Third Party Keyboards

[cshephard]

Hi

 

I have 7 new mac mini's which will be going out soon. We decided not to buy apple keyboards as the ones we currently have seem to get broken easily. We instead went for some Cherry ones. I have found that the function buttons along the top do not work. Does anyone know of a good way to make the function buttons work the same as on the apple keyboards?

 

I did come across a piece of software called Karabina which was able to do it only for individual users. I need to be able to change this for anyone who logs on.

 

Thanks for your help

[Garacesh]

Does anyone know of a good way to make the function buttons work the same as on the apple keyboards?

Is this really such a huge issue?

 

Most likely the user will A) not use them or B) use them in conjunction with whatever logo is on they key?

Say for example (And I'm guessing based on the Macbook sat next to me..) that F1 is the standard decrease brightness for Apple machines. If the keyboards you've purchased have that bound to F6, and F6 has the 'decrease brightness' logo on it, why do you want to make it F1? That's only going to confuse your end-users more.. (Or do you have no logos at all on the keyboard and you're hoping your users have memorised the default functions?)

 

Edit: Unless you mean you want F# to work without needing FN. In which case, usually there's an option in BIOS for that. Never seen it on a 'desktop' PC, only ever on laptops. I don't even know if Apple kit have BIOS (or equivalent..)

Edited November 2, 2015 by Garacesh

[cshephard]

This keyboard does have symbols on for iTunes controls and sound controls, but when you press them, they don't work. I think one is set to hot corners or something? and its set brightness to F14 and 15. I don't mind them being different, just would be nice to be able to control them from the keyboard still.

 

Would be so handy if this Key app I mentioned earlier would apply to system rather than user. I tried keyboard shortcuts in the system prefs but nothing there for volume. If theres no way, I may just have to leave a sound icon on the top bar.

[Garacesh]

When you say 'iTunes controls' - are you sure they're actually iTunes controls, or are they just non-specific controls that you're assuming should work for iTunes? For example, at home I recently purchased a Razor Blackwidow Chroma. It has Play/Pause/Stop/Next track/Previous track buttons. These buttons work in Windows Media Player, but not in VLC Media Player. It's possible (I'd say likely, but can't confirm for sure) your keyboard is configured for Windows and the [Process by which commands are issued from a keyboard to an operating system] is different between operating systems.

 

Read the manufacturer's opinion. See what it says about them. Check their official website, maybe there's a set of Mac drivers?

Edited November 3, 2015 by Garacesh