John,
Where to you get the idea that the hard buttons can not be assigned globaly????

If they can't be done globaly, then what's the point of the hard buttons?

To set them globaly, go to system properties in the tree and select hard buttons. This will make that button to be the same through out the remote. UNLESS you over ride it with something in a device properties. But it will still operate the same in the rest of the remote as it is in the system properties.

Rob