How to map F keys on 3rd party keyboard?

[JayMBP]

I recently bought a mechanical keyboard on eBay for a better typing experience.

The keyboard is a Mac keyboard per se (having the fn/alt-option/mac keys) but the F1-F15 no longer function the same way as the factory keyboard (F1+F2 for brightness, Expose... so on).

How do I adjust in Mac OS for it to behave just like on an Apple keyboard?

Any comment TIA!

 

[a.coward]

I recently bought a mechanical keyboard on eBay for a better typing experience.

The keyboard is a Mac keyboard per se (having the fn/alt-option/mac keys) but the F1-F15 no longer function the same way as the factory keyboard (F1+F2 for brightness, Expose... so on).

How do I adjust in Mac OS for it to behave just like on an Apple keyboard?

Any comment TIA!

You can try using PCKeyboardHack and/or KeyRemap4MacBook. Both are free.

 

[RMo]

This post is off-topic and should probably be moved an appropriate forum.

That being said, if all you need are standard OS X shortcuts, the Keyboard preferences pane can do that for you. In fact, this is how it worked before Apple made the keyboards with the dedicated keys--for example, F12 for Dashboard. You can find and configure many such keys there.

If you need more than is provided standard, check out third-party utilities like KeyRemap4Macbook (despite the name, it works on any Mac), as the other poster mentioned. I have the original white Apple Bluetooth keyboard which lacks the play/pause key, so I use it to remap that. In the rare event I need that F key, I'm out of luck, but it's easy to temporarily turn off.