How do you remap F4 to the Dashboard in Mavericks?

Update from someone running El Capitan (10.11.6) on a 13-inch Retina MBP from early 2015 (Danish keyboard layout):

I've successfully gotten Dashboard to appear on my F4 key, whilst retaining the Apple media functions for the rest of F-keys. Thank you so much to all who contributed to this thread, I hated Launchpad and missed Dashboard dearly.

To recap what I did:

Step 1: Download and install FunctionFlip (http://kevingessner.com/software/functionflip/).

Step 2: Set up FunctionFlip so that it flips all F-keys except the F4 key.

Step 3: Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard and make sure there is a check mark at Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys.

Step 4: Staying in the System Preferences -> Keyboard setting, go to the Shortcuts tab on the top.

Step 5: On the left hand side, click on Launchpad & Dock. Make sure Show Launchpad is unchecked.

Step 6: On the left hand side, click on Mission Control. The Show Dashboard should be checked and now you should change it's shortcut to F4.

All done and everything is bliss.

danakasind,

go back into the Keyboard pane of System Preferences and select its Keyboard tab. Is its “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” checkbox checked, or is it unchecked? If it’s checked, then you’d need to press Fn-F4 to have it show the Dashboard, if F4 hasn’t been mapped to anything other function.

Next, select its Shortcuts tab. On the left-hand side, select Launchpad & Dock, and ensure that the Show Launchpad checkbox is unchecked. After that, select Mission Control on the left-hand side. On the right-hand side, check the Show Dashboard checkbox, and click where it says F12; it will reveal itself as an input. Press F4 to replace F12 with F4.

I’m running 10.9.1, and this works on my MacBook Pro.

danakasind,

if you follow the instructions in the Shortcuts tab paragraph in my last reply, then F4 will show the Dashboard no matter whether the “Use all F1, F2, …” checkbox is checked or unchecked.

danakasind,

yes, mine works.

To change the Show Dashboard shortcut to F4, I find that it needs to be checked first before it will let me change the particular shortcut.

I’ve tried setting my “Use all F1, F2, …” checkbox to both checked and unchecked, and when I assign my Show Dashboard shortcut to F4 and hover over it, it shows F4 in both cases. However, right after changing it to F4, I have to select a different shortcut section on the left-hand side and reselect Mission Control for the hover value to match the newly set value. Perhaps your earlier deletion of that .plist file is having an effect with your current attempts?

I'm having a similar problem. Had to replace my iMac keyboard and the new one has Launchpad mapped to F4 instead of Dashboard.

I tried Melophage's suggestion, but remapping Dashboard to F4 in Preferences only works if I keep "Use all F1, F2..." checked. If I uncheck it, F4 does nothing.

The problem with this, of course, is if you check the "Use all F1, F2..." option, you lose the audio controls on F7-F12, and I do not see a way to remap those. (You can, however, remap the brightness controls back to F1/F2).

So... any way to resolve this without resorting to 3rd party software?

Thanks! 🙂

Lame sauce indeed.

As someone who uses multiple widgets throughout the day, this *****. I now have Dashboard mapped to the wheel button on my mouse, so hopefully I'll get in the habit of using that instead. But I find it ridiculous that Apple would hard-code this into the keyboard and the OS with no way to reliably change it without breaking something else.

So much for "Apple - It just works." Now it's, "It just works... until it doesn't." 😟

While assigning the Dashboard to my mouse wheel is not the most ideal solution, it has allivaited this issue on my end. Thanks for that suggestion ikcizokm

For anyone seeking a third-party solution, FunctionFlip will do this by simply changing single function keys to be used as the F# rather than the hard-coded keyboard shortcut.

http://kevingessner.com/software/functionflip/

To wit my goal was to change the now defunct dashboard key (F4/Dashboard) into the shortcut for my Notification Center (NC). I set F4 to open NC, but would have to either hit Fn+F4 every time I wanted to see the NC or switch all the hard-code buttons to their respective F1-F12 buttons. FunctionFlip fixes this. Current version history suggests it is compatible up to Mavericks; I am not certain if compatibility for Yosemite is planned.

Thank you so much, was so let down, but thanks to this app it worked haha its awesome xD >_< i don't like the launchpad DDDD: grrr <.<

After changing F12 to F4 as Melophage suggested down below:

go back into the Keyboard pane of System Preferences and select its Keyboard tab. Is its “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” checkbox checked, or is it unchecked? If it’s checked, then you’d need to press Fn-F4 to have it show the Dashboard, if F4 hasn’t been mapped to anything other function.

Next, select its Shortcuts tab. On the left-hand side, select Launchpad & Dock, and ensure that the Show Launchpad checkbox is unchecked. After that, select Mission Control on the left-hand side. On the right-hand side, check the Show Dashboard checkbox, and click where it says F12; it will reveal itself as an input. Press F4 to replace F12 with F4.

Now you need to go into "Mission Control" Preferences in the System Preferences Pane and Turn ON Dashboard in the drop down menu. You will be able to use it "As Overlay" or "As Space". For some reason It comes "Off" by default nowadays…

Thanks - FunctionFlip works fine, also in macOS 10.12.2.

Almost bliss...

The brightness and volumen keys don't repeat when holding the keys down, once they've been flipped using FunctionFlip.

Anyone got suggestions?