newbie expose question

Have you checked under System Preferences and then Dashboard and Expose to see what keys are assigned to what function? This should let you re-assign the keys as you like.

 

It would normally be F9, but probably the best thing to do is decide for yourself which keys you want to perform which function – you can allocate your own keyboard shortcuts in System Preferences/Dashboard and Expose.

Even if you don't want to change from the default, you should be able to see here which keys are currently assigned to which task.

 

You can set it to whatever you want in System Preferences -> Dashboard & Exposé. (Edit: Way too slow )

I've always found mousing to Active Screen Corners more effective when dealing with Exposé, though, even if I usually prefer keyboard shortcuts to mousing...

 

If you hold down "fn" towards the bottom left of your keyboard, that flips the F9 - F11 keys from laptop-specific to Exposé. You can switch which set is default in System Preferences.

 

Try hot-corners. Much more convenient, for me anyway. I also setup the 4th (squeeze) buttons on the MM to invoke the "all windows" Expose.

my setup:

UR Expose All Windows
LR Expose Desktop
LL Expose App Windows
UL Dashboard