• penquin@lemmy.kde.social
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    11 months ago

    What do you do when you need the “F” buttons on those keyboards that don’t have them? Genuine question!

    • Pickle_Jr@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 months ago

      It goes deeper than that. On some of those keyboards, you’ll see that there aren’t even number keys and other somewhat common keys such as ()$&! And more.

      These types of keyboards are almost always programmable. If you’re familiar with the FN key, then these keyboards have more advanced FN keys.

      Press one programmed FN key, the entire keyboard might turn into a functional number pad. Press a different programmed FN key, asdfghj might turn into F1 F2 F3 etc. Press another programmed FN key, you can control media playback, control your mouse, and maybe even have a few macros!

      These keyboards are ortholinear keyboards, that’s what this grid layout is. The firmware to achieve this level of customization is called QMK. It’s not just ortholinear keyboards that have QMK ☺️.