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Fn key - Don't you think it's in the wrong place?

onthecouchagain

onthecouchagain

macrumors 604
Original poster
Mar 29, 2011
7,382
2
Shouldn't the Fn key really be on the right side of the keyboard? (This applies to the bluetooth wireless keyboard that pairs with the desktop too). Fn with the arrow keys allows for "page down/up" and serve as "home" (direct to top of page) and "end" (direct to bottom of page). Likewise, Fn+Delete equals Forward Delete.

Shouldn't the Fn key then be on the right side so you can accomplish these presses with one hand? It's kind of annoying I have to use both hands to accomplish these presses. Also, when you go back and forth from the Air/bluetooth keyboard to say a full keyboard, the bottom left isn't Fn anymore, it's Control, so that can be confusing too.

Just seems to make more sense to me...?
 
jamesvdm

jamesvdm

macrumors regular
Mar 28, 2011
149
2
Perth, Australia
The right hand always operates Delete and the arrow keys, and your left hand is always on the keyboard, so it makes sense as a two handed operation.

I don't mine it bottom left because it keeps control, option and command side by side, and my Lenovo laptop at work has this configuration too. Lenovo take a lot of care with their keyboards so if they went ahead with this layout you know it's a good idea.
 
alphaod

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
The Fn key is always on the left side with almost every notebook layout on the market. Usually the debate is if it's better to have the Fn key to the right or to the left of the Control key.

That said, on the wired full keyboard, the Fn key replaces the Insert key (and therefore is on the right side), and in the this layout, it's quite annoying to operate as it's different from every other keyboard (and since it has dedicated page up and down buttons, etc., the position is even more inconvenient).

Just my opinion, Fn on the left, thereby requiring both hands is substantially faster to operate (and less awkward).
 
Carlanga

Carlanga

macrumors 604
Nov 5, 2009
7,132
1,409
well, you can also use the command key to do page up & down w/ the arrow keys and so on... at least on my old macbook running Lion.
 
funkyc

funkyc

macrumors regular
Sep 20, 2008
188
0
actually on my keyboards (both my bt wireless apple kb and my 2010 15" mbp kb) fn+up arrow=page up, fn+down arrow=page down and cmd+up and down arrows is the direct to top of page, bottom of page

Is it just me or is urs special?

and I agree it's exactly where it should be, I think if it was on the left hand side it'd be awkward to press the fn key and other buttons simultaneously. In windows (I use both osx and windows on my mbp) I have to use the fn+ the f keys at the top to do some stuff so I think two handed process is better and more comfortable
 
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