Alt+Print Screen on MacBook Pro

[michael_finocch]

How can one get the various Windows keys that are unavailable on the normal MacBook Pro keyboard such as CtrlBreak, AltPrntScn, PrntScn, etc? On Parallels they have these on a shortcut menu...it is extremely painful to have to get another tool for, say, screen shots out of Fusion.

Thanks,

[admin]

See Fusion's Help, under Using Mac Keyboards in a Virtual Machine - normally you use the keys that are in the same position (e.g. F14 for Print Screen, F16 for Break, etc.), but these don't exist on a MBP. Currently, you'll have to use a key remapper in the guest to do what you want. I found a post claiming that fn-esc worked like ctrl-break on laptop keyboards: .

There are valid reasons why this is not as convenient, but have you considered taking screen shots using the OS X shortcuts?

[michael_finocch]

There are no shortcuts on a smaller F12 size keyboard for PrntScn in your referenced document. I could use the Mac screen stuff but it does not go to the clipboard of the machine or to the VMware Fusion clipboard so I have at least two or three extra steps to include the screen shot in a PPT document. My company doesn't have an Office for Mac license for I use Office 2007 under Windoze and that's why I need the PrintScreen and Alt-PrintScreen functionality. Again, Parallels gives all these to me with some menu shortcuts.

Fino

[shoegal]

I have the same issue. I need print screen for my powerpoint presentation as well....I am debating buying a copy of MS office for my mac out of my own pocket as I am desperate and I would also like to extend the life of my battery. Using vmware fusion on mac reduces my battery life by over 50%.

Is there a place we can list out all the requests and vote for them? The transition from windows to mac/vmware fusion has been painful.

[Berknip]

I just went into VMware's Preferences under Keyboard & Mouse / Key Mappings and added Shift-Control-Option-P mapped to Print Scrn and Command-Shift-Control-Option-P for ALT-Print Scrn. Works like a champ for me, unless I misunderstood the original poster's intent...

[squirrelking]

I've done the remapping as well.. worked like a champ as it's very configurable.

[kinless]

One thing to be wary of, and I just discovered this bug yesterday due to recent testing (aka frustration):

If you're using a combination key mapping that contains the Option (Alt) key, it will conflict with your Alt-click in Windows.

I was having a hell of a time trying to figure out why the Clone Stamp in Photoshop CS2 (and CS4) wasn't working anymore, which requires an Alt-click. I tried disabling key mapping by unchecking the main box but that didn't help. Then my suspect turned to the custom Alt-Print Screen (Option-F16) key map I made a week ago. I disabled it but the problem was still there. Then I tried deleting it completely, and voila, I got my Alt-click back. I tried multiple combinations of key mapping, and I only get the problem if I include the Option (Alt) key.

So I mapped my Alt-Print screen for Shift-Control-Command P, and that works fine.

One of those hidden bugs that you don't notice unless you're a Photoshop user (or user of anything that needs an Alt-click). Just throwing that warning out there.

I should file a bug report.

2.8GHz Mac Pro (8-core)

VMWare Fusion 2.0.1

[kinless]

Haha ok just figured something else out. Don't use the "Shift" key for mapping anything either because it gets disabled in Photoshop and you can't hold it down and use it to draw things in a straight line.

I think trying to map with anything other than Command will give you problems if you try and use modifier keys with the mouse click.

2.8GHz Mac Pro (8-core)

VMWare Fusion 2.0.1