Where is the Any Key?

ricembr noted that compaq has finally provided a FAQ to the world to ask that long standing question where is the any key? Pray that this was added to the FAQ as a joke, and not in response to legitimate need ;)

Comments

It's Likely True

[iCharles]

Unfortunately, the FAQ probably is a legitimate point. I've done too much desktop support where things just as stupid have come up.

There was the time (many, many years ago) I sent a 3.5" floppy to someone with both a 3.5" and 5.25" drive. She calls me up and asks which one to put it in, claiming the big one looks ike it can hold both sizes.

Of course, the any key one is a bit of a mystery. Not so much because I don't think people would ask that question, but rather becuase it's been years since I've seen that asked (usually it's the "click OK to continue").

If you don't get it right the first time

[ogiller]

The interesting thing is that after they created this entry they had to come back and modify it.

true story

[KingRamsis]

I was teaching the father of a friend of mine how to use computers, in our first day, he looked at me and then looked at the keyboard and said "I want you to explain to me what every key does"

he was thinking that the keyboard is like a giant remote control with every key doing one specialized job.

few years later windows keyboards with "email", "web", and "support" buttons emerged, I guess he was a visionary in his own way.

Re:true story

[NibbleAbit]

Pointess post, but I'm bored.

Back in the early 80's, I was as close as they came to a support desk for PC's at national bank. A few calls I got:

Bank manager calls and is having problems reading a diskette. I ask if he knows how to copy it, and he says yes. I ask for a copy, and 20 minutes later a fax gets delivered to me.

Different bank manager always has problems with diskettes after first use. Many days of troubleshooting by phone, hardware replacements, and of course countless replacement diskettes being shipped out. Finall I fly to the other side of the country to see what is happening. He bought a bunch of large donut magnets specifically to stick diskettes on to his whiteboard so they woud be easy to find when he needed them.

These examples humbled me. These were intellegent people, they just had a different assumption set than I did.

Re:Man this is sad

[mkldev]

On the other hand, this is the reason I always say that computer error messages should always be carefully screened by non-geeks. In fact, they should be screened by the worst-case end-user, such as someone's grandmother. At some point, it becomes harder to learn new tricks, so to speak, and even tiny little things like this error message can cause confusion. It doesn't make them stupid, just terrified that they'll screw something up.

If the message had read "Press a key to continue", there would be no confusion, even by the most computer illiterate....

Helldesk

[Anonymous Coward]

Back when I had to work the helldesk I would tell customers that the "any" key was their spacebar when asked. I would tell them that keyboard manufactures had stopped labelling the key some time ago in order to save production costs. People bought it hook line and sinker every single time. More to the point, they now knew where the "any" key was and we could get on with things.

Label your computer for the user!

[jhines]

I got a set of labels from cyberguys, which allows all the ports to be labeled, with a matching label for the cable.

Included is the "any" label, which can be applied as needed.

Great if your building a PC for a less than technical user, like a family member.

Legitimate need indeed

[dswensen]

This is rather redundant by this point, but I work for tech support and I never tell people to hit any "key", because I have this conversation nearly every day:

"Go ahead and go to your Start button."
"Start?"
"Start."
"Star button?"
"START button!"
"I don't have one."
"It should be on the lower left hand corner of your screen."
"Nope... I have connect to the internet, my computer, Get AOL, ZoneAlarm, BonziBuddy... oh START button!"
"Yes! Now go to settings..."
"Huh?!"

Users have enough problems with the elements that are right there in front of them. So I just say hit the space bar. They can usually get that one the first time around. Usually.

Re:Don't confuse stupid with unfamiIiar

[be-fan]

To validate this point:

This summer, we drove from Amsterdam to Paris in a rented car. (We're from the US, FYI). Well, it came time to fill it up, and it occurred to us that the car might be a diesel. So we called up Hertz, and unfortunately for us, the phone system was in Dutch! Looked at the manual, and it was also in Dutch. The gas station attendent, who spoke only French, insisted that the car was a diesel, because he saw the word "diesel" written in the manual. So we go ahead and try to put diesel in the engine, only to find out that the nozzle is too large to go in! It was shaped so you could only put in gasoline!

So yes, in unfamilier situations, even relatively intelligent individuals can act rather wonky...

Re:I have an "any key" on my keyboard.

[Anonymous Coward]

I find myself compelled to answer the semi-serious question behind the joke... . This should go on a Sun FAQ.

What you have in (under) your hands is a Sun Type 6 "UNIX" keyboard (i.e., one laid out in a sane fashion). The Control key is where God intended it to be, next to the "A" key, and the Caps Lock key is relatively out of harm's way, down in the lower-left corner. The Escape key is where all good Escape keys live, next to the number 1.

Because Sun recognizes its obligation to help those with terrible afflications, there is also the Sun Type 6 "DOS" keyboard. The Control key is now lurking where the Caps Lock should be and vice versa, woe be unto all of this that have had this inflicted on us, and the tilde key has usurped the rightful position of the Escape key. The Escape key, with nowhere else to run to, has fled to the left of the F1 key. Look down, all you benighted PC users, and you will see similar devastation on *your* keyboard.

The thing is, both keyboards have the same physical key layout -- the only difference is the keycaps and the default setting for the keycodes. And for the UNIX layout, there's *no real use* for that stranded key up by F1. What are they gonna put up there, a Windows key?

I applaud you for coming up with an appropriate label, and I for one will also call that the "Any" key from now on.

Metaphors

[be-fan]

The real problem is that most people have a rather limited grasp on the abstract. Psychological research has shown (specifically, research into ethical beliefs) has shown that the majority of humanity can handle only a moderate level of abstraction. A computer is highly abstract --- there are metaphors all over the place, and using a computer requires a great deal of symbolic thinking. For example, most things are iconic. The icon *represents* the file, it is not the file itself. Also, hierarchies are used to abstract the complexity of the underlying structure. Most people just don't handle this sort of abstraction all that well.

Now, this is not to say that they are dumb. They may be perfectly intelligent and capable in other respects. However, most of life's tasks do not require dealing with a great deal of abstraction.

Re:What?

[bickerdyke]

RTA and look at the creation day of the FAQ entry..... back in 2001.

BTW: Wasn't compaq the first company to replace the "press any key" with "press enter" just to avoid that question?

Any key? Not if you do it right

[B.D.Mills]

I had a simple solution to the "Any" key problem that worked a treat. Instead of messages like

"Press any key to continue"

I reworded the message slightly in some of my applications:

"Press a key to continue"

It works great. The experienced users know what to do, and the users who can't find the "any" key will have more success when they try to find the "a" key.