Useless keyboard keys?

Check all of the following keys that you actually use. (no shared laptop Fn-keys)

  • Scroll Lock

    Votes: 27 34.2%

  • Tab

    Votes: 50 63.3%

  • Home

    Votes: 44 55.7%

  • End

    Votes: 47 59.5%

  • PgUp / PgDown

    Votes: 49 62.0%

  • F1 - F12 (any)

    Votes: 46 58.2%

  • Tilde (the ~ to the left of 1)

    Votes: 45 57.0%

  • ` (the alternate apostrophe when you press Shift+Tilde)

    Votes: 23 29.1%

  • Context Menu key (the one often next to Ctrl/Alt/Win that opens right-click menus)

    Votes: 26 32.9%

  • Numpad (any)

    Votes: 45 57.0%
  • Total voters
    79
D

Dario D.

Gawd
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
582
Just wondering how many people (at least among nerds) use certain keys on the keyboard...

I'm working on a keyboard layout (just as a personal thing), and am trying to decide some things about placement...
 
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~ opens consoles in many things
` for the lulz
tab for forms, word processors, etc
context menu when I'm too lazy to mouse
numpad because 10key is faster for #'s + can be a mouse + and so on
F1-12 because faster
ScrlLock for consoles
PgUp/PgDn for moving through documents faster

keys that are truly worthless on my keyboard:
Pause/Break
Sleep/Lock key
"F-Lock" (no idea what it does (its some extended media center BS I guess), but when it isn't enabled, the keyboard doesn't work like it should)

also, pressing the tilde key by itself will net you `, Shift+` nets you ~
 
Scroll lock: KVM hotkey switching; excel page scrolling;
Tab: forms, go to next field; word processing; coding alignment; alt+tab; alt+shift+tab;
Home: any word processing, including posting on these forums; coding; ctrl+home
End: same uses as Home; ctrl+end
PgUp / PgDown: same uses as Home; for browsing; [alternative while browsing: space/shift+space]
F1 - F12 (any): F2 for BIOS on dells or to edit the cell in excel; F3 is find next; F4 repeats action in excel; F5 is refresh; F8 is booting in safemode; F5-F12 typically used for while coding/debugging (compile/build/step through/step over/step in/step out/run code/etc);
Tilde: cs much? :p brings down the console;
`: comment character in some scripting language, may be proprietary scripting language, lol.
Context Menu key: again, while coding
Numpad: always

Pause/Break: I pause at POST sometimes, to see what BIOS version, or to see which devices were detected or what the CPU speed detected is/was. Also, win+pause/break = system properties, I use it alot for this, lol.

I hate F-Lock. F-lock should always be on by default... stupid keyboard manufacturers.

If you don't use most of those keys, you're not using your keyboard enough, lol. KB = fast. mouse = slow.
 
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in use them all except one key, and thats the ins (insert) key, no idea what it dose, or how to use it.. i usually have it mapped to ventrillo talk hot key :D

hell, i have a g15, so i have 18x3 extra buttons, and i use all of them as well
 
Dario D. said:
Yeah. According to Wikipedia, Microsoft Excel is one of the only remaining programs in existence that even has a function assigned to it. Oh, and XFire, strangely enough.
Click to expand...

and milkdrop in winamp, keeps the current AVS preset locked
 
Note that Seven voted for scroll lock.

I think the question was confusingly worded. The title asks which keys are useless, and i very nearly clicked on the vote after checking scroll lock before i realized the question contradicted the title :confused:
 
extide said:
CAPS LOCK ;)
Click to expand...

Now thats a key I rarely use, despite me hitting it inadvertently almost daily (while reaching for tab), lol.

