Today's article has you disabling that pesky caps lock key...

[KGIII]

I once wrote an article about how to disable the caps lock key - but it was pretty limited, 'cause it was just for Mint. While I do have Mint on one device, that's not my only distro. I despise the caps lock key. I'm not alone in that, I'm sure of it. After all, hating the caps lock key is just the natural thing to do!

How To: Disable The Caps Lock Key • Linux Tips

Today's article is one that I used to scratch my own itch because I really like to disable the caps lock key.

linux-tips.us

I suppose feedback is cool, though I suspect many of you don't actually hate the key.

 

[wendy-lebaron]

LOL -- just why.

I abandoned Spiral Linux Cinnamon, my first brush with the distro and with Linux Mint D.E., because of an issue related to CAPSLOCK. The last time I had the OS around and I set things up, CTRL stopped functioning which was bad for a Windows application through Wine that I use a lot. I wasn't ready to use ALT as modifier in place of CTRL especially if many keystrokes for a Linux window manager depend on the former.

It's too bad because it was a good distro combination. Eventually it forced me to choose Spiral Linux with GNOME, the only one with that D.E. I could tolerate.

I don't hate CAPSLOCK, the one I don't like a lot is the other "lock" that manufacturers and some operating systems never knew and never agreed on what to do with it. Of course it's less important on a budget laptop without a numeric keypad.

I have been many years removed from a typewriter but it would be nice to be able to configure CAPSLOCK so it worked like on an old typewriter. But I have never actually done so because there is no urgent need for it.

 

[KGIII]

LOL -- just why.

I told you why. I despise the caps lock key. I press that key without meaning to all the time. I use the tab key fairly often and end up hitting the caps lock key, for example. Then, I type a number of keys before I notice and have to undo the mess.

 

[sphen]

I suppose feedback is cool, though I suspect many of you don't actually hate the key.

I do not hate the caps lock key. It does not get in my way. I use it the way it was intended, mostly for titling headers. Until now, I had no idea that anyone had an issue with the caps lock key. Not me.

 

[camtaf]

Certain people swap ctrl & caps to make it easier in some software programs, I've been tempted myself, but I don't use that program that much......

 

[camtaf]

How to swap Ctrl and Caps Lock keys in Linux

Linux desktop environments make it easy to set up your keyboard as you want it. Here's how.

opensource.com

 

[sphen]

Certain people swap ctrl & caps to make it easier in some software programs, I've been tempted myself, but I don't use that program that much......

Early computer keyboards had the Control (CTRL) key to the left of the "A" key. The caps lock key was in a less convenient place. I don't remember where it was and it may have been in different places on different keyboards. I did not use caps lock often but I did use it, just as I use it today.

I liked and got used to having the Control key next to the "A" key. When keyboards like that became more scarce and I could see the writing on the wall, I collected them for my computers and hoarded a few unwanted spares in the lab so that I could continue to use them for a while.

I do not like the modern standard keyboard layout as much as the earlier common layout. The modern standard is ubiquitous today. I do not like the prominent placement of the caps lock key next to the "A" key on the modern standard keyboards, because the caps lock key is rarely used. I wonder whether the choice of the modern caps lock key location was related to the old mechanical typewriters, which often had a caps lock key. The caps lock key on a mechanical typewriter was attached to the shift key's arm and had a small mechanical toggle that would engage and hold the shift key down. Naturally the caps lock key was next to the "A" key.

 

[KGIII]

I do not hate the caps lock key. It does not get in my way. I use it the way it was intended, mostly for titling headers. Until now, I had no idea that anyone had an issue with the caps lock key. Not me.

This might come as a shock, but not everyone is you! LOL

IF I WANT TO TYPE IN CAPS, I CAN DO THAT PRETTY EASILY BY JUST LEAVING A FINGER ON THE SHIFT KEY. (AND REMOVING THE FINGER FOR PUNCTUATION.)

Also, these days I do headers with CTRL + ALT + $NUMBER. Well, first I do CTRL + HOME to highlight the previously typed line.

