Whats with the ThinkPad Fn and Ctrl switch?

So I purchased my first ThinkPad ever and I noticed that all ThinkPads switch the Fn and Ctrl keys. What is the purpose? Is the Fn key expected to be used frequently by ThinkPad owners in order to be productive? Not only are they switched, but there is even the option to lock the Fn key (Fn + Esc) so that you can use Fn keys exclusively.

What is the rationale for this?
Where can I find a list of what the Fn keys do?

Would be interested to here from long time ThinkPad users and loyalists.

-Soul

 

The rationale was that the switched positions somehow increased the respective usabilities of the keys. You can easily swap the Fn and Ctrl keys in the BIOS.

I think that in modern Thinkpads, the Fn buttons are preset to various system functions (on my T440s, for instance, F1 is mute, F2 is volume decrease, etc.). Fn+esc locks the Fn keys to preserve their usual function.

 

That's the way IBM (as well as Apple) had it from day one, and no one in their right mind would have dared argue with them about a keyboard layout two decades ago.

The other manufacturers started moving the keys around over the course of time, for whatever reason.

Fn key combination perform different tasks depending on the generation of the machine...no clue on what one could or could not do with Yoga...

On the "old" 7-row it was Fn+F3 for turning the LCD off, Fn+F4 sleep, Fn+F5 wi-fi/BT/WWAN on/off...Fn+F7 to toggle between LCD and external monitor, Fn+Home to increase and Fn+End to decrease screen brightness...Fn+Page Up for ThinkLight...those are the basic ones, there's a couple more, especially on the newer machines...something to do with the touchpad that I always disable in BIOS so I wouldn't know anything about those...

 

Because they can, and we wouldn't have it any other way .

Personally though, I never really noticed the switch between those two keys going from a Staples special (cheap Toshiba) to my first Thinkpad (W520). Took me all of maybe 15 minutes at most to get used to it. And there's no problem going in between them regularly (as my desktop's keyboard is like most other keyboards).

 

I just swap them in the bios.

I can understand the rational of moving the Ctrl key closer to the center, and I guess they need to add a key somewhere in the bottom row, but it still bugs me.

I really dislike not having dedicated volume buttons though. I change volume/mute a lot and having to lose F-Key functionality for that is brutal. Quite frankly I don't know how people can use a computer without F5 or Alt-F4 among numerous other shortcuts.

Of course, on my T440p if you turn Fn-Lock on the key lights up like its damn Christmas and will shine straight into your eyes at maximum brightness regardless of what the screen brightness is set to. Not a problem normally, but in a dark room with minimum screen brightness its pretty damn annoying.

 

The only F key I ever used was the alt+F4. I don't know what the rest do, and if there is any way to customize them. I think if it were possible to customize their functions, then it would make the whole Fn lock worth using. I just can't figure out why the emphasis on the Fn key? It will even light up to tell you that its on or off yet I rarely ever find myself in a situation where I'd want it locked.

 

Well, that's the type of nonsense one has to deal with courtesy of Lenovo changing out keyboard layouts on a yearly basis lately...

I, for one, couldn't tell you what you can or can't do with Fn key nowadays and I've been through more ThinkPads than I'd dare count...while they still sported proper keyboards, that is...

Isn't there some type of user's guide for your machine?

 

Yup there is. Nowhere in the manual does it tell me what the F keys do. It just tells me what the other keys do like mute, volume up/down, etc. which is not very helpful since they are already labelled with a clear diagram.

 

I agree. I miss having the dedicated keys. I just keep it locked so I can refresh. I've resorted to keeping volume at 100% and using my headphone amp as a volume control. That doesn't help though when I don't have headphones plugged in. Also miss the back/forward buttons. Had to make an AHK script to change PgUp/PgDn to browser back/forward.

 

Using F keys here all the time, they are an absolute must in IDEs and orthodox file managers, if you want to work in a fast and efficient way. Hopefully, I'll be able to reverse the new Fn key behavior with some xmodmap magic to defaulting back to F keys instead of the useless multimedia crap.

 

Traditionally the colored text/icons on the keys give you a clue what that key does when pressed with the Fn key. It's not always clear but you can usually figure it out or you could alway post in the lenovo forums, someone with that model will likely answer any questions you may have.

 

Or simply look it up in the god damn manual. Or am I just forgetting that Real Men (tm) (and, I guess, Real Women (tm)) don't read manuals? Seriously, people, have anyone ever heard of "Read This Fine Manual"?

 

They will never be able to describe every single possible function that F keys can do ever, because they can perform as many functions as there applications out there, and even more, as a function of an F key can depend on a context within the application. But those functions usually either described in the manual/help file for the application itself, or shown as a shortcut combination in the application menu next to the actions (virtually every business/productivity/specialized application), or usually can be remapped in any way you want (in games). In most desktop environments on unixes you can also easily find out what F keys do, and on some desktops (like KDE) you can even remap those F keys in any way you want. The only exception I know of that neither tells you in an easy to find way what those F keys do nor allows you to remap them is Windows OS itself.

PS: hm, I seem to remember there were single-keyboard home computers in eighties that had a special space above the Function keys, and programs often were redistributed with a strip that you could put in that space that would have a description for what those keys do in that particular application. Any other oldfags here that remember that?

 

Windows uses F-keys quite sparingly, increasingly relying on Windows+key combinations. But things like F10=menu, Shift+F10=context menu, F2=rename, F5=refresh, F3=search work more or less consistently in OS itself and applications. "Help->Keyboard shortcuts" works too, and produces something along the lines of Keyboard shortcuts - Microsoft Windows Help

 

I know all those keys and combinations well, because I use them all the damn time. I just didn't know where to find out about them, as most of them I learned quite some time ago still in Windows NT 3.1 era

 

I must be missing something here... I thought we were talking about the Fn key (singular) not the F keys (plural).