Chromebook owners are very well aware that their keyboards are far from usual. From the inclusion of a search bar and exclusion of a whole lot of keys (including the whole row of Function keys and the Caps Lock key), keyboards on Chromebooks take some getting used to. While Google has daringly let go of classic function keys, it has done so without compromising on functionality. Chromebooks have clever key combinations to let you access the functionality of the excluded keys.
Function Keys
The function keys (from F1 to F12) are implemented on a whole range of platforms, and you might need to use them on your Chromebook for a variety of reasons. In order to input function keys, all you have to press is the search button + the number of the function key. For example, in order to input F4, you will press ‘Search + 4’. Likewise, F1 – F10 can be pressed using the numbers 1-9 and 0 on the Chromebook keyboard.
In order to input F11, you will have to press the hyphen (-) key along with search. F12 can be inputted by pressing the plus (+) key and search key together. These two should be easy to remember because they lie just beside the ‘0’ key, which stands for F10. You can follow the chart below for a clear representation of key shortcuts.
For a whole range of keyboard shortcuts, you can press Ctrl + Alt + /. An on screen keyboard will appear on the screen, and if you press any particular key, you will be able to see all the keyboard shortcuts associated with that key. Now, you have an easy way to access your keyboard shortcuts in case you ever forget them. To check out a list of extremely useful keyboard shortcuts to make your Chromebook life easier, click here.
