{"id":97953,"date":"2019-08-01T18:55:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T22:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2022-08-26T13:03:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T17:03:22","slug":"the-secret-to-f-keys-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/the-secret-to-f-keys-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret to F-Keying at Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>We use keyboards at home, work and the car. The first keyboard<\/strong> to feature function keys<\/strong> was the 1965 Singer\/Friden 2201 Flexowriter<\/strong><\/a> Programmatic<\/strong> as a standalone word processing system. Each of the function keys was programmable. The familiar 12 F-Keys<\/strong> were introduced in 1984 with the second generation Model M<\/a> keyboard for the original IBM PC<\/strong><\/a>. It had 12 function keys <\/strong><\/em>in 3 blocks of 4 at the top of the keyboard. Over the years, various operating systems and applications have made use of function keys in different ways.<\/p>\n

After you learn this list of F-Key secrets<\/strong>, you can improve your fun at work by F-Keying around<\/strong> in your cube as you work on your project.<\/p>\n

\"F1\"\u2022 F1 – Universal \u2013 Opens a help or support menu in most programs.
\n\u2022 F1 – Apple macOS X – Reduces the screen\u2019s brightness.
\n\u2022 F1 – Some computers\u00a0 – Used it to enter BIOS setup<\/a> during startup.
\n\u2022 F1+WIN – Microsoft Windows –\u00a0 Opens the Microsoft Windows help and support center.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F2\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F2 – Microsoft Windows – Renames a highlighted icon, file, or folder.
\n\u2022 F2 – Microsoft Excel – Edits the active cell.
\n\u2022 F2 – Apple macOS X – Increases the screen\u2019s brightness.
\n\u2022 F2 – Some computers\u00a0 – Used it to enter BIOS setup during startup (Acer<\/a>, Asus<\/a>, Dell<\/a>, eMachines<\/a>, Gateway<\/a>, Lenovo,<\/a> Sony<\/a>).
\n\u2022 F2+CRTL – Microsoft Word –\u00a0 Displays the print preview window.
\n\u2022 F2+ALT+CTRL – Microsoft Office – Opens the Documents Library.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F3\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F3 – Microsoft Windows – Opens desktop search feature.
\n\u2022 F3 – MS-DOS or Windows command line – Repeats the last command entered.
\n\u2022 F3 – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome and IE) \u2013 Launches the Find bar.
\n\u2022 F3 – Apple macOS X \u2013 Opens Mission Control.
\n\u2022 F3 – Other programs \u2013 Will find the next search value after an initial search is performed.
\n\u2022 F3+CTRL – Microsoft Word – will lowercase any highlighted text.
\n\u2022 F3+SHIFT \u2013 Microsoft Word – Toggles between capitalizing each word, lower case and upper case for the selected text.
\n\u2022 F3+WIN – Microsoft Outlook – Opens the Advanced find window.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F4\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F4 – Microsoft Windows 95 to XP \u2013 Open find window in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer.
\n\u2022 F4 – Apple macOS X \u2013 Accesses dashboard.
\n\u2022 F4+ALT \u2013 Boss key<\/strong> – Microsoft Windows – Immediately closes the current program without saving. It can be used in an emergency to close browser windows you don\u2019t want others to see.
\n\u2022 F4+ALT \u2013 Microsoft Windows – When no program is running it launches the Shutdown dialog box.
\n\u2022 F4+CTRL – Microsoft Word \u2013 Repeat the last action performed.
\n\u2022 F4+WIN\u00a0 –\u00a0 Closes the open window or tab in the active window.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F5\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F5 – Microsoft Windows – Reload the page, document, or contents list in a folder.
\n\u2022 F5 – Microsoft Office \u2013 Open the find, replace, and go to window.
\n\u2022 F5 – Microsoft PowerPoint \u2013 Starts a slideshow in PowerPoint.
\n\u2022 F5 – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE) – Refreshes a web page from the cache.
\n\u2022 F5 – Apple macOS X \u2013 Increases the keyboard backlight.
\n\u2022 F5+CTRL – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE) – Forces a hard refresh of the web page from the server instead of the browser cache.
\n\u2022 F5+CTRL+SHIFT – Microsoft Word \u2013 inserts a bookmark in Word doc.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F6\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F6 – Microsoft Windows desktop – Tabs from desktop files to the taskbar and the system tray icons.
\n\u2022 F6 – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE) – Move the cursor to the address bar.
\n\u2022 F6 – Apple macOS X \u2013 Decreases the keyboard backlight.
\n\u2022 F6 – Reduce laptop volume (on some laptops).
\n\u2022 F6+CTRL+SHIFT – Microsoft Office – Opens to another document.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F7\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F7 – Microsoft Office Suite \u2013 Spell and grammar check a document.
\n\u2022 F7 – Mozilla Firefox – Places a moveable cursor in web pages, allowing you to select text with the keyboard (Caret browsing).
\n\u2022 F7 – Apple macOS X \u2013 Can be used to rewind media content.
\n\u2022 F7 – Increase speaker volume (on some laptops).
\n\u2022 F7+SHIFT – Microsoft Office Suite –\u00a0 Runs a Thesaurus check on the word highlighted.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F8\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F8 \u2013 Microsoft Windows – Enter the Windows Start Menu, to access Windows Safe Mode (if pressed during the boot process).
\n\u2022 F8 – Apple macOS X \u2013 Can be used to pause media content.
\n\u2022 F8 \u2013 Used by some computers to access the Windows recovery system, but may require a Windows installation CD.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F9\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F9 – Microsoft Word \u2013 Refresh document.
\n\u2022 F9 – Microsoft Outlook \u2013 \u201cSend and Receive All folders\u201d email.
\n\u2022 F9 – Reduce laptop screen brightness (on some laptops).
\n\u2022 F9 – Apple macOS X \u2013 Can be used to fast forward media content.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F10\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F10 – Microsoft Windows \u2013 Activates the menu bar of an open application.
\n\u2022 F10 – Browsers (Firefox and IE) – Shows the Menu bar.
\n\u2022 F10 – Apple macOS X \u2013 Can be used to mute the speaker.
\n\u2022 F10 – Some computers – Increase laptop screen brightness.
\n\u2022 F10 – Some computers – Used it to enter BIOS setup during startup (Compaq<\/a>, HP<\/a>).
\n\u2022 F10+SHIFT – Microsoft Windows \u2013 The same as right-clicking on a highlighted icon, file, or Internet link pops out the context menu.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F11\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F11 – Microsoft Windows Explorer \u2013 Enter and exit full-screen mode.
\n\u2022 F11 – Microsoft Excel – Adds a graph of highlighted cells.
\n\u2022 F11 – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE) – Enter and exit full-screen mode.
\n\u2022 F11 – Apple macOS X \u2013 Can be used to decrease the speaker volume.
\n\u2022 F11+CTRL – Microsoft Excel – Adds a new macro to the workbook.
\n\u2022 F11 –\u00a0 Used to access the hidden recovery partition<\/a> when pressed during boot (Compaq<\/a>, HP<\/a>, Dell<\/a>, eMachines<\/a>, Gateway<\/a>, and Lenovo<\/a>).
\n\u2022 F11+SHIFT – Microsoft Excel – Adds a new sheet to the workbook.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"F12\"<\/p>\n