It was nicer when the CTRL key was there. I'd swap the key with something else, but I have no problems with any of the other keys, though I do recognize that some folks want to switch 'em.

 

[bob466]

I don't hate the Caps Lock because I never use it...however it's handy to know it's there just in case.

 

[sphen]

This might come as a shock, but not everyone is you! LOL

IF I WANT TO TYPE IN CAPS, I CAN DO THAT PRETTY EASILY BY JUST LEAVING A FINGER ON THE SHIFT KEY. (AND REMOVING THE FINGER FOR PUNCTUATION.)

Also, these days I do headers with CTRL + ALT + $NUMBER. Well, first I do CTRL + HOME to highlight the previously typed line.

It was nicer when the CTRL key was there. I'd swap the key with something else, but I have no problems with any of the other keys, though I do recognize that some folks want to switch 'em.

I do the "HOLD THE SHIFT KEY DOWN AS YOU TYPE" trick too, (which I did just now), but I find that when I am writing a document with upper case headers inline in the text, I use the caps lock key. I use the caps lock key without conscious thought; it just works for me.

I do not judge anyone who ignores or dislikes the caps lock key. As one of my children sometimes says, "You be you and I'll be me."

I use the caps lock key the way that I think it was intended. I feel that its placement on the modern standard keyboard was a poor design choice.

I do not have any of the older keyboards that had CTRL next to the "A" key. (If I had one, it would probably have an old round serial interface connector that would not fit anything I own without an adapter.)

 

[MikeRocor]

On some keyboards, I can lift the caps-lock key, wrap an appropriately sized rubber band around the base of it a few times and put it back. Caps-lock still works but I have to really lean on it to use it - never happens by accident.

On other keyboards, a dab of epoxy disables caps-lock and those cursed "Windows" keys. (picture)

My current keyboard is unmodified and, amazingly enough, caps-lock just irritated me less than five minutes ago. :/

 

[MikeWalsh]

@MikeRocor :-

Heh. Interesting!

Myself, I have no issues with any of these keys, but this is the sort of trick I'd be likely to use myself.....if it ever became an "issue".

Another Mike.

 

[KGIII]

On other keyboards, a dab of epoxy disables caps-lock and those cursed "Windows" keys.

I like the WIndows key. I use it for shortcuts and don't normally press it unless I absolutely meant to.

If it was a key I didn't like, I'd probably use xev to find the key's number and just disable it that way.

 

[wendy-lebaron]

Without the "Super" key GNOME would be intolerable to me.

LOL at putting a rubber band behinds CAPSLOCK. But the epoxy is too extreme. I could only wish I could fully restore the keyboard and much more of a Toshiba laptop. Had a serious problem where I kept retriggering PAGEDOWN key several times a second which forced me to disable that key in applications wherever possible. Eventually it also forced me to plug in a wired USB keyboard to be able to use the PAGEDOWN on the number pad.

 

[camtaf]

On my 'Live 4 Gadgets' keyboard, the Caps lock key just pops off; I just tried it!

Edit: I think I'll leave it off & see if I miss it, probably won't though.

 

[KGIII]

On my 'Live 4 Gadgets' keyboard, the Caps lock key just pops off; I just tried it!

Edit: I think I'll leave it off & see if I miss it, probably won't though.

I keep telling myself that I should try some of the more expensive keyboards, where you can swap out the caps and springs and all that jazz. But, I just can't reason myself into doing it. I wear out a keyboard pretty quickly. I might get a year out of one before it's all worn and kinda gross under the keys. You can easily see which keys I press the most, as they're worn out. This was equally true when I paid more for the keyboard.

So, I usually look for some cheap combo with a replacement mouse and eventually send 'em to be recycled as e-waste. (This means they probably end up in a landfill in a 3rd world country, but that's a story for another day.)

 

[sphen]

I type a lot and I type fast. The feel of my everyday use keyboard is important to me. I prefer those expensive mechanical "clacky" keyboards for their feel, accuracy, speed, and implied long term reliability. In theory, those expensive keyboards should outlast all of us, based on their MTBF claims. In practice, some brands hold up well and others do not.

