For some programs I like to use function keys as F1-F19 etc, but then other times I like to use them as their special functions.
Any ideas? A script that changes the property (maybe a defaults write command?) rather than having to launch system prefs would be okay.

February 08 2009 at 10:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John.B

It's not a *bad* idea, but when I need F1 to be F1 instead of the monitor dimmer button, I just hit fn+F1. :shrug:

February 08 2009 at 1:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
gshearman

This is just what I was looking for but now when I try it as well as doing the desired function, e.g. show spaces, my system sound plays each time as well. Quite annoying.

February 07 2009 at 3:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to gshearman's comment
quattro909

YES! Does anyone know how to end the annoying system sound when hitting a "flipped" key?

February 08 2009 at 12:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Will

Just quit system preferences. The sound goes away.

February 11 2009 at 4:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dg

BEAUTIFUL.

This was one of the most annoying things to get used to with my new unibody MBP. I'd like to keep Spaces connected to my F12 key like on my C2D MBP, but unfortunately, I like being able to control my volume easily.

Anyone else think Apple should take a note from Art Lebedev here and give us some OLED-control over the Function keys ...and the new option key that replaced the old enter key too. That's been pretty frustrating for me too. Who uses option so much that they need another one? That enter key was great because it had different functionality from the return/enter key.

February 07 2009 at 4:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joel Wires

Seems promising, but I don't want to get used to something that's not on other peoples' macs that I use. Very cool, just not for me.

February 06 2009 at 8:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Giacomo

This is what I was looking for, thanks!

February 06 2009 at 6:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Charles

it's about fn time. yeah, i just did that

February 06 2009 at 3:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tim

What would be cool is if someone could make a utility that would have the fn key toggle all the function keys, so that you can quickly change it without loading up the system preferences. It could light up the num lock key, which I don't think many people actually use (I could be wrong, I just find it more counterintuitive than it's worth).

February 06 2009 at 12:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.