A function key is a key on a computer or terminal keyboard which can be programmed so as to cause an operating system command interpreter or application program to perform certain actions. On some keyboards/computers, function keys may have default actions, accessible on power-on. A BlueGene supercomputer cabinet. ... A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system. ... A computer keyboard is a peripheral partially modeled after the typewriter keyboard. ...

A 102-key PC US English keyboard layout with the function keys in orange.

Function keys on a terminal may either generate short fixed sequences of characters, often beginning with the escape character (ASCII 27), or the characters they generate may be configured by sending special character sequences to the terminal. On a standard computer keyboard, the function keys may generate a fixed, single byte code, outside the normal ASCII range, which is translated into some other configurable sequence by the keyboard device driver or interpreted directly by the application program. Function keys may have (abbreviations of) default actions printed on/besides them, or they may have the more common "F-number" designations. Image File history File links Qwerty. ... Image File history File links Qwerty. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ...

Function key schemes on various computer keyboards

• Apple Macintosh: variously no function keys, or function keys F1 through F12, F1 through F15, or F1 through F16 across the top of the keyboard, depending on model.
• Apple Macintosh laptops: F1 through F12, with pre-defined actions for F1 through F7 or F10, depending on model.
• Apricot PC/Xi: six unlabelled keys, each with a LED beside it which illuminates when the key can be used; above the keys is a liquid crystal display—the 'microscreen'—that is used by programs to display the action performed by the key.
• Atari 8-bit family (400/800/XL/XE): four dedicated keys (Reset, Option, Select, Start) at the right hand side or on the top of the keyboard; the XL models also had a Help key. Atari 1200XL had four additional keys labeled F1 through F4 with pre-defined actions, mainly related to cursor movement.
• Atari ST: ten fancy parallelogram-shaped keys in a horizontal row across the top of the keyboard, inset into the keyboard frame instead of popping up like normal keys.
• BBC Micro: red/orange keys f0 to f9 in a horizontal row above the number keys on top of the computer/keyboard.
• Commodore VIC-20 and C64: F1/F2 to F7/F8 in a vertical row of four keys ascending downwards on the computer/keyboard's right hand side, odd-numbered functions accessed unshifted, even-numbered shifted; orange, beige/brown, or grey key color, depending on VIC/64 model/revision.
• Commodore 128: essentially same as VIC-20/C64, but with (grey) function keys placed in a horizontal row above the numeric keypad right of the main QWERTY-keyboard; also had Help key.
• Commodore Amiga: ten keys arranged in a row of two 5-key groups across the top of the keyboard (flush with the ordinary keyboard top row); function keys are 1½ times the width of ordinary keys.
• HP 2640 series terminals: first known instance—late 1970s—of screen labeled function keys (where keys are placed in proximity or mapped to labels on CRT or LCD screen).
• HP 9830: f1–f8 on two rows of four in upper left with paper template label. Also on HP 2640 terminals. An early use of function keys (1972).
• IBM 3270: early models had 12 function keys in a 3×4 matrix at the right of the keyboard, later 24 in two rows on top of the keyboard.
• IBM PC AT and PS/2 keyboard: F1 to F12 usually in three 4-key groups across the top of the keyboard (the original IBM PC and PC XT keyboards had function keys F1 through F10, in two adjacent vertical rows on the left hand side; F1|F2, F3|F4, ..., F9|F10, ascending downwards).
• MCK-142 Pro: two sets of F1–F12 function keys, 1 above QWERTY and one to the left. Also, 24 additional user programmable PF keys located above QWERTY keys.
• Sharp MZ-700: blue keys F1 to F5 in a horizontal row across the top left side of the keyboard, the keys are vertically half the size of ordinary keys and twice the width; there's also a dedicated 'slot' for changeable key legend overlays (paper/plastic) above the function key row.

