Powerbook G4: expose problem

I have a powerbook G4 and my expose settings in system preferences are set like they shiould be F9, F10, ect. but only F11 and F12 work for desktop and dashboard. When I click on the F9 key it brings up this flat bar with dashes around it that I dont know what it does. the image is on the key so I dont know how to switch my keyboard from that thing to the F keys. I like having the F1 and F2 as my brightness and F3 as mute, F4 and F5 for volume but I would like the last keys to be used for expose. any input?

Go into your System Preferences and make sure the keyboard shortcuts are what they should be. The pane you're interested in is the Mouse & Keyboard and select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.

Just be careful how you map the shortcuts, they might interfere with other applications.

yes, i have those set as they should be but when i push F8 a flat line shows up, f9 the flat line with dashed around it, and f10 the same but the dashes are bigger

There are different actions for Exposé.

F9 will place all the open apps' windows side by side so you can shuffle through them using the Tab key.

F10 brings out one window at a time and you can shuffle the order around by pressing the Tab key.

F11 takes you directly to the desktop, clearing all the open windows out of the way.

F8 does absolutely nothing for me and it isn't part of Exposé as far as I know.

Some Help

when you say a small bar and the things around it what is going on is those are showing you how much the keyboard is lit up by the backlight so you can type in the dark