OK you guys (TOT)
 

Paul D.Smith wrote:

Scroll Lock can be used to stop pages full of text whizzing by for those of
us who still use text mode (Don't ask Bill - you never will ;-) ).

There is a Windows use in things like Excel as well. With scroll lock on
the cursor keys will scroll the whole sheet about rather than move the
highlighted cell like normal.



--
Cheers,

John.

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OK you guys (TOT)
 

Bill Wright wrote:

Might as well mop up a few I have not seen mentioned so far ;-)

characters' I have to press 'NUM LOCK'. This is fine; it works; I'm happy.
But what's NUM LOCK? Why do I have to press it for the laptop but not for
the proper computer?

NUM LOCK on a laptop superimposes a numeric keypad over the top of some
of the alphabetic keys - hence it is off by default, but sometimes worth
turning on for rapid numeric entry. On a full size keyboard it switches
between numeric keys and cursor control functions of the dedicated
numeric pad. This is not much use on a modern AT style keyboard that has
dedicated cursor keys in addition to the embedded ones on the keypad,
but was vital on the original PC and PC XT style keyboard where the
keypad cursor keys were the only ones you got.

And what's SCROLL LOCK? What's PAUSE BREAK? PRT SCR I

I covered on use of scroll lock in another post. It is also used with
some automatic keyboard/video switches to select which machine to view.
Pause will stop a text mode screen scrolling (open a command prompt or
MS DOS Prompt (depending on your windows flavour) and hit ALT RETURN.
This will place it in full screen text mode. Then do something that
scolls lots (like "DIR /S") and you can test pause. You can interrupt a
long listing with CTRL+C or CTRL BREAK (i.e. same key)

understand: it puts the screen into a mysterious place from which I can copy
it. But what's SYS RQ? What's INS?

Sysrequest - was used on original PCs that had basic in ROM, little used
now.

INS in addition to toggling overwrite mode in some applications (and if
you grew up with commodore 8 bit machines that will be the "normal" way
to edit!), it can also be used as a "paste" key when used with shift.
DEL (i.e. directly below it) will act as a cut key when used with shift.
Hence they are actually quite well placed for rapid cut 'n' paste
operations (where a "copy" being simulated by holding SHIFT and then
hitting DEL & INS in sequence - a style of work that will feel natural
to VMS users!)


--
Cheers,

John.

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OK you guys (TOT)
 

"Mark Carver" wrote in message

Owain wrote:

That's what digital cameras are for.

...and for getting a shot of the 'Specials' board in the pub, when no
one else can be arsed to get up and go and read it for themselves.

But then you need to carry your photo printer in your handbag - unless you
expect people to squint at the tiny screen.

--
Max Demian

OK you guys (TOT)
 

All true, but I was trying to keep it simple by making statements that are
true in all but exceptional cases.

As you say, every key on the keyboard COULD be used, but the ones we talked
about rarely are nowadays.

Steve

OK you guys (TOT)
 

"Steve Thackery" wrote in message
...
"Bill Wright" wrote:

I suppose it's like OVR in Word, which mysteriously turns itself on from
time to time in my experience.

Bill, maybe you've got the same problem as me. That 'Insert' key is
perilously close to the 'Backspace' key (the most commonly used key by far
if you type and ineptly as I do). I bet you're hitting it sometimes
without knowing it.

I have a problem with Outlook Express in that sometimes it does this
overwriting trick spontaneously. Sometimes it will stop if I press Insert
but sometimes it just won't, so I have to copy my work, close the
program, open it again, and paste.

I wonder if, again, it's due to accidental presses of the Insert key.
However, I can't explain why it won't go back to how it should be. We
need an IT expert, I think.

Common sense tells me that it's accidental key presses, but if so I'm really
surprised. However, I'm often certain about things that turn out to be wrong
these days, so . . .

Bill

OK you guys (TOT)
 

"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
Owain wrote:

That's what digital cameras are for.

...and for getting a shot of the 'Specials' board in the pub, when no one
else can be arsed to get up and go and read it for themselves.

and for getting a close up of the aeroplane that loops the loop over my
house. He's for it now!

Bill

OK you guys (TOT)
 

"Adrian A" wrote in message
...
Max Demian wrote:

Don't you mean next to the one key?

Well they display the characters indicated. ` unmodified, ¬ shifted
and ¦ with Alt Gr. (Ah! there's another rarely used key!)

I once told my sister that was the 'any key', she believed me. ;-)


There's an Allt Street in Rawmarsh (or Parkgate).

Bill

OK you guys (TOT)
 

"Adrian A" wrote:
Max Demian wrote:
"AnthonyL" wrote in message

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 08:37:21 +0100, Roderick Stewart
wrote:


SCROLL LOCK. The mystery key. *Nobody* knows what Scroll Lock does,
or ever did, if anything. Best regard the scroll lock key as an
ornament.


It used to do something but it was too long ago now for me to
remember. Didn't MS Flight Sim use them?

Whilst we are on the topic what are the symbols on the one key for?
ie: ¬ ` ¦

Don't you mean next to the one key?

Well they display the characters indicated. ` unmodified, ¬ shifted
and ¦ with Alt Gr. (Ah! there's another rarely used key!)

I once told my sister that was the 'any key', she believed me. ;-)

There was a similar key on MSX home computers... I think it was
used for accents in languages that use them... so pressing it then
pressing a suitable letter would enter that letter accented
(depending on shift/alt when you pressed the key). AFAIR, it
was called the 'dead key'.

I've often wondered.... when microsoft decided that all keyboards
should have the extra 3 windows keys, (and has anyone ever
used the windows context menu key on the right?) why
didn't they re-label several of the barely used keys on the
keyboard as cut, copy, and paste? Even just the F1-F12 keys
could have been labelled with their 'normal' windows functions?

Suppose I could get a pen out and write on the X,C, and V keys...

And there really *should* be an 'Any' key.

dom.

p.s. bill's OT posts are the ones I look forward to most.

OK you guys (TOT)
 

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:11:14 +0100, Dominic
mused:

"Adrian A" wrote:
Max Demian wrote:
"AnthonyL" wrote in message

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 08:37:21 +0100, Roderick Stewart
wrote:


SCROLL LOCK. The mystery key. *Nobody* knows what Scroll Lock does,
or ever did, if anything. Best regard the scroll lock key as an
ornament.

It turns a light on and off.

(and has anyone ever
used the windows context menu key on the right?)

I use it loads, I tend to do most stuff on the laptop with keyboard
shortcuts rather than dragging the pointer round with the annoying
non-mouse controller.

Suppose I could get a pen out and write on the X,C, and V keys...

I tried that for Winamp keyboard shortcuts, lasted not very long at
all.
--
Regards,
Stuart.

OK you guys (TOT)
 

Lurch wrote:

SCROLL LOCK. The mystery key. *Nobody* knows what Scroll Lock does,
or ever did, if anything. Best regard the scroll lock key as an
ornament.

It turns a light on and off.

extreme_pedant_mode

On PC and PC XT keyboards you would be correct - the light status was
maintaind by the keyboard controller (hence how it could get out of sync
with what state the PC thought it was in). However on everything since
AT class machines the light status is maintained by the BIOS based on
key down and key up events.

/extreme_pedant_mode

;-)



--
Cheers,

John.

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