# Can I change my PC's shift key so that it acts as a "one-off" caps lock? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-change-my-pcs-shift-key-so-that-it-acts-as-a-one-off-caps-lock/396646 "2007-03-20T00:00:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-change-my-pcs-shift-key-so-that-it-acts-as-a-one-off-caps-lock/396646/1 "2007-03-20T00:00:23Z")
I have the damnedest time with the shift key even though I’ve been typing for years and years and I use correct finger placement and so on. It seems like almost every time I use it, the REsult COmes OUt LIke THis rather than just capitalizing the first letter. I guess my finger just lingers on it a little too long. Though I’ve tried and tried to fix this, I always find myself slipping back into it. I recently noticed that my Wii treats shift in a different way - as a “one-off” caps lock. You hit shift, and the next letter you hit - and only the next letter - will be capitalized. The text then reverts back to lower-case. Can you set up a PC to behave this way? I would love to be able to do so! ---
**Author:** ![tbdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@tbdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tbdi)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-change-my-pcs-shift-key-so-that-it-acts-as-a-one-off-caps-lock/396646/2 "2007-03-20T00:13:04Z")
Under the control panel there’s ‘Accessibility Options’ that lets you set something they call “sticky keys” which will do that. It also affects the Ctrl and Alt keys so play around with it to see if it meets your needs. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-change-my-pcs-shift-key-so-that-it-acts-as-a-one-off-caps-lock/396646/3 "2007-03-20T04:22:06Z")
Microsoft Word does that automatically, and will also correct things like ‘tHIS’ into ‘This’ and turn CAPS-Lock off at the same time. Try **tbdi** ’s suggestion on a system-wide setting. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-change-my-pcs-shift-key-so-that-it-acts-as-a-one-off-caps-lock/396646/4 "2007-03-20T05:27:18Z")
Also check your repeat delay and repeat rate in Keyboard options under Control Panel. It sounds like your keyboard is over anxious to give you shifted characters. ---
**Author:** ![vinniepaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@vinniepaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vinniepaz)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-change-my-pcs-shift-key-so-that-it-acts-as-a-one-off-caps-lock/396646/5 "2007-03-20T05:37:34Z")
Press the shift key five times quickly to toggle Sticky Keys easily. I figured this one out on accident one day… ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-change-my-pcs-shift-key-so-that-it-acts-as-a-one-off-caps-lock/396646/6 "2007-03-20T08:46:11Z")
[QUOTE=vinniepaz] Press the shift key five times quickly to toggle Sticky Keys easily. I figured this one out on accident one day… [/QUOTE] Plus, your system speaker emits a satisfying chirp. 🆒 You don’t even need to press it quickly. As long as you don’t touch the mouse or any other keys between presses, you could invoke it over the course of a century. I often invoke StickyKeys unintentionally while suffering from writer’s block… ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-change-my-pcs-shift-key-so-that-it-acts-as-a-one-off-caps-lock/396646/7 "2007-03-20T13:13:13Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] Microsoft Word does that automatically, and will also correct things like ‘tHIS’ into ‘This’ and turn CAPS-Lock off at the same time. Try **tbdi** ’s suggestion on a system-wide setting. [/QUOTE] So what do you do if you want to talk about pH? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-change-my-pcs-shift-key-so-that-it-acts-as-a-one-off-caps-lock/396646/8 "2007-03-20T13:21:05Z")
[QUOTE=vinniepaz] Press the shift key five times quickly to toggle Sticky Keys easily. I figured this one out on accident one day… [/QUOTE] It had no effect on my machine (running Win2000). The control panel gadget works well, but emits an annoying squeak whenever I hit the shift. On the other hand, the effect disappeared by the time I got to the third line of this post. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-change-my-pcs-shift-key-so-that-it-acts-as-a-one-off-caps-lock/396646/9 "2007-03-20T15:35:28Z")
Depends on your operating system. On any Un\*x system using xkb, you just need to find the LFSH and RTSH definitions in your keyboard map file and change the mapping from Shift\_L and Shift\_R to Caps\_Lock. For example, on my system, we have /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc, which contains the lines ```auto key { [Shift_L] }; key { [Shift_R] }; ``` which can be changed to ```auto key { [Caps_Lock] }; key { [Caps_Lock] }; ``` There may be some convenient GUI application to do this for you, depending on your system. My understanding of your problem, though, is that you’d be better off not making shift equivalent to CapsLock but by making shift a dead key. That is, you press shift, and then the next key you type (and only the next key you type) is processed as if you had held down shift simultaneously. This is also doable with xkb.