Numlock - great when you have to type numbers!

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Unless it's a laptop(all I have right now) it's always on. it's DEFAULT that way, isn't it?

― Moisture G Mess (The GZeus), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I have a confession -- I turn off the numlock key! I think it was habit so I could do diagonal movement easily in civ or something.

― Del Monte Young (ex machina), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:29 (seventeen years ago) link

If you're doing data input it works better with the keypad. Three big fingers cover the numbers (one column each), thumb does the zero, little finger hits enter, and your left hand hits the tab key to take you to the next box while you go into a trance.

We're agreeing, right?

― Metrosexual Healing (crunkleJ), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Alt+Prt Scr prts the active window.

OMG I DID NOT KNOW THIS!!!!!

― step hen faps (Curt1s Stephens), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:32 (seventeen years ago) link

I always turn NumLock off because I'm usually typing over a Dutch document and am constantly turning the Ins button on and off. When NumLock is on, it makes my Ins a 0. No good.

― Maria :D (Maria :D), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Wow! Could I map Scroll Lock to contact me directly to ILX without having to do anything else?

Look up "macro recorder"

there are programs out there that will do this hell of easily.

― Will M. (Will M.), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Not that I'd know how to do it without the programs I already have running (Launchy makes it so you can open things with Ctrl+Space and then typing in the name... so i would set it to do [Ctrl+space, f, i, r, e, enter, i, l, x, ., p, 3, r, ., n, e, t, enter]. Now I want to do this...

― Will M. (Will M.), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:37 (seventeen years ago) link

I have to turn off NUMLOCK when I'm working on my work laptop from home, because I have a keyboard & monitor hooked up to it in the office. When I just use the laptop, the keypad is actually laid over some of the alpha keys, which SUCKS when I'm trying to type something, and P is replaced with 9.

― David RER (Frank Fiore), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:41 (seventeen years ago) link

OMG that is 1337.

― nklshs (nklshs), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:42 (seventeen years ago) link

To use the mouse even less, try holding down shift while you press home, end, page up, page down, the arrow keys, and the arrow keys while you hold down control.

On a Mac, it works mostly the same, but you use option instead of control.

Not all applications respond the same, and you usually need some text to select for this to be interesting.

Also, scroll lock is useful on the console of a unix PC, and pause/break can be used to send a break to a serial terminal.

― The danger of opposite of transparent aluminum foil. (goodbra), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:43 (seventeen years ago) link

On my HHK keyboard, the pause/break key is "pus/brk". In case you need a break from the pus.

― The danger of opposite of transparent aluminum foil. (goodbra), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:45 (seventeen years ago) link

OMG guys w/ mouses with the scrolling dial thing, hold down shift while you scroll! GET READY FOR A WILD RIDE!

― nklshs (nklshs), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, and control-insert will copy text on a PC, while shift-insert will paste it. In case you don't like ^V/^C.

― The danger of opposite of transparent aluminum foil. (goodbra), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:46 (seventeen years ago) link

on mac hold control and scroll a mouse wheel

― Del Monte Young (ex machina), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:47 (seventeen years ago) link

If we have computers in the future, I want a keyboard with a milkshake key. And a long straw that pops up.

― Maria :D (Maria :D), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:49 (seventeen years ago) link

I know there are two shift & ctrl keys on opposite ends of the keyboard, but for some reason I only ever use the ones on the left side! Even when it means two-fingering it with one hand and leaving the other floating (sometimes I will throw the horns).

― nklshs (nklshs), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:50 (seventeen years ago) link

OMG guys w/ mouses with the scrolling dial thing, hold down shift while you scroll! GET READY FOR A WILD RIDE!

Whoa!

