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jason2811

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 8, 2006
729
2
I downloaded ByteControll today (lets you controll iTunes through the menu bar) and I tried to set it up so that F8 goes to the next track in iTunes and F7 goes to the previous track. For whatever reason, it wouldn't let me set F7 to do anything. I figured this was because F7 was preset by default to do something else. So I went into Finder and pressed F7 but it seems to do nothing. On the keyboard it has those two little boxes but what does F7 do? How can I disable F7 and enable it to do what I want in ByteController? I tried going into SYSTE PREFERENCES> MOUSE AND KEYBOARD and then tried to set the F7 key in there but it got too confusing. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Are you working on a laptop? You may try pushing fn+F7 to see if that gives the response you're looking for. I believe that the standard F7 key is to change display modes when hooked up to an external monitor or projector.
 
jason2811 said:
anyone else cna offer any more help?

You didn't say whether or not you tried FN+F7, I'm guessing that didn't work for ya?

You may also want to try "Use the F1-F12 keys to control software features" under System Preferences - Keyboard & Mouse - Keyboard. Doing that should allow you to skip using the fn key.

Other than that, I don't know...
 
I believe on a MacBook, F7 turns the video output on and off, if you're hooked up to a projector for example, and you can't reassign that, since it has a symbol for a some kind of hardware function like F1 - F5.. But that's just a guess looking at the symbol on that key and I could be wrong. Maybe if you check "Use F1-F12 for software function" on the keyboard tab of the keyboard and mouse system preference it would let you reassign it.
 
If you look at the keyboard shortcuts menu, it shows that pressing ctrl+F7 "changes the way Tab moves focus." If you type in a random search term into Google.com, you can observe the effect of changing this setting. It alternates between two methods. First method, tab will select only the search fields. The second method, tab will select each of your search bars on the top, each of your bookmarks on your bookmarks bar, and various elements on the page you are viewing. Also, for any of the option in the System Prefences > Keyboard Shortcuts menu, you can hit control+F7 to change any setting you currently have highlighted.
 
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