F8, F9, F10, F11, F12 no longer doing the same function

[Italstln13]

Hi. New to mac. I have a macbook pro and have had it for about a month. Ever since I purchased it F8, F9, F10, F11, F12 have all served purposes relating to volume, fastfoward, mute, etc. But now all of a sudden when I go to turn up the sound or turn it down with the F11 and F12 keys the screen clears out when F11 is hit and dashboard appears when F12 is hit. I did figure out that by clicking fn+F11 or F12 will do the volume function. My question is how did this change? I don't believe I did anything to cause this but I don't know. I did click the Expose application this past weekend but have since restarted by macbook pro. Thanks.

 

[ergdegdeg]

Go to System Preferences >> Keyboard & Mouse >> Keyboard, untick "Use all F1, F2 etc keys as standard function keys"

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

That started last summer, possibly before, when Apple introduced the newest, super-thin Aluminum keyboards.....apparently they have chosen to make the same format the defaults on the MB's too.....

And they didn't tell anyone about it then either, so don't feel left out