I use insert while overwriting text, or while in command prompt.
 
backtick (lower keypress on Tilde)
ldd `which aterm`
(backticks in Freebsd (unix, linux probably too) denote "the results of this command line"
"ldd aterm" would not work, would not find the path to it
"which aterm" includes the path.
So "ldd..." shows whether the program, command etc should work (a
"not found" would denote a shared library needing updating.
..........
Just one instance of `backticks`
[[[ example 2 (untested and fictional)
[[[ I know there is one file, say, fans_120mm.dat somewhere
[[[ but do not know where I sequestered it. The locate database
[[[ (db of all files on the system) knows its location. so instead of
[[[ locate fans_12 (showing, say /usr/home/data/cpu/NewBuild/choices/fans_120mm.dat )
[[[ resulting in a path to which I'd have to navigate with effort, with much less effort
[[[ I could do
[[[ cat `locate fans_12`
[[[ and the backtick would expand the full path, pass it to the 'cat' command to read the file.
[[[ .... /end of example 2
..........
Omitting the scroll-back in console of "break" because it might be "scrolllock", I use
it so often that I actually use it without thinking which of the two it is. (That enables
the buffer of what has scrolled off the screen, in Freebsd)
/edit/
that scrollback works in both scrolllock and pause/break next to it AFAIK.
/edit #2)
...
number pad large Plus key... (opera browser, ) 90 percent of the web sites I browse
to, I immediately press the Plus key a number of times. (Slightly more difficult in
firefox, requires the simult. Cntl-) ... That Plus key enlarges the type for
readability.
....
 
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I tend to use pretty much every key somewhat regularly except for the scroll lock key, the pause/break key and the context menu key. Out of all the keys I probably use tab the most for entering data into forms and such.
 
I think that's the first time I've hit the context menu key. Didn't even know what it was. :eek:
 
Scroll Lock - Never in normal use, but sometimes hot-keyed in games
Tab - all the time
Home - Never in normal use, but sometimes hot-keyed in games
End - Never in normal use, but sometimes hot-keyed in games
PgUp / PgDown - sometimes in BIOS
F1 - F12 (any) - Bios load, windows load, hot-keyed in games
Tilde (the ~ to the left of 1) - once in a while to open console in games
` (the alternate apostrophe when you press Shift+Tilde) - Never
Context Menu key (the one often next to Ctrl/Alt/Win that opens right-click menus - Never
Numpad (any) - constantly. I find it easier than the other number keys.
 
Oshit, thought the poll was which keys you DON'T use (scroll lock). Fail.
 
I don't use scroll lock. That's the only one mentioned I do not or have not really ever used. Though some keys like the context menu key do not get used very often. I use all the F1-F12 keys and `~ as well. "Home" is usefull in Microsoft Office. I use the number pad for almost all number entries.
 
I voted for Scroll Lock. Never used it.

All other keys are used in some way, shape or form.

The tilda key (~) is great for going into game console modes.
 
JaguarSKX said:
I voted for Scroll Lock. Never used it.

All other keys are used in some way, shape or form.

The tilda key (~) is great for going into game console modes.
Click to expand...

You're supposed to check the keys that you DO use.

Deceiving cuz the title is USELESS keys.
 
lol... as pointed out earlier, yes, the title and poll question contradict each other.

I've been using scroll lock everyday ever since I got a KVM back in '99. I've got one of those D-Link KVMs with metal casing. :D
 
scroll lock and the alternate ` both are useless.. all the other keys are gamer related keys..


arg re-word your title to this thread damnit... thread says useless keys.. then the poll is about keys you use.. oh well guess scroll lock and alternate ` got my votes even though i dont use them..
 
PHiZ said:
Oh yeah? Educate me. The only thing I know it does is it toggles between overwrite and ... inline(?) editing.
Click to expand...

Programmer, word processors and spreadsheets actually used that a lot. CTRL-INSERT and SHIFT-INSERT being the most common.
 
i voted for the rarely touched scroll lock and the context (right-click) key. I don't think I've used them for any program recently or for anything else for as long as I can remember!
 
Alt-F4 - close window. Other Fkeys also have useful functions. I map macros to ctrl-F12 and the like for Input Director. You need unused keys for macro mapping :D

Ctrl-alt-break - ctrl-alt-del on Input Director slaves

Windows key - hate it, wish they'd never added to the keyboard, my G15 has a switch to turn it off on the fly

Scroll lock is the normal key for KVM (But I'm using Input Director now)

And I can't believe the inclusion of Tab. Alt-tab anyone? And I use Page up and Page down constantly when going over webpages and forums.
 
Oops. I was about to vote for the keys I don't use - an easy mistake for a thread titled "useless keyboard keys".
 
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