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XPS 13 9310 - want to be able to use page up and down without having to press Fn key. Fn lock does not appear to work for this
Hello fellow Dell users,
Got the new laptop and could not be happier, except I dearly miss being able to page up and down using 1 hand. Having to press the Function with my left is really annoying, since I read off my screen a lot. Before you say anything about the Function lock - I tried it. It does let me use the F1 - 12 buttons without having to press Function key but for some reason the arrow buttons are not affected. Is there any way to achieve what I want on this laptop - e.g. being able to page up and down without having to use Function key?
Thank you, everyone!
jphughan
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14K Posts
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December 30th, 2021 16:00
@FataMorgana No, Fn Lock only pertains to the actual F keys along the top row. So with that system’s keyboard layout, that’s all you’ll get. I believe that a recent BIOS update on that particular system made it possible to activate Home/End by pressing Fn+Left/Right, which is handy because Home, End, and PgUp/Dn are frequently used in quick succession, so in that sense having all of them grouped together is nice even if they’re all “Fn-mapped”. Until recently, Home/End could only be activated on the top row, while PgUp/Dn could only be activated via arrow keys, which triggered literally hundreds of complaints across many threads on this forum because it became annoying to have to move your hand frequently to use those keys back to back. So at least that’s improved, but there isn’t a way to make the actual arrow key function “Fn-mapped” and have the default function of those keys be PgUp/Dn — though that setup seems like it would introduce annoyances all on its own, at a bare minimum a muscle memory problem when switching to any other keyboard that wouldn’t be set up that way. Dell’s Latitude keyboards at least until recently had dedicated PgUp/Dn keys in the blank areas left by the “inverted T” arrangement of the arrow keys (i.e. above the Left and Right keys), I guess as an acknowledgement that they were business systems and those keys were more likely to be used by business users, but even they seemed to have dropped that with newer models. But even when those existed, the end result was that PgUp/PgDn could be activated directly, while Home/End required using Fn, which could become a bit odd as well.
DELL-Cares
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December 30th, 2021 02:00
We tried reaching you on a private message asking for the Service Tag number to ascertain the warranty but did not receive a response. Please feel free to reply to the private message whenever you are available.
FataMorgana
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January 8th, 2022 12:00
Thank you for such a detailed answer! That makes me sad, as it makes my usual process less comfortable for me, to the point where i might use my old laptop to read instead of this one.
I did discover though that pressing the space key acts like a page down, so at least that's good. But I haven't found an equivalent way to page up.
jphughan
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January 8th, 2022 12:00
@FataMorgana Happy to help, even if I don’t have the best news on this one. Space to page down depend on the application. You could also use Autohotkey to define custom key combinations to activate those functions, but that’s still more than one key, and you‘s have to be careful not to create a conflict with some other key combination.
FataMorgana
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January 8th, 2022 13:00
Hotkey approach might work, cause i am ok with more than one key, i just want to be able to press them with 1 hand, that will resolve my issue. If Fn key was on the same side with the arrow keys - it would suit me fine. Thank you for the suggestion!
yvon
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February 27th, 2023 06:00
A half decent solution: Try PowerToys for Windows 10. Use Keyboard Manager to map either a single key (e.g. Left arrow) to another (Home), or a "Shortcut" like Ctrl+Left to Home. The second option can even target at a single application after its executable name.
jdlbass
1 Message
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May 29th, 2023 15:00
This drives me mad, too. As far as I can tell, the only work around is to enable the onscreen keyboard, which has PgDn and PgUp buttons. You can either click with your mouse or, if you have a touch screen, touch the command with your finger.
AlexVVi
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June 22nd, 2023 16:00
Our customers are often using shortcuts Ctrl + Page Up/Page Down in a medical application. Newer XPS (example XPS 13 9315) and Latitude (example Latitude 3420) laptops require them to use combination Ctrl + Fn + Up/Down which is just silly having them to throw gang signs every few minutes.
Previous XPS/Latitude models had dedicated Page Up/Page Down buttons. Also worth mentioning that the insert/delete/backspace buttons are next to the power button. Companies like Dell should be copying the good things from Apple, not the terrible design choices for the sake of a streamlined look.
Thank you @yvon for suggesting to use PowerToys. It works with a huge caveat - if you need to have PowerToys function via the Remote Desktop, need to set "Apply Windows key combinations > On this computer", however it also breaks some other shortcuts on the remote device.