JupyterNotebook Mac F Keys How to Enable and Use

Hey everyone, it’s your boy back again with another tech adventure. So, I was fiddling around with my Jupyter Notebook on my Mac the other day, trying to get those function keys (you know, the F1, F2, all the way up to F12 keys) to work properly. It was a bit of a head-scratcher, but I managed to figure it out, and now I’m here to share the journey with y’all.

First off, I noticed that Jupyter Notebook has these two modes it operates in. One is called the “edit mode” – that’s when you’re actually typing your code or text into a cell, and the cell has a green border around it. The other is the “command mode” where your keyboard turns into a shortcut machine, letting you do all sorts of things without having to click around with your mouse.

Starting My Journey

I started by diving into the world of keyboard shortcuts, or as some folks call ’em, “hotkeys” or “keybindings.”

These bad boys are supposed to let you navigate and do stuff in Jupyter just by pressing a few keys. I was all excited to avoid the constant mouse action and be a keyboard ninja.

The Problem I Faced

But here’s where I hit a snag. I’m on a Mac, and I noticed that the usual shortcut for running cells, which used to be Ctrl + Enter, had suddenly changed to ⌘ + Enter. What’s up with that? Plus, my function keys weren’t doing what I expected them to do in Jupyter.

Finding a Solution

After digging around a bit, I found out that to get the function keys to work the way I wanted, I had to hold down the Fn key while pressing the function key. Seems like my keyboard also has an F Lock key, which is supposed to help with this, but I had a bit of trouble with that one.

Putting It All Together

• So, I went into Jupyter and tried a few things out.
• I pressed Fn + F5 to refresh my notebook, and it worked!
• Then I tried Fn + F11 to toggle the header, and boom, that worked too!

It took a bit of trial and error, but I finally got the hang of using my Mac’s function keys in Jupyter Notebook. It’s all about knowing those modes, understanding the shortcuts, and remembering to use that Fn key.

Hope this little adventure of mine helps some of you out there who might be facing the same keyboard mysteries. Keep on coding, and remember, sometimes the solution is just a key press away!