BUG: How to MAP F KEYS for Windows based Software??

J

jonathan_david

Hunter
Hi All.

I am bedeviled by what appears to be a bug. I started to try to explain this below as there is a checkmark in MAC OSX that either gets F Keys to work the IMAGES that are on these keys or to Activate these while pressing Fn. Obviously one can have this on or off and i am now trying to map these with this option OFF.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15285654/Screen shot 2012-04-26 at 10.47.00 PM.png

Anyway, I am NOW finding that with this option OFF, that I can try to map the F8 key to F8 and the F9 to F9 by quickly and simultaneously hitting Fn and F8 (sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't so you just have to keep at it) adn then it is relatively straightforward to simply hit F8 or F9 when working in the "To" section.

THE PROBLEM NOW IS THAT I CAN'T GET THE F6, F9, F10, F11 or F12 keys to enter into the "From" section. No matter what I do these all activate some Mac functionality and WON'T let me put these F keys into the From section.

This appears to be a bug or can someone otherwise help me with which setting I need to change to make this process easier??

THANKS

I am using a CAD program where the F8 key is typically used to turn on "orthographic mode" in order to restrict your cursor to "orthogonal" instead of "free" movement. I am not able to get this to work in this Windows 7 software.

I am aware of the PREFERENCES section in Paralells for KEYBOARD where it has a checkmark to "Enable Mac OSC System Shortcuts in Parallels" and then /above/ this is a section for "Parallels Desktop Shortcuts" (this is greyed out for some reason that I don't understand) and there is a section for "Virtual Machine Shortcuts" but there is nothing in either of these second two that has to do with the F8 KEY.

If I TRY and ADD a shortcut for the F8 Key by clicking on the PLUS SYMBOL ("+") it does not appear to want to add simply the F8 Key because if I click in the "From" section and hit F8 nothing happens. If I hold down the FN (Function Key) and hit the F8 Key when in this dialog it comes up as Fn + F8 is "8", CTRL + 8 is nothing, Option + F8
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15285654/Screen shot 2012-04-26 at 10.40.04 PM.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15285654/Screen shot 2012-04-26 at 10.41.14 PM.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15285654/Screen shot 2012-04-26 at 10.41.25 PM.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15285654/Screen shot 2012-04-26 at 10.41.37 PM.png

Then in the MAC SYSTEM PREFERENCES there is a Keyboard section with a checkbox that says "Use all F1, F2 etc keys as standard function keys (when this option is selected, press the Fn key to use the special features printed on each key." I have this option CHECKED so that

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15285654/Screen shot 2012-04-26 at 10.47.00 PM.png

- - and all of this is extremely confusing.
 
You have the Mac set to intercept these keys and use them for the special functions printed on the keyboard. That's what happens when:

System Preferences > Keyboard > Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys

is disabled.

With the option set, the F# keys will be handled as standard function keys, and passed straight through to the guest OS.
 
omg. THANK YOU Mr. C (coincidentally this is what my brothers students call him...)

i have been reading this prompt like twenty times and even with your explanation i still had to read it like five times to finally figure this prompt out.

it looks to me like there is an additional factor here in that in the Keyboard Section tab of this section of Preferences the Dashboard and Dock > Dashboard prompt defaults to F12 and I had to turn off this option here to free up the F12 Key and then in the Expose and Spaces I had to uncheck these to free up the F9, F10 and F11.

now if I can only find why F6 /still/ won't work I will be all set...!

THANK YOU!
 
jonathan_david said:
omg. THANK YOU Mr. C (coincidentally this is what my brothers students call him...)

i have been reading this prompt like twenty times and even with your explanation i still had to read it like five times to finally figure this prompt out.

it looks to me like there is an additional factor here in that in the Keyboard Section tab of this section of Preferences the Dashboard and Dock > Dashboard prompt defaults to F12 and I had to turn off this option here to free up the F12 Key and then in the Expose and Spaces I had to uncheck these to free up the F9, F10 and F11.

now if I can only find why F6 /still/ won't work I will be all set...!

