Hotkeys in MacOS

I recently purchased a sleek MacBook Pro. It’s going well, getting accustomed to my new universe. It’s just like learning French – a horse is a “cheval”, and whatnot.

I had an issue, though, with the F-keys being occupied by hardware functions, when I needed them to navigate through TimeLog Project. A problem, but one which I have now solved.

The thing is that on my PC, I’m used to hopping around TimeLog Project with the F-keys. F12 sends me to the Weekly Timesheet, F7 to the Main Menu, F3 to TimeLog CRM, and so on.

On a Mac, the F-keys are assigned other functions – F3-F5 to control the sound, and F12 for Dashboard Widgets. Each F-key has a worthy function that would be difficult to spare.

I looked for a solution and found it in System Preferences, located in the apple menu. I clicked on Keyboard & Mouse in the Hardware group.

In the Keyboard & Mouse settings, I chose "Keyboard", and ticked "Use F1-F12 keys to control software features". This means, as Apple states below, that software, including TimeLog Project, can use the F-keys. If you want to use the F-keys for hardware functions, then you need to press the Fn-key.

My day was saved (or so I thought). F9 and F12 were still shortcuts to MacOS X, and didn’t work in TimeLog Project. Those are attributed to software that is located in MacOS X, where they are called Dashboard & Exposé.

If I want to steer past them to use the F-keys for TimeLog Project, I have to go into System Preferences again, and choose “Dashboard & Exposé” in the Personal group. I can change my Keyboard Shortcuts here, which now requires that I also hold the Ctrl- and Shift keys down and press F12 to view my Dashboard.

You should think about whether it’s really worth having the shortcut keys work in TimeLog Project, but I will leave it up to individual choice. At the very least, it can be done if absolutely necessary.