Ask Slashdot: Why Is the Caps Lock Key Still So Prominent On Keyboards?

Esther Schindler writes: The developers at .io are into tracking things, I guess. In any case, a few weeks back they decided to track team performance in terms of keyboard and mouse activity during the working day. They installed a simple Chrome plugin on every Macbook and collected some statistics. For instance, developers have fewer keypresses than editors and managers—around 4k every day. Managers type more than 23k characters per day. And so on. Some pretty neat statistics.

But the piece that jumped out at me was this: "What's curious—the least popular keys are Capslock and Right Mouse Button. Somewhere around 0.1% of all keypresses together. It's time to make some changes to keyboards." I've been whining about this for years. Why is it that the least-used key on my keyboard is not just in a prominent position, but also bigger than most other keys? I can I invest in a real alternate keyboard with a different layout (my husband's a big fan of the Kinesis keyboards, initially to cope with carpal tunnel). But surely it's time to re-visit the standard key layout? What keys would you eliminate or re-arrange?

Comments

Caps Lock used to power a huge lever.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

The Capslock key inherited the position occupied by the Shift-Lock key. Some keyboards still mark it as shift-lock. In the old mechanical typewriters, the shift lock actually moved the entire framework holding the rack of all the levers that held the letters. It required considerable force to push.

Re:Caps Lock used to power a huge lever.

[SoftwareArtist]

I wish it still behaved as shift-lock: affecting all characters, not just letters. When I use caps lock, it's almost always because I'm typing an environment variable or #defined constant. And that means I'm going to be typing lots of _ characters. If caps lock behaved like shift lock, I wouldn't have to press shift for every one of them.

Re:Caps Lock used to power a huge lever.

[SEE]

It was reverted because, as computers started systematically replacing the typewriter in businesses (instead of being a specialist machine, like terminals), secretary-typists and the typists in corporate typing pools complained about the location of the Caps Lock key not being where they were used to it. Keyboards for computers intended for general business use accordingly swapped over, since the people who typed the most and had the strongest opinions on keyboards in the early 1980s wanted it that way.

Re:Caps Lock used to power a huge lever.

[squiggleslash]

Alas constants tend to also have a lot of digits in them, so you'd win on the underscores, but lose for the other non-alphas.

Maybe it's time underscore was its own key anyway...

Re:Caps Lock used to power a huge lever.

[unrtst]

Maybe it's time underscore was its own key anyway...

How about where the capslock is now

Re:Caps Lock used to power a huge lever.

[bdh]

www.autohotkey.com

For those interested in making the shift key act like a typewriter, I use this snippet. Double tap (within 500ms) either shift key, and it enables shift lock; a single tap disables it:

Shift::
      if A_PriorHotkey = Shift
      {
            if A_TimeSincePriorHotkey 500
            {
                  SetCapsLockState, on
                  return
            }
      }

      SetCapsLockState, on
      keywait, CapsLock
      SetCapsLockState, off
return

Re:Caps Lock used to power a huge lever.

[IcyWolfy]

This would be horrible for anyone using Swiss German Keyboard Layout.
CAPS is a separate keyboard state.
CAPS ON, Key !== SHIFT+Key

ü = ü
Shift-ü = è
CAPS ON, ü = Ü
CAPS ON, Shift-ü = È

Because the relevant part of the layout:
      o p ü
      k l ö ä $

With Shift
    O P è !
    K L é à £

Caps Lock
      O P Ü
      K L Ö Ä $

Caps+SHIFT
      O P È !
      K L É À $

Thus, CAPS-ON + key != Shift + key.

Re: Caps Lock used to power a huge lever.

[tommyjcarpenter]

I just asked my wife, a user, if she ever uses the CAPS key. She works for the U.S. Government. She states that all government software forms in their office are filled out in CAPS because a lot of judges and elder officials who review the documents are older and can't read normal text as well as CAPS. Obviously this is a larger, systemic problem, but to my wife who cannot control these policies, the CAPS key being in a prominent position helps her greatly. Very interesting POV!