\u2022 F12 – Microsoft Office \u2013\u00a0 Open the Save as window.
\n\u2022 F12 – Browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE) \u2013 Opens browser debug tool.
\n\u2022 F12 – \u2022 F11 – Apple macOS X \u2013 Can be used to increase the speaker volume.
\n\u2022 F12 – Used to access the list of bootable devices on a computer when pressed during boot, allowing you to select a different device to boot from (e.g., hard drive, CD or DVD drive, floppy drive, USB drive, and network).
\n\u2022 F12+CTRL – Microsoft Word \u2013 opens a document.
\n\u2022 F12+SHIFT – Microsoft Word \u2013 Saves the Microsoft Word document (like Ctrl+S).
\n\u2022 F12+CTRL+SHIFT – Microsoft Office \u2013 Prints a document (Like Ctrl+P).<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Newer Apple keyboards have F13, F14, and F15 keys for even more F-Keying around – in place of the Print Screen, Lock key, and the Pause key. They also have F16 – F19 keys above the number pad. Early IBM keyboards had F13 through F24 keys, but these keyboards are no longer used.<\/p>\n

To access all the fun of F-Keying<\/strong> you may need to access Fn Lock key or the “Fn key”+\u201cFn Lock\u201d key to strike F-Keying gold.<\/p>\n

rb-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Even<\/a>There’s nothing like F-Keying at\u00a0 work to make you more efficient<\/strong>. It may feel somewhat strange the first time you try to control your computer from the keyboard since we’re so used to navigating with the mouse. But, you can’t beat the ability to keep your hands on the keyboard.<\/em><\/p>\n

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