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At first sight, the Apple keyboard may look extremely perplexing to a ex-windows user. After all, where did the Start button vanish? The alt key? And what’s this new ‘fn’ button? And there’s no number pad?!
Despite outward appearances, the Mac keyboard is actually almost exactly like a windows keyboard except for a few minor changes (marked above) -
1. The keys marked ‘1’ above represent the Command Key. The command key is very simple to understand. It is the primary key for most purposes. On older Macs, it was the apple key. It’s Mac’s version of the control key. In fact, if you knew any windows shortcuts, like control-p (to print), control-s (to save), etc, most of them can be similarly executed on the Mac by replacing ‘control’ with ‘command’. Example: command-p (to print), command-s (to save).
2. The keys marked ‘2’ above represent the Option Key option key is also known as the alt key and it replaces window’s alt key.
3. The key marked ‘3’ above represents the Control Key. The control key usually functions in combination with the command key (or option key) in shortcuts.
4. The key marked ‘4’ in the above figure represents the fn key.
5. The key marked ‘5’ above represents the Shift Key which serves the same purpose as that in windows computers. (Capitalization, etc)
6. The key marked ‘6’ above represents the Escape Key (Esc)
7. The key marked ‘7’ above represents the Eject Key which (aside from being used in combinations with other modifier keys) can eject a CD from your Super Drive.
8. The key marked ‘8’ above represents the Return Key which serves the same function as the enter key on a windows. The return key may also be called the Enter Key.=
The Function Keys on top of your Mac’s keyboard (F1, F2, F3 and so on) have assigned functions straight out of the box. You can always change what function they perform but their pre-assigned functions are as follows.
Pre-Assigned Functions
F1 - Decrease Screen Brightness
F2 - Increase Screen Brightness
F3 - Mission Control (Lion onwards) / Exposé (Before Lion)
F4 - Launchpad (Lion onwards) / Dashboard (Before Lion)
F5 - No Pre-Assigned Function
F6 - No Pre-Assigned Function
F7 - Previous Track (Or hold down to rewind within Track)
F8 - Play/Pause Current Track (If no track is open, pressing it once will open iTunes, pressing it a second time will play a track)
F9 - Next Track (Or hold down to forward within Track)
F10 - Mute Volume
F11 - Decrease Volume
F12 - Increase Volume
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