I have said several times how important it is to use the keyboard instead of the mouse to speed up some otherwise more laborious operations. Knowing how to use the keyboard may seem obvious to many, but some keys still remain somewhat obscure today.
On the right side of the keyboards there are in fact some keys that are never used.
I refer in particular to: Stamp - R Sist, Scroll Lock, Pause - Interr .
Have you ever wondered what they are for "> take screenshots on Windows and create an image file of what appears on the screen
To use the R Sist function, you must instead press the Stamp key together with the Alt key.
This button has been designed to call functions of the operating system.
It behaves differently from the other keys because it calls the computer BIOS and generates a special request.
Most operating systems and programs ignore this button and on Window, pressing Alt-Stamp, you take the screenshot of the active window, thus becoming an additional option for Stamp.
On Linux only, the R Sist key sends commands directly to the system kernel after a crash to debug the operating system.
2) Scroll Lock or Scroll Lock
Scroll Lock is a switch, as well as Caps Lock and Num Lock .-
Scroll Bloc was designed as a support for older computers that had little available screen space.
The arrow keys move the cursor on word processing sheets.
If you activate the Scroll Lock, on the other hand, you can use the arrows to scroll up or down the content of a text screen.
When Scroll Lock is activated, the arrow keys scroll the contents of the screen, instead of moving the cursor.
On modern computers, you use the mouse wheel to scroll through text windows so most programs ignore the Scroll Lock key completely.
Furthermore, a window can also be scrolled using the PgSu and PGGiu keys.
An important program on which the Scroll block still works is Microsoft Excel, where if activated, pressing the arrow keys scrolls the display area without moving the cursor.
3) Pause - Interrupt or Pause - Break
The Pause key was used in the DOS operating system and still works in the command prompt on Windows.
The pause button is used to stop the text output when a command is executed.
For example, try to open the command prompt (cmd), type something like ping navigaweb.net and press Pause after the first line that comes out to stop the output, i.e. the appearance of text.
Pressing Enter resumes.
The Pause button is also used in many computers to suspend the appearance of those written on a black background during computer startup, to read what is written (as you will notice they are always very fast).
Break can be used to terminate DOS applications and can be used by pressing Ctrl + Pause .
The more experienced will know that with Ctrl + C it is the same thing and also serves to terminate command line applications.
On Windows, if you press the key combination Windows - Pause, the system properties window opens.
These 3 keys are old and rarely used in general.
With the exception of the Scroll Lock key for Microsoft Excel, there is very little to do with these keys and it is surprising that they are still present on almost all keyboards.
4) The Home, End, Ins, Block Num .
- Home goes to the beginning of a line of text in word processing.
- End goes to the end of the line.
- Ins is one of those most hateful keys for those who do not know what it is used for and is therefore important.
Pressing the Ins key activates a writing mode whereby the new letters delete and replace the ones present, a useful function to correct already written texts.
To return to normal writing by scrolling the text to the right making room for your new word, you must press Ins again.
There is no indicator that tells if it is active or not, therefore, if it happens that the letters are canceled while writing, Ins is the cause.
- Num lock is a switch that blocks the entry of numbers in the numeric keypad.
If it is deactivated, the numeric keypad behaves like arrows by sending the cursor up or down when writing text.
In other articles:
All functions of the F1, F2, F3 keys etc.
The main keyboard shortcuts for Windows.
