I cannot for the life of me figure out how to program my F keys to do useful things. Since there's no Tab key on the right half of the keyboard, I'd really like to program my F19 key to tab, allowing 1-handed data entry in spreadsheets, but there don't seem to be any instructions on how to do this from Apple or anywhere on the internet. The Keyboard Settings don't seem to allow any flexibility in programming F keys.
MacBook Pro
Thank you! This (combined with the "Services" suggestion below) worked well, except that I had to grant Google Chrome access to control my computer, which is less than ideal from a security perspective. I may just need to grant/revoke access whenever I'm running the functions in Chrome where having an extra Tab key would be useful. I still find it odd that this relatively simple task (assigning actions to unassigned F-keys) is so difficult.
You can create a Quick Action workflow in Automator using a Run AppleScript action and assign a keyboard shortcut by navigating to > System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services.
Another approach (my preferred) is to create an AppleScript in Script Editor, save it to /Users/<short user name>/Library/Scripts and use FastScripts to assign a keyboard shortcut.
tell application "System Events" to keystroke tab
Note that in order to run the script you may need to give apps permission to control your computer by navigating to > System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility.
I use Keyboard Maestro. It's a paid app, but well worth the money. Free trail.
http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/
Here is an example of invoking an applescript app. Where you could send a keystroke.
Another possiblity:
Interesting. I click the play button in Automator and the keystroke Run AppleScript functions as expected. To run the Quick Action with the keyboard shortcut, including in Automator, I first need to run it from the Services menu of whatever app I'm in. This generates an access control popup. Granting access then allows the Quick Action to run with the associated keyboard shortcut for the app that access was granted.
I use BetterTouchTool. Being able to assign functions to the keyboard is not BTT's main task, but it is a nice bonus I take advantage of.
BTT's primary job is to give your a gazillion ways to customize your trackpad and mouse. But it can also create hotkeys and assign functions to your function keys, snap windows similar to what Windows does, assign functions on your TouchBar (if you have one).
But if you want more sophisticated key customization, then rccharles Keyboard Maestro may be the way to go.
You can do some things with System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts to assign a hotkey combo or f-key to an applications menu entry including changing existing menu hotkeys. NOTE: if you go this way, when you enter a menu into the keyboard shortcuts, if it has … in the menu name, that is an ellipse (option-semi-colon) and not 3 periods. For example, I often use System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts to remap Command-Q for my web browser to Command-Option-Control-Q so that I do not accidentally hit Command-Q when I wanted to hit Command-W.
More sophisticated mapping can be down, but it is a bit complicated, sometimes involving creating a "Service" with Automator and assigning that a key. Personally, a 3rd party utility is a better approach.
In my own experience, I tried to use a GUI script that worked outside of Automator and sent System Events keycode and key strokes. Within Automator using a Run AppleScript action, Automator blew up — informing that keycode and key stroke are not supported in Automator on 10.14.4.
Mine blew up before it ever got to the "Automator" wants access... dialogs, which I know how to deal with.
How to program F13-F19