Re: Caps Lock used to power a huge lever.

[Tomahawk]

On a UK and Irish layouts, certainly, and likely others too, the # key already has a more prominent space on the home row. For US users, it's Shift-3. For UK and Irish, Shift-3 is the pound symbol (as in £). # ("hash" for us, or "sharp", or "number" -- never "pound" or "octothorp") is a little-finger key located beside the bottom half of the enter key (which has a different shape for us than on US keyboards)

My home row is
capslock ASDFGHJKL;'# bottom_of_enter_key
(the 3 keys after L with shift are :@~ )

Putting it where caps-lock is now would be counter-productive for all most non-US keyboard users.

My Pet Peeves (recent Windows laptop keyboards)

[shankarunni]

1. CapsLock. Grr.

2. The numeric keypad on 15" laptops. Why? Why?! Why?!! It causes the rest of the keys to get scrunched up and moved to unnatural positions, and positions the trackpad offset left upto 3 or 4 inches, which makes for a horrible experience for a right-handed typist. The trackpad should ALWAYS be centered.

3. But please bring back full-size Page Up/Down keys (with maybe a shift action to Begin/End). I'm looking at you, Macbook Pro! Don't run and hide..

Re:My Pet Peeves (recent Windows laptop keyboards)

[trabby]

Numpads for the win, handy for spreadsheets, games, entering long numbers etc. I hardly touch the number row on my keyboard. 15" laptop is the minimum that numpads should be included, what I find more disturbing is 17"-18" laptops without them.

Re:My Pet Peeves (recent Windows laptop keyboards)

[rahvin112]

The numeric keypad tends to be pretty highly valued by typists that are 10key proficient and type a lot of numbers. It's actually more common than you probably believe. I and many others prefer to buy laptops/keyboards with the 10 key numeric in place.

Re:My Pet Peeves (recent Windows laptop keyboards)

[Noah Haders]

Num pads on a laptop are ergonomics nightmares. Better to get BT numpad.

Re:My Pet Peeves (recent Windows laptop keyboards)

[squiggleslash]

It's possible to have capslock functionality without giving it its own key. What about Alt-Numlock for that tiny subset of situations where it's necessary?

Also https://xkcd.com/1172/

(Yay I posted an XKCD at last! That means I automatically get +6 Insightful!)

Re:My Pet Peeves (recent Windows laptop keyboards)

[darkain]

Pretty much any technical field requires capslock. I'm a software engineer in the automotive field. Tons of code from 3rd party libraries are all caps, as well as the part numbers I deal with in the automotive industry.

Maybe the reason why capslock is used to little is because... think about it. If my entire post were entirely in caps? Count the number of key strokes. Capslock would be pressed once to enter all-caps mode, and once to leave it. To presses of that key vs countless presses of the letters and a few other formatting symbols. Caps lock shouldn't be counted by the number of key presses any more than scroll lock or number lock. Instead they should be counted by the number of other key presses that are modified while they are activated.

The power button

[ShieldW0lf]

Hey, I hardly ever press the power button, lets get rid of that one.

Idiots

Re:The power button

[Fortran IV]

Bingo. The whole point of the Caps Lock key is that you don't have to press it over and over. "...Around 0.1% of all keypresses" is a completely useless measurement. A measurement of how many other keys were pressed while the Caps Lock was on might actually mean something.

That said, the size and placement of Caps Lock are simply a historical accident. If keyboard manufacturers wanted to halve the size and stick another key left of A, that would be fine with me. (The "context menu" key that's missing from so many keyboards these days would be a great choice.)

Re:The power button

[bluefoxlucid]

People don't seem to understand the point of typing multiple capital letters in a row, as they hold shift with a pinky to type COBOL or UNIX. Chromebooks put that useless search button where capslock goes.

