Over the past few days, I’ve seen a flurry of posts about someone’s campaign to kill off the Caps Lock key. Dwight Silverman notes, sadly, that the movement is the online equivalent of peasants with pitchforks storming the castle:
Unfortunately, the link goes off to a Google Groups discussion, rather than a reasoned, written argument. The point here, as best I can ascertain it, is to remove the caps-lock key from keyboards to prevent anyone from typing e-mail in all capital letters, ever.
While we wait for the hardware industry to kill off this mostly useless useful but occasionally annoying (see the comments for more of this debate) appendage, here’s a more practical suggestion: disable the key so that hitting it by accident has no effect. This post at the Annoyances.org forum lists the keyboard scan codes for Windows and explains how to manually edit the Registry to neuter the Caps Lock key. John Haller was kind enough to create a collection of .REG files (for Windows and Unix) that disable the Caps Lock key or change its function so it acts like a Ctrl key.
Related: If you use Microsoft Word, you probably have a similar grievance with the Insert key. If you hit it by accident, you switch in Overtype mode and whatever you type wipes out what’s already on the page. The cure is here: How to disable Word’s annoying Overtype key.
Ed Bott 
I don’t get it. What is mostly useless about the caps lock key? It is great for when titles or section headers that need to be in caps. The problem is misuse by some people, not lack of use. Why punish those of use who use it properly?
Ken, if you’re using Word, the preferred way to cap titles or section headers is with styles. You can then enter the text any way you prefer and let the style handle the formatting. Or you can use the Shift+F3 shortcut to capitalize a selection.
Personally, I never capitalize more than a word or two at a time, so holding down the Shift key isn’t a burden. I’ve been burned by accidentally hitting the Caps Lock key too many times to count.
But different (key)strokes for different folks. I don’t think we’re actually going to see the Caps Lock key go away. Hell, my 2006-model notebook still has a SysRq key. Ever use that one?
I’m another one that uses the Cap Lock key on occassion. But it is an annoyance when you hit it by mistake (I do this all the time while aiming for the Tab key). What I’ve done is to set the Windows Accessibility options to beep when I set Caps Lok on or off. The beeps are a tad different, depending on whether Caps Lock is on or off. That way, I know right away when I’ve hit the key by mistake.
There’s a much easier way to disable Caps Lock in XP. Open Control Panel and launch the Accessibility Options icon. Activate the Use ToggleKeys check box and click OK. Now, when you press Caps Lock, you hear a beep, but the Caps Lock doesn’t activate. The beep is good because it lets you know that you pressed the wrong key (that is, you pressed Caps Lock instead of, say, A). True, this technique also disables Num Lock and Scroll Lock, but who still uses those keys? If you need to use one of these keys, just hold down Num Lock for about 5 seconds and ToogleKeys turns off. Hold down Num Lock again for about 5 seconds to turn ToggleKeys back on.
Ed, I work with Word every day and I tinker with HTML. Styles are great. But not every writing environment has styles and when they do, they don’t all include an “All caps” features. A few examples: Text-only email, Usenet, Yahoo discussion groups, Excel, PowerPoint, AutoCAD …
Steven
YES, LET’S DO AWAY WITH THAT SILLY CAPS LOCK KEY!
I also think that the tab key should be bigger and maybe round (to denote the round trip you can do by presing alt+tab).
Caps Unlock!
http://www.brainsystems.com/capsunlock/
Disables the silly Insert key in its spare time. Nice program (and a tiny one).
Ed, I don’t remember ever using the SysRq key. What the heck is it? For the record, I still like (and often use, athough not for online shouting) the All Caps key.
I type a lot of addresses for both labels and envelopes. The USPS prefers addresses be all in caps. Now which is simpler: Press the Caps Lock, type the address, press the Caps Lock again to turn it off. Or; Type the address, select it with the mouse(which you don’t have to do in Word to have it recognized as an address) and go back to the key board and press Shift F3 (a two handed operation for most people). I think the caps lock is simpler. And of course there are plenty of programs where Shift F3 doesn’t work.
