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Using a Mechanical Keyboard on Mac
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keyboard_arrow_downEvshrug
3772
Community
Mar 23, 2023
Just to supplement this article, I used trial and error to find some of the function key shortcuts for MacOS in my Drop ENTR review! https://drop.com/talk/62256/keys-to-success?utm_source=linkshare&referer=Z2JXCA
Here’s what I found:
Hot keys for controlling the system or media are not labeled on the keys. Drop includes a post card listing the default Fn + Key combos that will do Windows things, but for Mac I had to explore and memorize. You can change the key input in Mac System Preferences and pull up/swap the alt (option) keycap with the Windows (command) cap if you want to make the keys match your muscle memory. The Media controls are the same for Mac as on the Post card for windows but there’s some odd ones as well. I like that you can control four levels of the keyboard brightness, or turn it off. Here’s the default ones I’ve found so far:
Fn + F4: Print (either a document you have open, or highlighted in Finder)
Fn + F8: Duplicate (in finder)
F11: Show Desktop
F12: Show Dashboard (old Widgets feature)
ScrLk: F14 (lowers screen brightness)
Pause: F15 (raises screen brightness)
Fn + Up Arrow: Raise keyboard backlight brightness
Fn + Down Arrow: Lower keyboard backlight brightness
Genjokoan
0
Keyboard Club Member
Jun 18, 2022
Interesting. What Mac & OS is that image from? I cannot recall ever seeing Modifier Keys "Function" on any Mac, ever. And I am going all the back to 1984. :D
HoffmanMyster
2912
Community
Jun 21, 2022
GenjokoanM1 MacBook Pro 13-inch running Monterey. I don't have much experience pre-Big Sur, so not sure how this differs from the Catalina era.
Evshrug
3772
Community
Mar 23, 2023
GenjokoanI still have an iMac running Mojave (and a new M2 Mac Mini Pro running Ventura), let me know if looking at my settings and sharing screenshots might help you :)
(Edited)
whoatacos
100
Jun 14, 2022
Karabiner Elements allows you to remap keys like this as well, also on a per-keyboard basis. It's a bit more detailed and allows you to assign functions, macros, etc to a single key.
HoffmanMyster
2912
Community
Jun 21, 2022
whoatacosInteresting! Thanks for the heads up. Took a quick glance and it seems like a really feature-rich option for customization. I'll need to tinker with it a bit more and will likely add it as a more advanced option.
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Solution 1 - Remap within System Settings on Mac The easiest and most universal solution is to change the mapping within System Settings on Mac; software remapping will work with any keyboard, regardless of whether the keyboard is compatible with popular remapping solutions like QMK or VIA. This works on a per keyboard basis, meaning that the changes you make to your mechanical keyboard will not affect the layout of your laptop and/or Apple-branded keyboard.
- Open the macOS Keyboard settings (Spotlight Search “Keyboard”, or System Settings -> Keyboard)
- Click “Modifier Keys…” (lower right)
Remap the Cmd and Opt keys as desired (left key description is the physical keyboard, drop-down menu selection is the software action to map)Solution 2 - Remap the keyboard itself This is significantly more difficult (though made easier and easier thanks to community tools - don’t be scared away if it interests you) and requires a keyboard that can accommodate custom mapping (Drop CSTM65, CSTM80, Alt, Ctrl, and Shift are easily remapped, while Drop Entr cannot be remapped—use Solution 1 above for Entr). The downside to this solution is that the key remappings are hard-coded into the keyboard logic itself, so if you move the keyboard back and forth between Mac and Windows machines, the layout will now be reversed on the Windows computer. Hardware remapping to swap Cmd and Opt is really only the ideal solution if you only use Macs and you are also interested in remapping other keys which cannot be configured in software (most common in a more custom layout board). I won’t be going into detail about the remapping process here, as it is more advanced and each method has its own detailed instructions already. Drop Configurator
Instructions for Drop Alt
Instructions for Drop Ctrl
Instructions for other keyboards
How to remap the Function keys The question of how to remap Function keys has come up a lot over the years, so it’s worth addressing specifically. This functionality is not built into macOS itself. One of two workarounds is required—either remapping the keyboard itself, as described above (Solution 2 for swapping Cmd/Opt), or using software to remap. Software is by far the easiest and most universal solution here. It works for any and all keyboards, including our Entr and Lord of the Rings keyboards.