The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... A MacBook A laptop computer, or simply laptop (also notebook computer or notebook), is a small mobile computer, which usually weighs 2. ... The Apricot PC was Apricot Computers first personal computer made for business use. ... Led is also the past tense of the verb to lead Blue, green and red LEDs. ... Reflective twisted nematic liquid crystal display. ... An Atari 800XL, one of the most popular machines in the series. ... A Help key, found in the shape of a dedicated key explicitly labeled Help, or as another key, typically one of the function keys, on a computer keyboard, is a key which, when pressed, produces information on the screen/display to aid the user in his/her current task, such... The Atari 520ST Atari 1040STF with SC1224 color monitor The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially popular from 1985 to the early 1990s. ... A parallelogram. ... The BBC Micro, affectionately known as the Beeb, was an early home computer. ... The VIC-20 (Germany: VC-20; Japan: VIC-1001) is an 8-bit home computer. ... The Commodore 64 is the best selling single personal computer model of all time. ... The Commodore 128 (C128, CBM 128, C=128) home/personal computer was Commodore Business Machines (CBM)s last commercially released 8-bit machine. ... A Help key, found in the shape of a dedicated key explicitly labeled Help, or as another key, typically one of the function keys, on a computer keyboard, is a key which, when pressed, produces information on the screen/display to aid the user in his/her current task, such... Amiga is the name of a range of home/personal computers using the Motorola 68000 processor family, whose development started in 1982. ... The HP2640 and other HP264X models were block-mode smart and intelligent terminals produced by Hewlett Packard using the new 8080 processor. ... Screen Labeled Function Keys ATM in Mercer Island, WA with function keys A special case of Function Keys are keys which are placed in close proximity to screen labels. ... The Hewlett-Packard HP 9830A was the top of the line of the 9800 series programmable calculators, introduced in 1972. ... The HP2640 and other HP264X models were block-mode smart and intelligent terminals produced by Hewlett Packard using the new 8080 processor. ... Clemson Universitys library catalog displayed in a 3270 emulation program The IBM 3270 is a class of terminals made by IBM since 1972 (known as Display Devices) normally used to communicate with IBM mainframes. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Computer keyboard. ...

Action of function keys on various programs, operating systems

In the Mac OS up to Mac OS 9, the function keys could be configured by the user, with the Function Keys control panel, to start a program or run an AppleScript. Mac OS X assigns default functionality to F9, F10, and F11 (Exposé); F12 (Dashboard); and F14/F15 (decrease/increase contrast). On newer Apple laptops, all the function keys are assigned basic actions such as volume control, brightness control, NumLock (since the laptops lack a keypad), and ejection of disks. Software functions can be used by holding down the Fn key while pressing the appropriate function key, and this scheme can be reversed by changing the Mac OS X system preferences. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Sherlock 2 for Mac OS 9 with the new metallic appearance Mac OS 9, introduced by Apple Computer on 1999-10-23, is the last version of the Classic Macintosh Operating System (Mac OS) released before being succeeded by Mac OS X. Upon introduction, Mac OS 9 was advertised as... AppleScript is a scripting language devised by Apple, Inc. ... Mac OS X (official IPA pronunciation: ) is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... Mac OS X 10. ... Dashboard is an application for Apple Computers Mac OS X 10. ... Fn key can also refer to the function keys on a computer keyboard. ...

Under MS-DOS, individual programs could decide what each function key meant to them, and the command line had its own actions (e.g., F3 copied to the current command prompt words from the previous command). The F1 key gradually became universally associated with Help in most early Windows programs. To this day, Microsoft Office programs running in Windows list F1 as the key for Help in the Help menu. Internet Explorer in Windows does not list this keystroke in the help menu, but still responds with a help window. F5 is also commonly used as a refresh key in many web browsers and other applications. Under the Windows environment, the Alt-F4 key is commonly used to quit or close portions of an application. Microsofts disk operating system, MS-DOS, was Microsofts implementation of DOS, which was the first popular operating system for the IBM PC, and until recently, was widely used on the PC compatible platform. ... A command line interface or CLI is a method of interacting with a computer by giving it lines of textual commands (that is, a sequence of characters) either from keyboard input or from a script. ... Microsoft Office is a suite of productivity programs created or purchased by Microsoft and developed for Microsoft Windows, and Apple Computers Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems. ... An example of a web browser (Internet Explorer) showing the main Wikipedia web page. ...

Other function key assignments common to all Microsoft Office applications are: F7 to check spelling, Alt-F8 to call the macros dialog, Alt-F11 to call the Visual Basic Editor and Shift-Alt-F11 to call the Script Editor. In Microsoft Word, Shift-F1 reveals formatting. In Microsoft PowerPoint, F5 starts the slide show, and F6 moves to the next pane.

WordPerfect for DOS is one of the programs that made heavy use of function keys. WordPerfect is a proprietary word processing application. ...

Function Keys are also heavily used in the BIOS interface. Generally upon POST BIOS access can be gained by hitting either a function key or the delete key. In the BIOS keys can have different purposes depending on the BIOS. However, F10 seems to be a fairly wide standard for save and exit which saves all changes and restarts the system. BIOS, in computing, stands for Basic Input/Output System also incorrectly known as Basic Integrated Operating System. ...

See also

• Common User Access