fn-toggle.app
fn-toggle.app programmatically toggles the
"Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys"
option in macOS System Preferences. A task that is tedious
when done manually, which especially keyboard-heavy users,
such as programmers, tend to do very often.
All it does is that it executes this AppleScript snippet through an Automator-created app:
tell application "System Preferences"
reveal anchor "keyboardTab" of pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
click checkbox 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"Installation
Run make install which installs the following files:
/Applications/fn-toggle.appβ the app containing the script that toggles the setting.~/Library/Services/fn-toggle.workflowβ a service that allowsfn-toggle.appto be invoked with a keyboard shortcut.
(You can run make clean to remove those files again.)
In OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and later, you also need to:
- Open the
fn-toggleapp once either from spotlight or fromApplicationsfolder (it will do nothing but it's needed for the app to appear in the accessibility menu in step 3) - Go to
System Preferences>Security & Privacy>Accessibility>Privacy Click the lock to make changesand tickfn-toggle.appunderAllow the apps below to control your computer.
Usage
Run the app. The fastest way to do it is from Spotlight:
- Press
β + space(or similar) to open Spotlight. - Type
fn,fn-toggle.appshould be the Top Hit. - Hit
Enter.
Enable Keyboard shortcut
- Go to
System Preferences>Keyboard>Shortcuts>Services>General(at the end of the list) and assign a new shortcut tofn-toggleservice
Contact
Jakub RoztoΔil
Alternatives
- https://github.com/Pyroh/Fluor β a really nice menubar application that allows you to automatically change the behaviour of the keyboard's fn keys depending on the active application.