Toggle “Use all F1, F2 as standard keys” via script

Question

I toggle the "Use all F1, F2 as standard keys" setting very often and would like to automate it via a script (or a keyboard shortcut). Is it possible? I've tried to Google the right arguments for defaults write ... but unsuccessfully.

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Update: I ended up creating https://github.com/jkbrzt/macos-fn-toggle based of the answers here.

Update II: There's now also — https://github.com/Pyroh/Fluor — a really nice menubar app that allows you to automatically change the behaviour of the keyboard's fn keys depending on the active application.

Answer 1

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"

You could also use defaults write -g com.apple.keyboard.fnState -bool true, but I don't know any way to apply the changes without logging out and back in again.

Answer 2

I don't know about script but with some handy reverse-engineering and Googling, I made this since I didn't like the existing AppleScript GUI stuff that was out there:

https://github.com/nelsonjchen/fntoggle

Compiled binary (Toss into your PATH or if you don't know what that is then /usr/local/bin/): https://github.com/nelsonjchen/fntoggle/releases

Call it from anything (ControlPlane, Automator, sh, etc) by running fntoggle on or fntoggle off.

This script does not require GUI accessibility to be turned on. It also does not require logging out and back in.

Answer 3

You can read the current state with the following. (1 for F-keys, 0 for media/brightness etc)

defaults read "Apple Global Domain" "com.apple.keyboard.fnState"

You can write it, however it won't change until you reboot. (I tried killing Dock and Finder instead, no luck)

defaults write "Apple Global Domain" "com.apple.keyboard.fnState" "1" ## F1 F2 etc
defaults write "Apple Global Domain" "com.apple.keyboard.fnState" "0" ## Brightness/Media

I suspect somebody with more knowledge on what reads this plist file could write up a script to kill and restart whatever reads this plist, which should make it acknowledge the change.

Answer 4

Actually, you don`t have to run any app with spotlight or anything, the best way in my opinion is to:

1. Create new Service in Automator
2. Drag: "Run Apple script
3. In the "Service recieves selected": choose no input

4. Paste this code from this other answer:

   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" 
   

5. Save as "yourname"

6. Open System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts
7. In the left menu choose: "Services"

8. In the right, scroll all the way down to the General, and assign your service some unique hotkey, I choose cmd+shift+L

9. Thats it! It's not very fast or anything, but you don't have to run any app or go to the Preferences yourself.

Addendum: With EL Capitan this works only when Automator is in focus, otherwise (eg. if you invoke the script via a keyboard shortcut) you get "The action “Run AppleScript” encountered an error" message.

Answer 5

Some AppleScript that might help: Applescript to toggle F1-F11 keys as function keys - MacRumors Forums

Answer 6

Given all the answers I applied the following solution for Yosemite.

Using Automator, I created an app with the following code:

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"

Save it, add it to Applications. To avoid the "AppleScript Editor is not allowed assistive access.", go to System Preferences->Security & Privacy->Privacy tap->Accessibility entry and add your app.

If like me you'd like a shortcut, then in Automator create a new Apple Script with Launch App and select your app. Then go back to System Preferences->Keyboard->Shortcut tabs->Service entry and at the end of the list, assign a shortcut to your script.