Matias Tactile Pro, Not Recommended:
I have had six of them fail, most within a year. None lived to three years. I bought three (home, work, lab/offsite/spare). Matias replaced all three under warranty as they failed, but refused to honor the warranty for the replacements, even when the replacements failed within their warranty period of the originally purchased keyboard. Honestly, after those next three failed, I felt that I had tried enough. The feel of those keyboards is exceptional, but it does not matter if you know that one or more keys are likely to fail within a year. These are pricey keyboards, and I do not think of them as "disposable."

Matias Quiet Pro, Okay But I Don't Love the Feel:
I bought a Quiet Pro during the Tactile Pro debacle. Mushy keys. Some people may like them. I still wonder if it has not failed because it is better or because I don't like it and do not use it much.

Das Keyboard 5Q, Software Sucks but Keyboard Pretty Good:
Das Keyboard could have had a monster hit on its hands with this keyboard if they had only released their software as open source. Instead, the crude, buggy, CPU-hog code has languished in proprietary hell with a mandatory internet authentication to use it. Key feel is not perfect, but pretty good. Keyboard good, software bad.

There are many great, reliable mechanical keyboards on the market. I have yet to find the perfect one. I am happy enough with the Das Keyboard 5Q. (The current version is "5QS".) I like its backlighting and feel, but do not like the software. For that reason, I cannot recommend it to others.

 

[KGIII]

I type a lot and I type fast.

Yup. I'm good for about 90 wpm when I'm on a roll. I can go faster but that starts to introduce errors. Errors slow me down significantly, meaning I can't maintain speeds higher than that. Like hundreds of thousands of words at just linux-tips.us. I wear the caps out.

I do have a few perfectly working M model keyboards from back in the day. They just need an adapter and they work fine with USB. I just don't bother using them - but they're very tactile. I'd probably use them, as I like the amount of force required, but man aren't they loud.

Amusingly, I've failed two classes in my entire academic career. (That's a rather extensive amount of time in academia, about twenty years in total.) I failed typing in high school. I failed keyboarding (note the difference in the name) in college.

I just couldn't make my fingers do what they needed to do. Then, along came IRC. What I did at that point was just memorize the backspace key. If I made a mistake, I forced myself to backspace far enough to fix the mistake. Because of this, I use the wrong fingers on the wrong keys, but my speed is all down to chatting with internet strangers.

Depending on what my fingers are doing, I may press the 'r' key with my right hand (for example). I used my left hand to press the 'y' key sometimes. I only ever use the left shift button and I only use the right thumb on the space bar. Which is how I end up wearing those two keys out pretty quickly. I know that it's hard plastic, but there's a literal worn down section on this current keyboard.

What I should do is experiment with some of the fancier keyboards. I should be able to get a quiet keyboard that still requires enough force on the keys. There are all sorts of choices out there, and they can be repaired or reconditioned by replacing the caps and springs. Some combination of those would probably suit my needs.

Or, I can just buy a new cheap keyboard and mouse combination every six months or so to have on hand for when I feel like replacing a keyboard. I don't need any of those right now, as I have some spares already here at the house. I spend like $30 on a keyboard and mouse combination. I prefer them to light up, but I don't want that to be fancy - I just want them to be lighted in pretty much any color. I'm not picky.

 

[MikeRocor]

The keyboard on my old Lear Siegler ADM 3A was... wait... never mind. Just be happy you don't have to occasionally "burnish" the contacts under each key.

More seriously though, I've had really good keyboards once or twice in the past and really liked them but there's no way I'm willing to pay a hundred-and-some dollars for a keyboard no matter how good it is, so I stick with the logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combos for under $25 and bitch continuously about the feel of them.

 

[KGIII]

I stick with the logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combos for under $25

I also actually like Microsoft's mice and keyboards. I don't know who is making them for them, but they've consistently been great products.

Also, we try to keep the site G or (old) PG rated. We have kids that visit and it'd suck if they were being watched while they're online and their parents blocked the site due to inappropriate language. Thanks for understanding.