Re:The power button

[HideyoshiJP]

I agree. The fools. I work in IT, and have type a lot of things in caps, like certain DNS names, acronyms, and a few other items. At home, I use a Shift-JIS layout for Japanese, and it's one method I switch back and forth between Alpha/Kana/IME input. Right-click has come in handy a few times when my wireless mouse has died and had to go on the charger - then have to re-sync my backup bluetooth mouse. To extend this discussion - I rarely use my backups. Let's get rid of those!

Re:The power button

[j2.718ff]

Only crap keyboards have a power button.

The article also mentioned the right mouse button. My keyboard doesn't have one of those either.

Re:The power button

[AmiMoJo]

To be fair though, putting power and sleep buttons on the keyboard was a monumentally stupid idea. It's far too easy to accidentally hit them.

Re:The power button

[IcyWolfy]

That logic doesn't apply for most non-US layouts; and most Americans don't realise that the concept of a right-alt key being required is needed.
And that due to proliferation of US keyboards and Windows back in the day: ALT-GR ~== CTRL-ALT. Some apps will treat it as CTRL-ALT (incorrectly), some will treat it as ALT-GR. Thus, some applications fail hard when they try to make CTRL-ALT accceleratiors, that can't be typed; or they override the letter on the keyboard (which is probably worse)

You have three modifier keys: CTRL, ALT, ALTGR, CTRL
For instance, to type @ on the standard german layout, it's ALTGR-Q
The Canadian Multilingual Layout (Federal Standard) does this better by having CTRL, ALT, ALTGR, CTRLGR (i.e. there are four alpha states: NONE, SHIFT, ALTGR, CTRLGR)

Really?

[Dr. Eggman]

"They installed a simple Chrome plugin on every Macbook [...] the least popular keys are Capslock and Right Mouse Button"

You don't say!

Re:Really?

[TheRaven64]

Good UIs should be designed to work with a single mouse button, because that means that they'll also work well with a touchscreen. There's nothing wrong with making some things faster with the right mouse button, which is how most Mac applications work. The right mouse button for the context menu was inherited from NeXTSTEP, where the 'normal' menu was a floating version and you could cause a copy of it to pop up wherever the mouse was with the right mouse button (RISC OS took this further and didn't have any kind of menu bar, using the middle mouse button to produce the menu on demand. Using RISC OS with a touchscreen or pen tablet was... interesting, and it only just counted as discoverable because the machines shipped with a mouse with the buttons labelled).

Re:Really?

[radarskiy]

Mice from Apple don't have any buttons any more. However, Mac OS has accepted events for more that the left button for years.

Because it toggles an LED!

[Anonymous Coward]

Old School Fun Fact: If the computer looks hung or otherwise nonresponsive, if you can toggle the caps lock LED, then the OS is still alive.

Re:Because it toggles an LED!

[__aaclcg7560]

Does anyone use Scroll Lock for anything?

Re:Because it toggles an LED!

[Anonymous Coward]

I've long wanted a game where you are a wizard, and thieves steal your scrolls, unless you Scroll Lock. But then you can't use the scrolls, until you toggle it back. It would be pretty perfect.

Scroll Lock is legitimately used in spreadsheets, but very rarely today. It's generally good that there is some modal switch anyway. It's so rare to find some future expandable slots on a keyboard, you know?

It's shift for some people

[spacemky]

Working in IT, and frequently watching desktop users, I was surprised to learn that MANY people actually use the Caps Lock key as shift. To make a capital letter, they will turn on caps, press the letter, then turn off caps. I've see 3 people in the last year do this!

Re:It's shift for some people

[kbranch]

We actually recently hired a developer that does this. He asked for help when he couldn't figure out how to type capital letters on my keyboard (with caps lock remapped to control). Raised an alarm or two for me...

Re:It's shift for some people

[chispito]

I was surprised to learn that MANY people actually use the Caps Lock key as shift.

It's not just PEBKACs that do that. One of the world's fastest typists does this. http://seanwrona.com/typing.ph... (look under the "Typing Tips" section).

