How to reassign the F4 key to Dashboard?

Here's the Hoodoo:

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Mission Control, select Show Dashboard, and change it to F4.

Aha.

Take a look at system prefs > keyboard > Keyboard and uncheck " Use all F1, F2 etc....".

Hi there,

This is driving me crazy too. I'm on 10.8.5 right now.

System prefs > Keyboard > Keyboard and uncheck " Use all F1, F2 etc...." works but breaks all the single-key functionality on the rest of my keybaord.

There seems to be no option where I can:

1. Retain all the special one-press functionality of the other F-keys (volume, brightness, etc)

and

2. have pressing the F4 key take me directly to the dashbaord

Instead I'm stuck with either having the totally useless Launchpad come up, placing another layer between me and my need for quick access to my calculator widget, or having Dashboard come up but it taking a two more steps to lower the volume of my Mac.

Is there any way I can have my cake and eat it too, or am I stuck wishing for the simpler days of OS 10.6?

Hello 🙂,

This response might be late, but there is a way to switch the keys. There is settings app that you can download and "flip" the control of your function keys. Its called FunctionFlip (http://kevingessner.com/software/functionflip/). If you really dislike the launch pad, you can open the app in your apple settings and click on F4 and it will switch to dashboard. Just make sure to go back to your keyboard shortcut settings and reapply the key to the dashboard as a shortcut. And there you have it. Same works as the other way around. From Widget to Launchpad. You can also modify your play and brightness keys, its just there to give you more control. I don't think its a good idea to disable the brightness or play controls.

-Jasen

Thanks for this! I'm now able to use dashboard on my new Macbook.

YES. This is the best. Karabiner was beyond overkill and this is way better. Havent tried on macOS yet though