THANK YOU!
Click to expand...

You're welcome.

You see in Parallels Preferences > Keyboard, under each of the keyboard profiles that F6 is mapped to Show/Hide Application. You'll want to disable that to pass F6 to the guest.
 
Hi!

Oh god. Thank you. I really do sort of hope they can clean this up more than a little bit or provide some better documentation on this. I found it really confusing and actually was thinking that somehow i had to set these /within/ the actual software that i am running on windows 7. i can see now of course that this is not correct but...

anyway, can i /please/ just ask you one more here in terms of this setting you point out? i mean is there a way to understand why /all/ of these are greyed out but at the same time /only/ the F6 section is "optionable" in the sense that I can turn it on or off? Also, for some reason there is a checkmark or a negative sign alternating at the top and apparently i have no control over the other checkboxes...?

fhttp://dl.dropbox.com/u/15285654/Screen%20shot%202012-04-27%20at%2009.30.57%20PM.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15285654/Screen shot 2012-04-27 at 09.30.45 PM.png

THANK YOU
 
Those greyed-out shortcuts are required. You need a way to :

- get out of full screen
- release the input
- toggle Coherence or Modality mode.

You can change the mapping, but can't delete them.
 
hi. thank you for your help here. it is really invaluable. i am finding that i am missing something here however.

i have Preferences > (Mac) Keyboard Shortcuts and then I have a Parallels Preferences > (Windows) Keyboard (Profile). Then I /also/ have various SOFTWARE BASED SHORTCUTS (such as F8 or CMD+Whatever etc). These are SOFTWARE SPECIFIC. (if these overlap with the OS - - do these get activated when i am in the software and the OS commands are activated when I am "in the OS"??)

Anyway, I ALSO have a setting in Mac Keyboard for "Use All F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" (which I have CHECKED). Apparently this setting is necessary so that the MAC OS will not cut off (or intercept) the WINDOWS F Key functionality by /substituting/ the Mac KEYBOARD ICONS for the F Keys. Having this selection checked means that I can access these icons by pressing the Function Key and then the F Keys with the Icons on them. Otherwise the F Key is active in Mac OS.

SO. My question at this point is that I have F8 keyed to F8 in the Parallels Preferences > Keyboard section but there is /also/ a checkbox here for "Enable MacOSX System Shortcuts". Should this be checked or unchecked?!

I mean, if I want to keep CMD+Option+4 to be Print Screen Window Selection I keep this checked?

And this does not cause anything to be "mapped" to the Windows side since the F8 key is mapped to F8 in Windows Profile in Parallels and the option on the Mac Side allows the F8 Key to "read through"?

Also, what the hey is the terminology for all of this. These are "F Keys" and "Shortcuts"? Is there a difference between a "shortcut" and a "system shortcut" and a "software shortcut"...?

THANKS
 
A quick reply that might help a little...

Disable the option "Enable Mac OS X System Shortcuts". Now switch to one of your Windows apps in the virtual machine. Try the Windows shortcut Command-Tab. Notice that the Windows window switcher operates.

Now, Enable the option "Enable Mac OS X System Shortcuts". Do the same test. This time, you should notice that the Mac's application switcher appears.

To keep in mind:

- The Mac OS's global system (keyboard) shortcut settings take precedence, all else being equal.
- The Parallels application will have its own keyboard settings, and can intercept some Mac OS keyboard bindings when it is the frontmost application. Recall the results from the test above.
- The Windows (or other OS) guest only receives what Parallels passes. Parallels may translated bindings, or pass them unmodified.
- Some keyboard bindings are global to an OS, some are application-specific. Obviously you can't have Command-Tab operate both the Windows application window switching and the Mac OS application switching happening at the same time.
 
I cannot get the F6 key to come off the standard MAC function. All other Fn keys work in my program except the F6 key. I am using an old AS400 program for our company's internal system and the F6 keys allows us to create new entry's (transportation program, allows to create hawb's). Any advice?
 
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