Caps Lock Off

How often have you wanted to just rip the CapsLock key off your keyboard or stuff a wad of paper underneath it to hardware disable it? A friend of mine actually did this to keep himself from accidentally laUNCHING INTO A STREAM OF CAPITAL LETTERS.

One of the most useful kludges for MicrosoftWindows: http://www.rdrop.com/~daveb/CapsLockOff.html [BrokenLink - "The requested URL /~daveb/CapsLockOff.html was not found on this server."]

Also available - Caps Lock Changer - http://www.filebird.com/caps-lock-changer/download/

AntiCapsLock - http://www.orionsoft.cz/anticapslock/

Toggler - http://members.execulink.com/~pjones/toggler/

Caps Lock into Shift Key - http://johnhaller.com/jh/useful_stuff/disable_caps_lock/

See also: RemapCapsLock.

Neat.

And the "INSERT" key which I always seem to be knocking while pressing delete: The result is that I delete some stuff, and start typing. 30 seconds later I look up to discover I've just typed over the front of the bit I wanted to keep... somehow it doesn't bother me as much on UNIX, probably because in both Emacs and Bash I do forward deletes with CTRL-D rather than the GreyKeys.

I do actually take the insert key off keyboards. The trick is, six months later when you leave the place, remembering where you put them to put them back on. -- KatieLucas

Why would anyone physically remove keys, as opposed to simply re-mapping the keyboard?

For some people, re-mapping the keyboard isn't simple. Also, physically ripping off keys makes a noteworthy statement, and serves as a remarkable customization.

Also if you expect you'll use another keyboard eventually, if you remapped your capslock key to do something useful, something you use all the time, you may be in for a naSTY SURPRISE...

Because, frankly it's faster to take the fold-up screwdriver on my keyring and prise the keycap off than it is to remember which flaming OS this is (I use Linux, Solaris/CDE and Windows fairly regularly and others intermittently), and how to remap the keys on it... -- KatieLucas

I have found that not having the keys disconcerts people. Like one's boss, for example. He looked at the fairly newly issued laptop from which I've already removed two keycaps because I keep hitting them accidentally and asked if I'd dropped it... Actually part of the problem is that my right little finger doesn't work properly; I whacked my elbow really hard on a wall a few years back and basically it's never really worked properly since and it tends to prod keys while I'm aiming for something else. So even remapping the insert key wouldn't be any good unless I wanted that functionality to happen randomly while I was pressing, for example, "delete" -- KatieLucas

But the standard PC keyboards are pretty brain-damaged for programming in the first place; it's not just capslock <-> ctrl. A good keymap need be made once for each OS, no? I would expect that even windows these days can load scripts when you login (this is a guess, I haven't used windows recently), so automate it and never think about it again, no?

Yes, you can load scripts on login on Windows. On Windows 7, one way is to open your Startup folder (found in Start > All Programs), then add inside it shortcuts to file and programs to launch.

ill-placed keys

Have you ever used a keyboard that has an ill-placed suspend or, even worse, power-off button? Almost as bad as connecting a console to your production machine and having it go to boot prom... -- SusanRoy

I've had that problem, though it was with a keyboard that had far too many "special" keys along the top, and far too close together. The "log off" button was about 0.5cm from some of the more frequently used ones, and the volume/media controls were right next to two separate power buttons.

I've used a keyboard that *appeared* to have an ill-placed "on/off" button, in the upper-left corner of the keyboard. (Right where most VimTextEditor users press the escape key quite often). Fortunately, the device was an "instant-on" device. Banging that key again returned everything to right where we left off, without dataloss. -- DavidCary

Recent PowerBooks have the Eject button at the upper-right, just above the Delete key. Very annoying if you want to keep a CD or DVD mounted.

So it must be the complaints of users like you that I have to thank for the recent change to having to hold eject for one second before my powerbook ejects a disc ;-)

The new Apple Wired Keyboard (and presumably also their wireless variant) require you to hold the CapsLockKey? for something like a quarter of a second before it registers. I find this behavior utterly repulsive. I use the caps-lock key often enough to have found it most annoying. --SamuelFalvo?

I've watched several users who find the Caps Lock key invaluable. Have you tried typing one-handed without it? -- CarolineWilliamson

''I'm one handed, and frankly, I hardly ever use the Caps Lock key. Why is it such a big advantage for one handed typing? Maybe I'm missing some cool trick, but then again, I'm usually the one that finds those tricks.''

So, why doesn't http://BanUselessKeys.com/ list the Caplock key?

On Windows, I've got some benefit out of converting Capslock to a quick-command key. If anyone else wants the same thing without the hassle of building the software, they can grab it at http://www.ijw.co.nz/ijw-shortcuts-0.8.zip

OneLaptopPerChild decided that the CapsLock key was a relic of the past and omitted it from their tiny keyboards. (As an educational device, they left room for '×' and '÷' keys.)

On a Mac OS X system: System Preferences->Keyboard and Mouse->Keyboard(tab)->Modifier Keys(button): set Caps Lock to No Action (or to plain Shift if you prefer). Some people like Caps Lock. They can keep it. Others (like me) keep pressing it by mistake. We disable it. Everybody's happy. And if you're a No Caps Lock type of person, but really want it on rare occasion, just map it back temporarily. Takes 5 seconds.

Why not increase the functionality of Caps Lock instead? Hitting Shift-Caps, for example, could invert the case of any text that is selected. Ctrl-Caps could alternate between making the entirety of the text lowercase and UPPERCASE. Alt-Caps could put a standard capitalization onto a sentence: all letters lowercase except the first letter of the first word. Proper nouns would require manual capitalization, but they do now anyway. It would be easy to do in Linux and MacOS, and a systray utility would work just as well in Windows.