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LET’S CELEBRATE CAPS LOCK DAY!

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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Today is International Caps Lock Day, a celebration of what is, according to Lifehacker, “the most useless key on your keyboard”.

Did you know there is a group dedicated to eradicating the Caps Lock key? I had no idea, but their site, CAPSoff.org offers a fairly comprehensive arguement for the removal of this oft accidentaLLY PRESSED KEY. Oops.

They argue that the Caps Lock key is badly positioned, and also performs a function no one really uses UNLESS THEY WANT TO SHOUT. CAPSoff are campaigning for more choice in keyboard design for consumers: For example, better ergonomic designs for the left of the keyboard, a left enter key, a programmable key and so on. There are other suggestions for redesigning the keyboard too, the one I was attracted to the most was a detachable number pad, usually found to the right of the keyboard. This would perhaps be preferable for left-handed people, or for the bored ambidextrous among us.

While I do occasionally hit it without meaning to, I am so used to this layout, it hadn’t occurred to me it might be time to rethink things.
Lifehacker offers a few technical ways to change the function of caps lock, or disable it completely; all very useful if you find it infuriating. For a less subtle approach, there’s this video on YouTube.

As a MacBook owner, I would miss it just because it has a little green light on it, and you can sell me anything with lights on. So remapping it would be acceptable, but if it was removed on a future keyboard I’d want another lit key to replace it!

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

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