REALLY?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Why Is the Caps Lock Key Still So Prominent On Keyboards?"

HAS THE OP BEEN ON THE INTERNET AT ALL? EVER?

Although, I do like to imagine some of the rage typists are actually holding in the [Shift] key...

Re:The Microsoft key!!!! I've never used it...ever

[mwvdlee]

Just curious, what OS are you using?
On both Windows and Linux, it's a pretty handy key.

Where's "Scroll Lock"?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

I can't believe that "Scroll Lock" is used more often than "Caps Lock"

>> least popular keys are...Right Mouse Button

I'm guessing their "developers" don't actually use an IDE. Even on my Mac I use a two-button mouse just to get context-sensitive menus.

Re:Where's "Scroll Lock"?

[mccalli]

The study was performed on a MacBook keyboard. There is no scroll lock, print screen, pause, insert, home, end, page up, page down...

As a MacBook user myself, I actually miss the insert for shift-insert cut'n'paste on ssh sessions. Other than that, I'm fine with all the others being missing. The right-click is interesting - do they literally mean right-click, or do they mean the context-sensitive event (two fingered click on a trackpad)? On a MacBook I would have thought the second one, and I also use that a fair amount.

a nice Linux trick

[FudRucker]

this makes the caps lock and escape keys switch places

! Swap caps lock and escape
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
keysym Escape = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Escape
add Lock = Caps_Lock

SubjectsSuck

[aardvarkjoe]

I can I invest in a real alternate keyboard with a different layout...

You could also invest in a tool to remap the key next to 'A' to "Control," like God intended. You don't need to get a whole new keyboard. Write on the key with a marker if you're the kind of person that looks at key labels when you're typing.

keypad

[ichthus]

We talked about this ad naseum back when Chromebooks were about to hit the market. A better question is, why don't keypads (the 10 key-like group of buttons on the right of a PC keyboard) have TAB, SHIFT+TAB and Backspace keys. This would make it much easier to navigate and enter data in web forms and spreadsheets with only one hand. Idunno -- just a thought.

The three keys on the top-right

[mwvdlee]

The three keys on the top-right
- Print screen/SysRequest: a poor man's screengrabber at best
- Scroll Lock: does something in MS Office, though I know not what.
- Pause/Break: as far as I know, does absolutely nothing in any application.

Re:The three keys on the top-right

[SuricouRaven]

On Excel, scroll lock toggles the action of the arrow keys. With lock off, they move the selected cell one step at a time. With lock on, they move the view one page at a time. The second mode is useful if you work with truly huge spreadsheets.

Re:The three keys on the top-right

[JesseMcDonald]

If you expect to need it, create the file /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq with the contents set to 1. This makes the key combo active by default, and survives rebooting.

The /proc directory is a virtual filesystem; nothing in there survives rebooting. If you want the sysrq keys to remain enabled after a reboot you need to write to that file from an init script.

Swap the Ctrl and Alt keys

[fustakrakich]

Please!

And give us back our reset button, and disk activity light, so I know if the machine froze up! What the hell is the matter with you people?

And you can have my right mouse button when you can pry it from my cold dead hands.

Re:Swap the Ctrl and Alt keys

[SuricouRaven]

With SSDs you can't even hear the drive going - that activity light is more important than ever!

Re:Swap the Ctrl and Alt keys

[lgw]

Oddly enough, I've always been able to hear my SSDs (of various brands) when they were accessed, at least in a quiet room. I've always wondered why.

Obligatory bash.org

[Junta]

http://bash.org/?835030

That aside, just don't screw with things. You mention caps lock, which I don't use, but any change is likely to just screw with muscle memory and not have any practical benefit except as some symbolic gesture against caps lock. For example, see second gen X1 carbon which replaced caps lock with home and end keys.

There is also the troubling by the way mention of the right mouse button. For the love of god do not advocate screwing with the right mouse button. You don't often need it, but when you do, all the schemes that try to de-emphasize it's footprint really screw with you and again *nothing of value is gained*.

