How do I make function keys work for an external keyboard on MBP with Touch Bar

I'm completely flustered by not being able to use the single key shortcuts in Chrome's debugger

• F8 = play
• F10 = step
• etc.

I have to reach over to the laptop and press and hold the Fn key and then, with my other hand, I can use the F keys on my standard keyboard.

I tried changing the keyboard settings to force the Touch Bar to display function keys for Chrome.app but this did not solve the problem as it only solved it for the built-in keyboard, not my external keyboard.

I have Karabiner but it's limited in my version (10.12.x Sierra). I also can't do a macro of one key to multiple.

Is there any way for me to achieve this?

Solution 1:

In karabiner-elements Preferences, in the Function Keys tab, there is an option at the bottom, "Use all F-keys as standard function keys".

Karabiner-Elements will also allow you to bind a key that exists on your external keyboard to Fn, like Caps Lock or PrtSc under the Simple Modifications tab.

You can combine these two, so you can still adjust brightness with your F-keys by holding down the combination of Fn+F1/Fn+F2, where Fn is whatever key you mapped it to.

Solution 2:

You can check the following checkbox via System Preferences > Keyboard (default tab):