How do I press the Fn key using a PC keyboard on a Mac?
You can use an application like ControllerMate to assign custom actions/scripts to keys and controllers.
I found this post helpful:
http://david.rothlis.net/keyboards/microsoft_natural_osx/
The Function keys (F1, etc) behave as such (as opposed to brightness, volume, etc), regardless of what you set in the Keyboard preference pane. If you press “F Lock” the F keys simply do nothing. Luckily the F Lock remembers its setting across reboots.
There is no Fn modifier key as on the Mac keyboards.
KeyRemap4MacBook allows you to map the F keys to the usual brightness, volume, etc. but then you’d lose the normal F keys.
The Fn key on mac keyboards is a hardware driven feature.
What are you trying to accomplish?
I have a Microsoft Wireless keyboard attached to my MacBook Pro and can do much of what the function keys do from this -- once I installed the drivers.
For example, I can:
- hit the volume, mute keys and play/pause to control audio
- hit the "mail" key to go back to mail
- I have F keys for Exposé features (e.g. F9 for all windows display, F10 for application windows
(Note that in Keyboard Preferences, I have "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" checked)
I think the only feature that Fn provides that I cannot duplicate on the Microsoft keyboard is brightness control