CAPS-LOCK

[mwvdlee]

Obviously caps-lock is the least used key. you press it only once after boot, then no more.

Mangled IRC joke

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

Dude1:"HI GUYS! HOW IS EVERYONE?"

Dude2:"Hey. Doing okay. You?"

Dude1:"COULDN'T BE BETTER! ANYTHING GOING ON?"

Dude2:"There's a caps lock key on your keyboard, press it."

Dude1"OH! THANK YOU! IT'S SO MUCH EASIER TYPING NOW NOT HAVING TO HOLD SHIFT."

Re:Mangled IRC joke

[GroeFaZ]

http://bash.org/?835030 is what you're looking for.

Re:Misunderstood

[wirefarm]

Ctrl.

(Typing this on a day-old Chromebook that has a search key mapped to that position. Anyone know how I can map that to Ctrl?)

Re:The Microsoft key!!!! I've never used it...ever

[T.E.D.]

Just curious, what OS are you using?

On both Windows and Linux, it's a pretty handy key.

On Windows 8 (I haven't tried 10 yet), its pretty much required, unless you do something goofy like place an icon for every program you might ever want to use on your desktop. Its the "help me find a program" key. If you'd rather search your hard-drive manually, its still much quicker to bring up file explorer with Windows-e rather than hunt down a picture of it on your desktop (closing any possible obscuring windows) and click that.

Dvorak.

[briancox2]

This is the opportunity the obscure Dvorak Keyboard crowd has been waiting for to finally fix the layout of keys.

Organize now. Latch on to this issue. Or you'll miss your chance.

Re:Misunderstood

[chipschap]

I always remap caps lock to left ctrl, the way it used to be on rather old keyboards. So much more convenient than having to reach down to the left-ctrl key.

Why is the caps-lock key so prominent?

[DeathToBill]

To give you a nice, big, easy-to-reach key you can remap to Control.

Re: My Pet Peeves (recent Windows laptop keyboards

[aristotle-dude]

One handed usage when reading a long document.

Do you fap to Business requirements documents?

Re:The Microsoft key!!!! I've never used it...ever

[Fire_Wraith]

I find that I use it constantly for two things (aside from start menu access): Windows+E = Brings up File Manager/Windows Explorer Windows+L = Lock screen in one keypress (rather than two using the C-A-D plus mouse click)

Why Is the Caps Lock Key Still So Prominent On Key

[Rob Riggs]

SO THE OLD GEEZERS WHO ONLY GREW UP WITH TELETYPE MACHINES CAN COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER.

Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY?

Short answer ...

[gstoddart]

Because the world doesn't want every idiot who thinks he's made a better keyboard constantly mucking about with stuff for the sake of it.

Some of us have been typing for decades, and simply don't care that you think it's time to redesign the keyboard.

"It's time to make some changes to keyboards" -- No, that's your opinion, it isn't fact.

You want a custom keyboard, buy it or make it. But don't be such an arrogant ass as to assume we give a damn about you whining about it. We don't need some damned keyboard designed by a fucking committee.

What a stupid article.

Sticking with a 1982 design

[Locke2005]

I have a different (possibly more stupid) question: why are computer numeric keypads and phone keypads reversed from each other? This gets even worse when entering your pin for a bank; I've seen both layouts used by banks. I think the answer is, "That's the way we've always done it!" Somebody made an arbitrary and capricious decision many years ago, and nobody has had the wherewithall to change it. Another "standard" that bothers me: In the transition to digital video, they had the chance to do away with the PAL/NTSC dual-standard nonsense... but they still chose to support both 50 and 60 FPS video?!? As I understand, even 4K video comes in both 50 and 60 frames per second variety, because obviously we still need to synchronize our video to our AC line current...

