F4 function in Microsoft word

purplecow1977

I want to repeat an action in Word, for example, making a highlighted word 'bold'. CTRL + Y does this, but I want to use F4. However when I press F4, it brings up the screen about Computer/Duplicate/Projector.

Any way I can change this?

Torqay

Change the default function key behaviour in the BIOS.

Or use Fn + F4.

coylemj

purplecow1977 wrote: »

I want to repeat an action in Word, for example, making a highlighted word 'bold'. CTRL + Y does this, but I want to use F4. However when I press F4, it brings up the screen about Computer/Duplicate/Projector.

Any way I can change this?

I just tried it in Word 2007 and it works as advertised. What you are encountering suggests that you are holding down the Fn button at the same time which you should not do. F4 by itself will achieve an application-specific function, in other word MS Word will implement the command rather than the hardware.

I swiped a subset of text, pressed the 'Bold' icon on the command line at the top of the screen, the selected text was emboldened, then I swiped a few words of text on another line, pressed F4 and it emboldened the selected text as expected.

Torqay

coylemj wrote: »

What you are encountering suggests that you are holding down the Fn button at the same time which you should not do.

I think it was Dell, who came up with the glorious idea to swap the the default funtion key behaviour to "Multimedia first" and many other laptop makers followed suit. Today, the majority of laptops have this "feature" and it is much easier now to kill the wireless connection by accident.

Usually, this idiocy can be reversed in the BIOS/UEFI, though yesterday I had a Gateway laptop here that required a hotkey driver to make the function keys behave "normally".

purplecow1977

I am not pressing the Fn button! Just F4! Using CTRL & Y is fine but if I want to highlight one word in a few lines quickly it is time consuming.

Edited: Just tried Fn & F4 and that DOES work but I was hoping to just use one button!

purplecow1977

coylemj wrote: »

I just tried it in Word 2007 and it works as advertised. What you are encountering suggests that you are holding down the Fn button at the same time which you should not do. F4 by itself will achieve an application-specific function, in other word MS Word will implement the command rather than the hardware.

I swiped a subset of text, pressed the 'Bold' icon on the command line at the top of the screen, the selected text was emboldened, then I swiped a few words of text on another line, pressed F4 and it emboldened the selected text as expected.

See that's the way it USED to work for me (although never on this laptop) fn and f4 works as I wanted, but I just wanted it to be F4 but it brings up the 'projector' screen.

(No idea how to change things in the Bios!!!)

Torqay

purplecow1977 wrote: »

Edited: Just tried Fn & F4 and that DOES work but I was hoping to just use one button!

As I said, go into the BIOS (or UEFI) of your laptop and change the default function key behaviour. F4 will then work as usual without pressing Fn and Fn + F4 will then toggle between internal and external displays.

purplecow1977 wrote: »

(No idea how to change things in the Bios!!!)

If you need further assistance, post make and model of the laptop.

purplecow1977

Torqay wrote: »

As I said, go into the BIOS (or UEFI) of your laptop and change the default function key behaviour. F4 will then work as usual without pressing Fn and Fn + F4 will then toggle between internal and external displays.



If you need further assistance, post make and model of the laptop.

Thanks, it's a HP Pavilion G Series, Windows 7 Home Premium

Torqay

1. Press the power button to turn on the computer.

2. Press the f10 key to open the BIOS setup window.

3.Press the right-arrow or left-arrow keys to navigate to the System Configuration option.

4. Press the up-arrow or down-arrow keys to navigate to the Action Keys Mode option, and then press the enter key to display the Enable / Disable menu.



5. Select the desired mode:

Disabled : Requires pressing and holding the function key (fn) while pressing one of the f1 through f12 keys to use the action indicated on the action key.
For example, on some computer models, if the Action Keys Mode is Disabled , pressing the f11 key will minimize and maximize a web browser if open. Alternatively, pressing and holding the fn + f11 keys will mute the sound.
The action keys may vary depending on the model of notebook.

Enabled : Requires pressing only one of the f1 through f12 keys to use the action as indicated on the action key.
For example, on some computer models, if the Action Keys Mode is Enabled , pressing f11 will mute the sound as indicated on the action key. Alternatively, pressing and holding fn + f11 will minimize and maximize a web browser if open.
The action keys may vary depending on the model of notebook.

6. Press the f10 key to save the selection and restart the computer.

purplecow1977

Thanks a million, will do that!

Torqay

You'll want to set the Action Keys Mode to Disabled.