New Apple keyboard and function key layout?

[scottmso]

Hey all:

My old Apple wired slim keyboard (model A1243) recently died, so I went to the store and bought a similar and newer model (A1242) that does not have a keypad (only because this model was on sale for a good price.)

It works fine with my MacBook running Snow Leopard, but I have issues on my other system running Leopard 10.5.4. (At the moment, I can't update it to 10.5.8 or Snow Leopard for a certain reason.) The function keys are the newer layout (F3 for Dashboard, F4 for Exposé, F7-F9 for iTunes control, F10-F12 for volume control).

However, it functions with the "old" layout as shown in Preferences (F9-F11 for Exposé, F12 for Dashboard, etc.) I would suppose that this may be because I'm running an older version of OS X (that predates the keyboard, originally released in 2009 with older iMac models) and that my version of OS X is not familiar with this model of keyboard. Is there any solution for this without updating to a newer version of OS X?

And why is it that on a Mac with a newer layout keyboard (as with the one built-in on my Late 2007 MacBook or the aforementioned slim keyboards when properly working) the functions of the keys shown in the System Preferences are clearly inconsistent with the actual functions? For instance, F10-F12 control volume, whereas System Preferences shows that they control Exposé and open Dashboard.

Any advice appreciated, thanks

-scott

 

[450]

IIRC those are dedicated buttons for dashboard, etc. You aren't actually using the F-keys. The F-keys have to be used by holding down the Fn key first.

 

[UnknownSouljer]

IIRC those are dedicated buttons for dashboard, etc. You aren't actually using the F-keys. The F-keys have to be used by holding down the Fn key first.

This is true.
However if you're an "F" key fan then you can change them back to F-keys in System Preferences and reverse it so the Fn key does the dedicated buttons.