Re:The Microsoft key!!!! I've never used it...ever

[TheRaven64]

Control and alternate already have well-defined meanings. Control is for entering control characters, alternate is for entering alternate characters. OS X uses both. UNIX keyboards used to come with a meta key, but this fell out of use as software was written for PCs without such a key. On OS X, the usage of the command key is inherited from classic MacOS: It's the modifier that you hold for commands. This means that the OS X terminal is the only graphical terminal that I've come across that doesn't suck for copy and paste. On OS X, every single program including the terminal uses command-C for copy and command-V for paste. The terminal is therefore free to use control-C for sending the character that they terminal recognises for SIGINT. Windows overloaded the alternate key for opening menus, which meant that it is no longer a convenient key if you need to enter non-ASCII characters (for example, a Euro symbol or a letter with an accent, which are both easy to enter on a Mac). Most desktop environments for Linux inherited a load of bad UI design from Windows before adding their own mistakes.

Re:The Microsoft key!!!! I've never used it...ever

[serviscope_minor]

I never understood the hate for the Windows key. Well, sure as a youthful Linux user I was snobbish when it was introduced, but after mapping it to something useful I started disliking keyboards without it.

What I'd really like is some simple and commonly available system that lets you re-map or disable any key on the keyboard at will.

xmodmap works well for basic key remapping. If you want to do funky stuff like make it per-keyboard instead of global (useful for UK/US keyboard differences for example) then setxkbmap is really handy.

You can pseudo-disable a key by mapping it to None. It has minor effects, like triggering a key event but it will never do anything.

Of course that only works on X based systems, but it's really handy.

Remapping Caps Lock On OSX

[LihTox]

It's actually really easy to turn Caps Lock into Control (or Command) on OSX; it's in the Keyboard preference panel, under the button "Modifier Keys".

Re:The Microsoft key!!!! I've never used it...ever

[Kiaser Zohsay]

You will not take my context menu key until you pry it from my cold dead fingers. I use that thing constantly. Maybe I use applications that hide an inordinate amount of functionality under the context menu (including my own). I really try to avoid moving my hands from the keyboard to the mouse (and back) until I absolutely have to, so I'm all about keyboard shortcuts. The context menu key is a handy one, for me at least.

Re:The Microsoft key!!!! I've never used it...ever

[mattventura]

On top of opening the start menu, there's tons of Win-letter combinations. Win-R is Run, Win-E is explorer, Win-D shows the desktop, Win-M minimizes all windows. Win-1,2,n launches the 1st, 2nd, nth program pinned to your taskbar. Win-arrows move windows around on the screen and Win-shift-arrows move windows between different monitors. There's plenty of others that I don't remember. It's actually pretty inconvenient to not have a windows key once you're used to it.

Re:The Microsoft key!!!! I've never used it...ever

[houghi]

It depends per user. Coming from Linux, I use keys a lot more than other people do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

That said, I just bought a Roccat Tyon and am using 12 buttons on a regular basis. Note: I am not a gamer.

Having programable buttons on a mouse is great. As a keyboard I have a Happy Hacker keyboard. So no easily accesible CapsLock there.

For Linux: Remap CapsLock to Compose

[houghi]

Just remap your Caps-Lock key to the Compose key.
http://fsymbols.com/keyboard/l...

Swap Caps Lock and Escape

[sdxxx]

I love the Caps Lock key. I just happen to swap it with Escape, which is very handy when using vi or many other programs (even bash, where some key combinations use Escape). I was very sad when Google got rid of it on some early Chromebooks. I think it's great that such a prime piece of keyboard real estate is unused, because it let's people repurpose it for whatever they want.

Re:It's IBM's fault. Everyone copied the PC.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Sometime around 1985"? Actually a couple of years before that.

Listen' up, young uns, and I'll give you some history.

The computer world until the early 1980s was largely divided between the IBM EBCDIC/coax block mode terminals and ASCII/serial.