I also type a fair number acronyms and I think the caps is simpler for that, also.
And of course if there were no Caps Lock key all those people who seem to enjoy flaming the newbies and incosiderate people who type in all caps would lose one of their sources of entertainment…
Great comments.
For the record, I don’t think the Caps Lock key should go away. But I definitely turn it on by accident many more times than I use it deliberately. That’s why I think the option to make it harder to use is the right one for me.
Paul, I use the Num Lock key all the time, because I Remote Desktop in to my desktop from my notebook. From the notebook, Num Lock has to be off. From the desktop, I want it on.
On all my systems — Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux — I have the Caps Lock set to be a second Control key. In several years of using this setup, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I (briefly) wished I’d had a Caps Lock key. What I’d like to add to this setup is some key sequence, perhaps tapping the key three times quickly, that toggles Caps Lock. That way I’d have a Control key most of the time, but would still have Caps Lock on those rare occasions when I need it.
On the AZERTY (French) keyboards, the Caps Lock is very useful, for instance, when one has to type a sequence of digits. Removing it would be a huge nuisance, because its behaviour is “hard wired” into the fingers of millions of people who have been trained as “touch typists”.
Consider for instance the acronym IAEA. To type it with Caps Lock on, you need 6 key presses. To type it with Caps Lock off, you need 8 key presses. Therefore in such a case Caps Lock is more economical and millions of people have been trained to use it that way. [Note: Marc included details of the two key sequences in this comment, but they got mangled in the translation to HTML, so I deleted the attempts. Sorry! – Ed]
I would agree with killing off the cAPS lOCK key except for a recent experience. I had to fill i a job application for – online – for a government department and it was very insistent it had to be in BLOCK CAPITALS. So I did – all 11 pages of the thing.
I got an interview and couldn’t help noticing that all my painstakingly typed text in BLOCK CAPITALS had been converted to Mixed Case text. I couldn’t resist asking why and got told because it is so difficult to read all caps. So why ask for it to be done that way – the reason “So it does not discriminate against candidates who do not know how to use a computer” and have to fill in a paper version of the form.
The job was as an IT manager.
SKrommel over at DonationCoders.com has a AutoHotkey script labeled ShiftOff that’s clever, too. I vote FOR caps lock, as I use it on and off throughout the day.
There’s a very useful utility called SharpKeys that makes it very easy to remap keys and turn keys off. I use it to turn the `¬ key into a Windows key on Toshiba laptops that don’t have one, turn off Ins and block the Home key on laptop keyboards whre Home is right next to the Backspace. It could easily turn off CapsLock too. http://www.randyrants.com/sharpkeys/
Beats doing the matrix maths for the Registry keys by hand…
Although I have been prying out the capslock key with a screwdriver from each keyboard that I purchase for several years now, I think that eliminating the key altogether is an unnecessary overreaction. The problem with the capslock key is its unfortunate location, surrounded by frequently used keys that one hits with the pinkie, which for me is the finger that is most likely to mistype. Furthermore, the caps lock key be one of the most annoying to hit by accident, since it can often require going back and retyping several words if you don’t notice your mistake right away. If it were up to me, I would move the capslock key to a more benigh location… say, between the “Esc” and “F1” keys.
‘SysRq’ stands for ‘System Request’.
The SysRq key is used in Linux to send a command to the kernel when it has otherwise locked up.
http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/sysrq.txt
My hobby is aviation. The databases and radar system I use and amend have to have the aircraft registrations in capitals. Now if the key was given a light like my Toshiba laptop then this debate would die a death. If its lit, the lock is on. Of course, you could look at the screen to see what mode you were in.
I like the control where it is found on Windows computers, but I find that the Backspace key was too far away. So I switched the CapsLock with Backspace. My brother, who occasionally uses my computer, likes it since it’s a lot easier to get to, but doesn’t like that he has to occasionally go back to using a computer that doesn’t have them switched.