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Number Key on Keyboard?

Johann

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May 20, 2020
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NUMBER LOCK Key- Why does it exist? Is it some holdover from typewriters or early computer programming?

Seems to only be there to piss me off when I start typing numbers on the keypad and realize that they are not turning up. On this Logitech wireless keyboard it is right next to the backspace key so I apparently hit it frequently.

First World Problems Matter! :grinpimp:
 
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The num lock key, when off, allows that key set to do its other functions (home, end, up, down, left, right, pg up, pg down, piss you off).

Typewriters don't / didn't have a 10-key number area. Before computer keyboards, folks just used the numbers in the qwerty layout. Pepperidge Farm remembers.
 
The num lock key, when off, allows that key set to do its other functions (home, end, up, down, left, right, pg up, pg down, piss you off).

Typewriters don't / didn't have a 10-key number area. Before computer keyboards, folks just used the numbers in the qwerty layout. Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Oooooh, just noticed there are arrows and such on the keys:homer: Never thought to use them that way. Well that will be handy when the hands are on the keyboard and not the mouse.

Believe me I am old enough to know typewriters. Wrote many of my papers by hand and then typed them up in College. Wasn't sure if business typewriters had the keypad or not.
 
1280px-Telephone-keypad2.svg.png
No, you had a seperate 10-key calculator for that, which was backwards from what you're used on a phone BTW.

1280px-Telephone-keypad2.svg.png
 
Auto-run for World of Warcraft. :flipoff2:
 
Seems to only be there to piss me off when I start typing numbers on the keypad and realize that they are not turning up.


hunt and peck huh

Ever hit the caps key by accident...finally look up after a sentance and BAM. ALL IN UPPER CASE


suCk it


:flipoff2:
 
hunt and peck huh

Ever hit the caps key by accident...finally look up after a sentance and BAM. ALL IN UPPER CASE


suCk it


:flipoff2:

My typing style started as hunt &peck but after 20+ years of jobs that required typing I can touch type for the most part.

Only problem is I am a crappy speller so I hit the back button A LOT. I hit cap Lock too. Used to hit it so much that I disabled it on the keyboard
 
No, but adding machines did (do). The 10-key layout allows old-school number crunchers to haul ass on a computer as fast as on an adding machine.

I supported a Med Coding department where a regular maintenance task was to replace the keys on the 10-key. You walk out into the floor and it sounds like teletypes from an old war movie.

Also the keys on a Medical Transcriptionist's keyboard. 120+ wpm, 8 hours a day, day in, day out. Wear right through a hefty Compaq DIN mechanical keyboard (for the non-IT people, that's the Battleship of Keyboards). You would get complaints when their fingernails started hanging on the keys because they had worn right through the key. Slowed them down to a mere 100+ wpm.
 
That is some serious entry! I am envious of people that can lay down that many wpm.

So many words in my head. So hard to get them on paper quickly.
 
My typing style started as hunt &peck but after 20+ years of jobs that required typing I can touch type for the most part.

Only problem is I am a crappy speller so I hit the back button A LOT. I hit cap Lock too. Used to hit it so much that I disabled it on the keyboard

Not aimed pacifically at you, but I set a beep to the caps key. Helped me for sure.
 
despise the numbers above the qwerty keys, those are the ones that shouldn't exist :laughing:

10 key is good and useful

Why don't they get rid of those and just leave them dedicated to the symbols they have assigned?

Actually, just as I finished that sentance, had a thought about doing that through keyboard macro

Thank you for giving me that idea
 
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