Function keys in Windows control Mac

I am totally new to Parallels. Just installed it on a trial basis, in fact. I've gotten Windows XP up and running in Lion with Parallels, and I installed WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS (don't ask why; it's too complicated). WordPerfect for DOS depends heavily on keyboard control and using the alt, shift, and control key in combination with function keys.

Problem: Word Perfect understands a function key all by itself, but it doesn't recognize a function key in combination with the alt, shift, or command key. In fact, Command-F5 initializes the Mac's voice over feature. I have now deactivated that keystroke combo in Mac, but Word Perfect still doesn't get the keystroke combo.

Question: Is there a way to isolate the keyboard completely from the Mac environment so that Windows operates as if it is running via Boot Camp without the Mac in the background? (I can't install XP via Boot Camp because Lion doesn't support anything but Windows 7. I also can't install Windows 7 because WordPerfect doesn't run in Windows 7, and I need to run the old Word Perfect.)

 

There's a keyboard section in Parallels preferences.

 

Yes, there is, but . . .

. . . It seems only to emulate keystrokes that one might make on a PC's keyboard. It does not seem to provide an option to divorce keyboard input from the Mac environment entirely--or to isolate the keyboard input within the Windows environment.

If the keyboard control is the only place to go for such issues, then it looks like Parallels isn't the solution to my problem. That same issue with Fusion is why I wound up installing XP via Boot Camp on the older iMac.

Alternatively I had hoped to create a FAT-formatted partition on my hard disk and clone my other iMac's Boot Camp contents to it, but I wasn't able to figure out how to pull that off and wasn't sure it would boot even if I managed to do it.

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UPDATE: I think I just fixed the problem. It involved a keyboard setting on the Mac side of the house. While the key combos are a little different, I now seem to be able to access all the menus in WP that I was able to access in Boot Camp. Thanks for mentioning the keyboard settings, though, because that gave me an idea for a knowledge base search that led me to the solution.

 

Maybe you want to share your solution so others can find it?

 

Didn't think of that. Figured I was one of the few on the planet that gave a rip about it. From what I can tell so far, it's not a perfect solution but it's enough of one that I can still work with Word Perfect for DOS. I mean, how many people still use that program?

I went to System Preferences on the Mac side, clicked Keyboard, and then checked "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys. When this option is elected, press Fn key to use he special features printed on each key."

Once I did that I was able to start WP 5.1 and get the Control-function key features by clicking option-function key. The function key by itself worked from the get go. I haven't explored it fully enough yet two be able to offer a more complete assessment of the effectiveness of this little routine, but so far so good.

 

Bought the program

To conclude this thread, I've found that I can do everything in Windows XP via Parallels that I could do in XP itself in its native Windows/PC environment, including running WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS as if I were running it in XP or DOS. As a special bonus, both XP and Word Perfect for DOS run much faster in Parallels on my Mac than they ever did natively on a PC computer. The geniuses who were able to pull this off deserve special accolades that go far, far beyond their monetary compensation. Thank you, Parallels, for the staggering intellectual feat that your desktop emulation program represents.

 

Has anyone had a problem getting the cursor to move a whole word at a time? I have been searching for a shortcut for that. Normally it would be control-arrow, but it isn't working for me.

 

Control-arrow works fine for me in Word, Notepad etc., in Windows 7 inside Parallels 7 on my MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard.

 

This helped me also. I was able to run a Windows 98 program that runs in Dos. Going to the mac side and setting the preferences for the function key allowed them to work. The function keys were required for every important step in the program so this answer was great.

 

Does anyone have a better answer to this? I want to use my function keys as shortcut keys on the Apple side .. And on the Windows side I want to use them as function keys.