IBM block-mode (3278) keyboards had no CTRL key, and two return keys - one for typical carriage return when entering text, and the ENTER key to signal that all fields on the block-mode screen were filled and to transmit them. All the ASCII stuff including most of the original personal computers had the CTRL key in that position, or required a separate ASCII terminal. Some early ASCII terminals didn't even have backspace or return keys - you used CTRL-H and CTLM-M. Still works in many applications. Us old-timers were accustomed to it and could keep our hands in the touch typing position. Find your nearest proficient, old-timer vi user for a demo of how fast you can edit code with a properly placed CTRL key.

Then IBM came out with their PC. They had to add a CTRL key because lots of applications used it - Wordstar for instance. But they also wanted to sell it into the corporate IBM corporate customers. So they left the caps lock key where IBM terminal users expected it to be. And they tucked the CTRL key down below the shift key.

A truly wretched layout. But the IBM PC was a big hit, and everyone rushed to copy it.

You can still buy keyboards with a DIP switch to swap the CTRL and Caps Lock keys.

No. It's useful.

[Cyberax]

I'm using CapsLock as a layout switching key, lots of other people use it as a second 'esc'.

And why would you remove it, anyway?

So it can be remapped at CTRL

[gvanbelle]

Just like God intended.

Microsoft Key - Useful

[IcyWolfy]

The Windows key is pretty damned useful in day-to-day activities: (Not sure which are Windows 8 or newer, but many were in 7 as well )
I for one make use of:

Windows - LEFT, Windows - RIGHT : Snap half-screen left / Move to next Monitor;
Windows - UP, Windows DOWN : Maximize, Minimize
Windows SHIFT UP, Win-Shift-Down : Maximize/Restore Vertical only. (Width stays the same, only window height maximizes/restores)
Windows - Print Screen: Screenshot and save to file
Windows - X : Power Menu (Admin Command Promt, Control Panel, Shutdown/Hibernate/Sleep, etc)
Windows : Windows 8 Screen (Start typing to search for application to run)
Windows - L : Lock Screen (I use this at work, not at home)
Windows - P : Second Monitor Mode (Duplicate, Mirror, Laptop Only, Second Monitor Only)
Windows - D : Show Desktop (Minimize All) / If you don't need to open a new app, a second press will undo the minimize all
Windows - SPACE : Keyboard Language Selector (Probably not useful for americans); I use it for Intl Dvorak, US English, JP IME
    Windows - / : IME Recovert (Good for ZH, JP, KR)
Windows - E : New File Explorer Window
Windows - R : [ No longer useful - Open RUN box; Windows-SPACE has fully replaced this by allowing full text-search of all installed applications]
Windows - PAUSE : Bring up System Properties Screen (usually for debugging hardware issues, or seeing stats)
Windows - 1, 2, 3, 4 : (effectively click) Open/Switch to application pinned on task bar at position 1, 2, 3, 4...
Windows Shift - 1, 2, 3, 4: (effective shift-click) New instance of pinned task-bar application at specificed location
          [ These two I only use Windows 2, to open my IDE; pretty much everything else I just use Windows + (start typing app name) ]
Windows - Alt - Enter : Open Windows Media Center

Alt-Tab : Cycle through open windows
AltGr-Tab : Use keyboard to cycle through all windows in pop-up window; enter to actually switch. (Apparently, americans can use Ctrl-Alt-Tab for this)

  And there are many more Windows-Key shortcuts that I don't use; or probably don't even know about.

Most convenient key for semi-common actions

[IcyWolfy]

The Windows key is pretty damned useful in day-to-day activities: (Not sure which are Windows 8 or newer, but many were in 7 as well )
I for one make use of:

Windows - LEFT, Windows - RIGHT : Snap half-screen left / Move to next Monitor;
Windows - UP, Windows DOWN : Maximize, Minimize
Windows SHIFT UP, Win-Shift-Down : Maximize/Restore Vertical only. (Width stays the same, only window height maximizes/restores)
Windows - Print Screen: Screenshot and save to file
Windows - X : Power Menu (Admin Command Promt, Control Panel, Shutdown/Hibernate/Sleep, etc)
Windows : Windows 8 Screen (Start typing to search for application to run)
Windows - L : Lock Screen (I use this at work, not at home)
Windows - P : Second Monitor Mode (Duplicate, Mirror, Laptop Only, Second Monitor Only)
Windows - D : Show Desktop (Minimize All) / If you don't need to open a new app, a second press will undo the minimize all
Windows - SPACE : Keyboard Language Selector (Probably not useful for americans); I use it for Intl Dvorak, US English, JP IME
    Windows - / : IME Recovert (Good for ZH, JP, KR)
Windows - E : New File Explorer Window
Windows - R : [ No longer useful - Open RUN box; Windows-SPACE has fully replaced this by allowing full text-search of all installed applications]
Windows - PAUSE : Bring up System Properties Screen (usually for debugging hardware issues, or seeing stats)
Windows - 1, 2, 3, 4 : (effectively click) Open/Switch to application pinned on task bar at position 1, 2, 3, 4...
Windows Shift - 1, 2, 3, 4: (effective shift-click) New instance of pinned task-bar application at specificed location
          [ These two I only use Windows 2, to open my IDE; pretty much everything else I just use Windows + (start typing app name) ]
Windows - Alt - Enter : Open Windows Media Center

Alt-Tab : Cycle through open windows
AltGr-Tab : Use keyboard to cycle through all windows in pop-up window; enter to actually switch. (Apparently, americans can use Ctrl-Alt-Tab for this)

  And there are many more Windows-Key shortcuts that I don't use; or probably don't even know about.

Full list of short-cuts apparently at : http://windows.microsoft.com/e...

Re:It's IBM's fault. Everyone copied the PC.

[tap]

That's just not true!

The IBM PC-AT keyboard, circa 1984, has control as a large key above shift and to the left of the 'A' key, in its proper place. Alt is below shift. There are no right-hand alt or control keys and caps-lock is off on the right side below shift where the right control key is now. There was a large gap between the spaceback and caps-lock, since there was no right alt or windows key.

The PC-XT keyboard, circa 1981, had the same layout of control-shift-alt in the proper order on the left. The caps-lock key was on the far upper-right corner, above the numeric keypad.

It wasn't until the 101 key model M that IBM messed up and placed the caps lock key in the incorrect location above shift and next to 'A'.

Is there really no one else here who remebers typing away on the original PC keyboard, with the control key in the proper location, the giant plus key, break on the scroll lock key and printscreen on the dedicated '*' key?

ErgoDox might be the future

[ecloud]

I have ordered a couple variants of these; haven't received either of them yet. But it sounds good in theory. And there are no IP issues: it's an open-source design, with open-source firmware, completely programmable so that each user can customize his own layout. (For the first time I'll have a keyboard I really "own".) The keyboard can still be made flat (although usually the two halves are positioned independently), so any laptop manufacturer could even start shipping with this kind of layout. I hope that will happen at some point.

The main points are that the two halves are rotated to a better angle to reduce strain, and also that the thumbs are able to operate several keys each, not just the spacebar.

What to do with capslock is such a minor issue compared to everything else that's wrong with QWERTY. This is why, despite being quite a fast typist, and not suffering particularly much wrist pain, I nevertheless feel that it's time to try something more efficient. I do have some shoulder pain sometimes, so figured maybe that's from having to hold my hands too close together in front of me. It's worse when I use a laptop too much, whereas at work I've been using an old Microsoft 4000 ergo keyboard for years.

Now if they would just ship... ;-)

An similar alternative is keyboard.io. From one side, I wish I'd waited for their crowdfunding campaign to get started, because it's gorgeous, and I love the wooden-case idea. From another side, I think theirs is going to be less customizable: every key has a different shape, so you can't have printed rearrangeable keycaps, e.g. if you want to try colemak you have to ignore the legends on the keys, or get keys without legends. And they are definitely not going to ship until the middle of next year, either.