Is there are website or something that would list all these secret functions?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Google.com

― David RER (Frank Fiore), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 19:56 (seventeen years ago) link

This may be the most important thread I have ever read.
I was kinda familiar with certain keyboard commands from using a lawyer billing program that was completely reliant on keyboard (because the lawyer was too cheap to upgrade, and was the boss, so I had to do it).
F2, F12 are not unknown to me...i can't remember the name of the software, but maybe, Timeslips? i ended up getting offered a position with the wandering Timeslips people (I believe that was the company), because I kept on finding ways to change the actual timeslips/billing to meet our needs, which didn't work well for the actual program. Or the lawyer.
because i was basically embezzling - but not really! - I was just changing certain things to get the numbers I needed for my job! Plus, i thought i was really NOT doing anything but working with a very simple program, and trying to get the bills out on time. I only manipulated a few things to get my math to work out. The fact that the bills came out wrong was a sad coda to my manipulation of the program.
But the Timeslips folks were impressed with my backdoor hijinks! They basically said that anyone who could manipulate the program as well as I had done SHOULD be working for them.
That was also 1996. I have been confused more recently.
But this thread explains so much that was a mystery!
The reproductive health clinic I work at is DOS - all keyboard, all the time.
i am better with the blue screen with the yellow letters than i am in this more modern format!
I F10 and F12 all of the time. i am proud to use Esc. However, I have learned so much today, from this thread.
Thank you.

― aimurchie (aimurchie), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 04:05 (seventeen years ago) link

I know a guy who mapped insert to do timestamps or something.

But how is he going to acidentally type over his own work?

― naus (naus), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 06:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Also, what is the Windows equiv. of the Mac's "Enter" key? I use it for renaming files all the time.

― naus (naus), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 06:22 (seventeen years ago) link

It's great when you can learn stuff like this on ILX. Like, I'm having a compulsory computer course at the uni (one I should've done years ago), and one thing we have to do there is to create your own homepage in HTML, and when I was learning to do that I realized I already knew some of the commands (like "img src" and "a href=") because I've learned to use them here.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 07:14 (seventeen years ago) link

f2 renames stuff xpost

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 07:22 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah but what if you want to rename it to something more informative than xpost?

― sterl clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 07:38 (seventeen years ago) link

Wow, ILE is populated by many copies of my mom.

― Jesus Dan (dan perry), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 13:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Why are you so rude to us then, young man?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 13:22 (seventeen years ago) link

what the fuck, i didn't even realize this worked on mac. hah! i just tried on this laptop and it works! christ...

― nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 13:25 (seventeen years ago) link

My keyboard also has buttons for volume control, media player, "Internet", "Close Program", and some "Hotkeys". They do fuck all.

i've appropriately configured all my hotkeys to bring up various photos of myself.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 16:01 (seventeen years ago) link

don't press the Delete and Internet buttons at the same time

― resumo impetus (blueski), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 16:03 (seventeen years ago) link

or Break and Enter, you go to jail for that.

― Captain Purple Items (nu_onimo), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 16:10 (seventeen years ago) link

one thing we have to do there is to create your own homepage in HTML

-- Tuomas (lixnix...) (webmail), February 21st, 2007 7:14 AM. (Tuomas) (later) (link)

please to post url of tuomas homepage when it is completed

― trainwrecked (sanskrit), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 16:13 (seventeen years ago) link

dying

― Del Monte Young (ex machina), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 16:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, it is done already. Since I don't see much point in learning HTML, I only made it to fit their minimum requirements.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 17:07 (seventeen years ago) link

noobs.

But seriously, I think I use pretty much all of these regularly except for scroll lock and that button that simulates a right click. There's an entire set of commands that the Windows key can be used in conjunction with that are really useful:
(using wk for Windows key)
wk+r: Run dialog
wk+e: New windows explorer window
wk+pause: System Properties

and those are just a few of the amazing things you can do with a modern keyboard. Next week, I'll explore the mythical "apple" key on Macs.

― mh (mike h.), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 18:50 (seventeen years ago) link

This started as a parody of the banalness of recent threads and became a thing of instructive beauty. wk+e has made this all worth it. Thank you, sandbox.

― Maria :D (Maria :D), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 20:05 (seventeen years ago) link

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