Function Key Inversion

[BobZ]

In KiCad, one of my more common keyboard operations is F1 and F2 to zoom in and out respectively.

In 2022 I bought a new Dell laptop. In the previous (yes also a Dell laptop) the function keys were a single keystroke, but in this new one it seemed I had to hit the FN key together with F1 and F2 in order to zoom as desired. Less convenient. I figured this was some sort of BIOS setting and was not so interested in fiddling with that.

But…recently I found that I was getting some surprising results when hitting home (F11) and end (F12) keys. Today I realized that the operation of my FN key was inverted, so I was now getting F1 and F2 without hitting the FN key. What happened?

I googled the topic with words something like “Dell FN key inverted” and quickly found something about the combination of FN+Esc to invert the function of the FN key. Sure enough that works. At some point perhaps I had hit that combination inadvertently.

I do not know how specific this is to Dell as compared to other computers, but I guess it may be of interest to other users of this forum.

[eelik]

Yeah, HP too, and different models have different ways to change that behavior. I don’t remember what worked in my work laptop.

[der.ule]

On my logitech keyboard is the same, FN+ESC locks and unlocks the FN function (like caplocks do for shift), it has an icon of a lock with the word “fn” written inside, like this:

but this are also available

[BobZ]

@der.ule

an icon of a lock with the word “fn” written inside, like this:

You are right! I never looked at it so closely!!

and just now I needed to hit the FN key in order to use the Home key…