Comments on: How do I reprogram a key on my Mac?

Question: How do I reprogram a key on my Mac?

The corpse in the library — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 15:06:00 -0800

How do I reprogram the "end" key on my PowerBook?

I knocked the "page down" key off my PowerBook's keyboard. How can I reprogram the little-used "end" key to work as a "page down" key? It seems like it should be so simple, but I can't figure out how. I'm running Mac OS 10.3.9.

By: nathan_teske

nathan_teske — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 16:01:03 -0800

I can't remember off-hand, but if you walk your Powerbook into any Apple store, they'll probably be able to replace your end-key on the spot.

By: todbot

todbot — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 16:08:08 -0800

How did you knock off the "page down" key? If you've popped off the keycap and lost it or broke the clasps on it, and the white 'scissors' still exist, you could pop off the "end" key and snap it on to the "page down" location. I've popped keys off-and-on my Powerbook many times with no ill effects. Here is what the white scissor bits look like under the keycaps.

By: skynxnex

skynxnex — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:15:52 -0800

If you do a Google search for os x remap keyboard you find some very promising results. In general, what you want to do is called "remapping" and not "reprogramming". (To list some of the results: uControl might work; DoubleCommand also seems almost exactly what you want; and fKeys seems less mature but possibly more configurable.)

By: designbot

designbot — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:16:53 -0800

It involves some twiddling with text files, but this should set you on the right track.

(Really, though, might as well just fix the broken key.)

By: patricking

patricking — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 21:21:30 -0800

these folks sell keyboard replacements and parts. snoop around; they have single replacement keys. might be more worthwhile. a lot of keys are hard to re-map. i ran into this on my pro keyboard when trying to use the damned F14-F16 keys (info here, in case anyone's looking).

By: The corpse in the library

The corpse in the library — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:17:44 -0800

Since people asked... I broke it off while trying to get some crud out from under it. I took it to an Apple store and they want a few hundred bucks to fix it -- they say they'd have to replace the entire keyboard, because the little rubber nubby bit is gone too.

Thanks for the tips. I'll try them out.