Questions

What F13 to F19 do on a Mac, and how to use them

Out of the box, nothing. F13 to F19 are real keys that macOS knows about, but no app gives them a job, which is exactly what makes them useful: a key that does nothing can be given one big job without ever clashing with a shortcut you already use. I lean on them because single keys are easier on my hands than three-key shortcuts. Here is which keyboards have them, what macOS can do with them for free, and how to make each one open an app, run a macro or start dictation, including on a MacBook, which has none.

Which keyboards have F13 to F19

• Full-size keyboards with a numeric keypad. Apple's own keyboards with a keypad have them along the top row, over the navigation keys and the keypad. So do many third-party full-size keyboards.
• Not a MacBook. The built-in keyboard, and Apple's compact Magic Keyboard, stop at F12.
• A Windows keyboard. On a Mac, Print Screen, Scroll Lock and Pause usually arrive as F13, F14 and F15.
• Macro pads and foot pedals. Many can be set, in their own software, to send F13 to F19.

Not sure what your key sends? The key code finder shows it when you press it; F13 is HID code 104.

What macOS does with them for free

Open System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts. Pick any shortcut in the list, such as Mission Control or a screenshot, click its key, and press F13. App Shortcuts, in the same window, gives a menu command in any app a new key, and F13 to F19 work there too. If you only need a system shortcut or a menu command on a spare key, this is enough and costs nothing.

What macOS will not do is open an arbitrary app, type a phrase, run a timed macro, change the volume, or give a key a second job when you hold it.

Give each key any job with InputConfig

1. Install InputConfig, free on the Mac App Store, and allow Accessibility access when it asks.
2. Make a preset, add a row, press Scan, and press F13.
3. Pick the output: Open App, Open URL, a Siri Shortcut, a key combination, a macro, Type Text, media and volume keys, Start Dictation, Lock Screen, Mission Control, and more.
4. Activate the preset. It works in every app, with no controller connected.

Or start from the built-in Keyboard Deck preset, which already fills all seven:

InputConfig listens to the keyboard alongside macOS. The key still reaches the front app as F13, which almost every app ignores, and that is why these keys are the cleanest place for a deck. Control Option Command period is the emergency stop if a preset ever gets in your way.

InputConfig is free on the Mac App Store. macOS 14 or later, no account, no tracking, open source.

Three jobs on every key

Each row can also have a hold action and a double-tap action. Press F13 for Mission Control, hold it for Launchpad, double press it to open Mail: seven keys become twenty-one actions. A row with a double-tap action waits for the window to close before the single press fires, so leave double tap off keys you want instant. The hold and double-tap page covers the timing.

A different job in each app

A preset can switch itself in when a given app comes to the front, so F13 can cut a clip in Final Cut Pro and reopen a closed tab in Safari, then go back to Mission Control everywhere else. Per-app keyboard shortcuts on a Mac sets it up step by step.

No F13 key? Five ways to get one

• Turn a key you never use into F18 with macOS itself. The built-in hidutil command remaps a key until the next restart. This one makes Caps Lock send F18, which you can then bind in InputConfig:

  hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[{"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0x700000039,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0x70000006D}]}'

  Undo it with:

  hidutil property --set '{"UserKeyMapping":[]}'

  Caps Lock stops being Caps Lock while this is set.
• Hold a right-hand modifier. The built-in Modifier Holds preset gives Right Command, Right Option and Right Shift a job when held alone. See the right Command and Option keys.
• A mouse side button. Button 4 and Button 5 bind the same way. See mouse side buttons on a Mac.
• A controller or a MIDI pad. Their buttons type nothing until you bind them, and InputConfig can make them send F13 to F20 as keys, so any app with a hotkey field, such as OBS, can use them. The streaming deck guide does exactly that.
• Tap the Mac. On MacBooks whose motion sensor answers, a double knock on the case can be an input. The Tap the Mac page says which Macs have been tested.

F13 to F19 or a Hyper key?

A Hyper key turns Caps Lock into Control, Option, Command and Shift at once, so Caps Lock plus any letter becomes a shortcut no app uses. It needs Karabiner-Elements or the Hyperkey app, and it takes two keys per action. F13 to F19 need nothing installed to exist, one press runs one action, and with InputConfig each key can hold three. If you have a full-size keyboard, the F keys are the simpler start; on a laptop, a Hyper key or the hidutil trick above fills the gap.

Questions

Related

• Keyboard, mouse, and trackpad as input
• A macro deck from a numpad, MIDI pad, or controller
• A free Stream Deck alternative from a gamepad or MIDI pad
• Keyboard & Mouse Input preset
• Hold and double-tap
• Key code finder

Free. macOS 14 or later. No account, nothing leaves your Mac. Open source on GitHub.